The 13th Day of Christmas

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Author(s)

Adam Rex

Publisher

Neal Porter Books

Genre(s)

Age Range

Release Date

September 09, 2025

ISBN

978-0823456536

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Our hero is having a lonesome Christmas away from his true love. So when she sends him a gift, of course he loves it—even if a partridge in a pear tree wasn’t exactly on his wishlist.

Twelve days later, his home is crowded with more birds, milkmaids, pipers, and other guests than he can possibly make sense of. Why would his true love think he’d like this?!

His search for answers transforms the disaster into a source of joy for the whole town—complete with a parade, a circus, and a fundraiser for the school library. By the time his true love gets home, the man finally understands what she’s given him: the true meaning of Christmas.

But she has no idea what he’s talking about— the whole thing was a wacky online shopping mixup. All she’d meant to buy was a pair of gold engagement rings. She meant to propose!

Adam Rex, creator of School’s First Day of School and many other beloved books for children, strikes again with this hilarious twist on the classic carol The Twelve Days of Christmas. Sardonic and earnest in equal measures, The Thirteenth Day of Christmas is a hit for any day of the year.

Editor review

1 review

A $51,476.12 Gift (in 2025)

December 03, 2025 (Updated: June 29, 2026)

Overall rating

4.0

Plot

4.0

Characters

4.0

Writing Style

4.0

Illustrations/Photos (if applicable)

4.0

A young man is lonely over the holidays because his true love is visiting her parents. To celebrate, however, she has sent him all of the gifts from the Twelve Days of Christmas song, which the narrator claims is about this very situation. Now, stuck with a dozen pear trees, a gaggle of geese, an abundance of cows, a bucket of milkmaids, and a variety of acrobats, among other things, he is a bit miffed. After a phone call with his true love, which doesn't go well, he wants some consoling, so heads off to his mother's assisted living facility, with everyone behind him. He can't talk to his mother because of the noise, but the residents seem happy with the spectacle. This continues with an accidental parade and other shenanigans around town. When the narrator talks to a young boy who is thrilled to have seen the parade and suggests selling the milk from the cows, he finds that the boy's school library needs books. This starts an avalanche of events that includes baking pear pies, and changes the way the man looks at his excess of gifts. When his true love returns home, he apologizes for being short with her on the phone, and finds that she had only meant to send two gold rings and a pear tree as a way to ask him to marry her. The two agree to wed, and this event is celebrated by the whole crew of the parade. Afterwards, things settle down, but I imagine that the couple is forever wary of ordering things from difficult websites!

Good Points

There are so many traditions surrounding Christmas, and since many of them are hundreds of years old, they no longer make much sense. What's figgy pudding? Do we care about Good King Wenceslas? Assuming that young readers know anything at all about older carols, it's a safe bet that they know the "five gold rings" refrain. Seeing the accumulation of all twelve days' worth of gifts in one place is quite show stopping. Of course the narrator is a bit miffed! Those lords are leaping all over the place!

Rex's illustrations (which remind of of David Small's 1990s work in this book) are filled with tons of details. The team of acrobats wear leotards with Holly leaves, the ballerinas have Swan Lake style costumes, and even the crowds in the background are very distinctive. There are a lot of crowd scenes, which couldn't have been easy to stage; the parade, the park, and even the front of the assisted living facility all look like places one could visit.

It's great that the narrator is able to see outside himself and find ways of spreading joy to others, even though dealing with that many cows can't be easy. In addition to the general spreading of joy, it's good to see that a library benefits. The addition of five Golden Books to the collection will surely be appreciated.

I'm all for books that add some humor to the holiday, and I'm sure that this twist on The Twelve Days of Christmas will become a family favorite in many homes. This will be perfect under the tree with titles like Fenske's Candy Corn Christmas (a recent favorite of mine), Fergus and Atkinson's The Day Santa Stopped Believing in Harold, Barnes' and Lovett's Santa's Gotta Go!, or Sharff and Kaban's When Santa Came to Stay.