Book Review: 12 Days of Christmas, A Little Golden Book Classic

It is Christmas Eve, which is a perfect time for families with children to read Christmas themed bedtime stories. Although there are plenty of books about Santa Claus, including The Night Before Christmas, and the birth of Jesus, I wanted to review a book for Blogmas 2025 that didn’t focus on them.

Instead, I decided to focus on a book about a tradition that was honored centuries ago: The Twelve Days of Christmas. Although the celebration is still honored by many, many just know it by the song, The Twelve Days of Christmas. Last year, I found a reprinting of A Little Golden Book that tells the story of the song with illustrations. Since December 24th is the night when the Twelve Days of Christmas begins, I thought it would be a perfect time to review this book.

This is what the front of the book looks like…

Unlike other Little Golden Books, this book’s spine is red. Normally, Little Golden Books have their signature gold spine.

Here is the front page of the book…

And some of the pages and the illustrations…

 

 

Amazon’s description of the book is…

Kids will spend happy holiday moments gazing at elaborate costumes, musical instruments, and, of course, a partridge in a pear tree. Legendary Golden Books illustrator Sheilah Beckett’s dazzling, detailed artwork makes this Little Golden Book a festive gift to treasure all year long.

The book’s story recites the lines from the song Twelve Days of Christmas. Included with it are illustrations by Sheilah Beckett, which has a medieval theme to them. The plot follows a man giving gifts mentioned in the song to his one true love.

I love this little book! The story is simple and easy to follow for children, but the illustrations are what I love the most. The are so beautiful and are in a style I have loved since I was a child. The book was published in 1992 (Or 1993 if you look it up on Amazon’s listing for it) and was a part of my childhood. I’m so glad Little Golden Book is still publishing it!

As you can probably tell, I would recommend this book to anyone interested in buying and reading it to children. That said, I can see some downsides to this book. Children may not like the illustrations. Since this is art, and art is subjective, children may not like it. When I was growing up, I know kids who didn’t like the art. Another downside is the story is about the song Twelve Days of Christmas. If the child doesn’t like the song, then there is a chance they may not like this book. The final reason why children may not like the book is the theme. Since it takes place in the Medieval time period and deals with a Christmas tradition that isn’t heavily celebrate today, it could be hard for children to make the jump between what is going on in the book and what it has to do with Christmas.

Although there are down sides to the book, I still think it is a perfect book to help teach children about a new holiday tradition. It could also help in teaching children the song, Twelve Days of Christmas, to children. I also think this book would be very popular with children already interested in knights, princesses, and fairy tales.

 

That’s all for now! Thank you for reading!