A family of mice gets ready for Christmas in rhyme, one job at a time. They string the lights and hang the wreath with a big red bow pinned underneath. They choose the tree. They bake, and they wrap and tie until the table disappears under ribbon spools and rolls of paper. Then it is the morning itself, the countdown is done, and somebody is already shouting come on, everyone from halfway down the stairs.

What makes it work as a read-aloud for a two year old is that every page is a job she has watched an adult do, so she can name what the mice are doing before you read the line. Jill Howarth paints the whole thing in the soft mid-century palette Little Golden Books have used since the 1940s, right down to the gold foil pattern on the spine.

It is short, it rhymes, and it is under six dollars, which is what makes a Little Golden Book the thing that actually goes in the stocking rather than the thing that gets saved for later. Christmas Day comes just once a year, as the last page has it.

Hardcover, 24 pages, 6.69 by 8.06 in, written by Deb Adamson and illustrated by Jill Howarth. Golden Books, an imprint of Random House Children's Books at Penguin Random House, published 14 October 2025. ISBN-13 9798217025121. Publisher age guidance: 2 to 5 years.