Little Golden Books
January 4, 2026
Little Golden Books is a series of Children’s Books first published in 1942. They quickly became the Number #1 best-selling Children’s Books in the country. The Merry Music of Christmas primarily deals with Christmas music that can be found in my personal collection. But this past Christmas season, I became more exposed to Little Golden Books, specifically, their Christmas titles. I was expecting a few, perhaps 20, maybe. I was shocked to see that there are over 80 titles of Little Golden Books relating to Christmas. The first Christmas title that Little Golden Books released was Clement C. Moore’s The Night Before Christmas, released in 1949. Another early Christmas title was Walt Disney’s Santa’s Toy Shop, released in 1950. Little Golden Books released new Christmas titles every year and continued to do so.
Every household has Little Golden Books in them. Some have a few, some have a lot. Little Golden Books was something I grew up with. It was a normal part of childhood. I always took them for granted since they were so plentiful and secure in every child’s upbringing. I had them, you had them and your friends had them. My favorite was The Little Engine That Could. (While I was buying my Christmas collection, I went ahead and got a new copy of The Little Engine That Could. It was the version of the story we had in the house, and I always liked their artwork better than any other publisher.) Little Golden Books was first published under a partnership between Western Printing And Lithographing Company and Simon & Schuster. They are now published by Penguin Random House.
Me, being me, and if you have been reading this blog for any time, you know that I must have them all. And that’s what I did. I went beyond any reasonable effort to try and get them all.
One thing that makes Little Golden Books easily recognizable is the design of the spline. Either in red or gold, all the splines of all Golden Books have the same scroll design. This makes all Golden Books easy to spot.
Little Golden Books published books that measure 8” x 6.5”. They also published smaller books that measure 6” x 5.5”. These are books in the series A First Little Golden Book. They also had other series in the Golden Book franchise. There were larger books, measuring 10.5” x 8” and 11” x 8.75”, subtitled Golden Books and A Big Golden Book, respectively. And the one thing in common is the spline. Either in red or gold, no matter the size of the book, they all have the same designs on the spline. Wikipedia does mention that some titles were published in different formats within Golden Books. If you know me well, you know that at some point I will probably have to investigate this a little deeper. If the formats can be easily located, then perhaps my collection will grow. 😊
Golden Books also published anthology’s; books that contain a compilation of stories. Anywhere from 5 to 10 stories in one book. I mostly know their Christmas titles since I now have so many. Most Christmas titles are singular stories. Most books are rather short and make great bedtime stories. One Christmas title, Christmas Manger – The Little Golden Cut-Out, first published in 1953, has pages that are meant to be cut out, folded and stood up on a table making a nativity scene. Santa’s Biggest Little Helper, published in 1997, is a Scratch ‘n Sniff book. Christmas Carols, originally published in 1946, doesn’t feature a story, it only has sheet music and lyrics to 12 Christmas songs. Another, My Christmas Treasury, from 1957, in addition to having a few multiple page stories, also has poems and short, single page stories, all relating to Christmas.
Just as with Christmas music CD releases, Little Golden Books partnered up with other organizations and established companies. Walt Disney, Nickelodeon, Sesame Street, Rankin & Bass, and many other organizations have developed partnerships with Little Golden Books. I was really surprised to see so many Christmas titles in partnership with Tim Burton’s Nightmare Before Christmas series.
Many titles of Little Golden Books, not just Christmas titles, have been republished many times over the years. Many reissues didn’t change a thing and look exactly as they did when they were first published in the 1940s. But one thing I noticed is that some titles do have different writers and illustrators for later reissues. I noticed it with Frosty The Snowman. Not only was the cover artwork different, the writers and illustrators were also. Upon further investigation, I noticed the story was different too. The original issue from 1950 was published right after the song was composed. The newer Frosty The Snowman is partnered with Rankin & Bass and features the TV narrative in abridged form along with pictures taken from the TV special from 1969. My copy says it was originally published in a slightly different form in 2001. I’m not sure when my copy was printed.
Perhaps I need to investigate this further and locate the titles of the Christmas books that have newer artwork and / or different illustrators. Afterall, my collection should be as complete as possible. There are many collectors of Golden Books out there. And one thing widely discussed and shared among Little Golden Books collectors is that there is no website that has a 100% complete list of all titles. There are a few websites that have most, but some of the comments left on those websites mention that they are aware of some missing titles. Throughout it’s history, Little Golden Books has released over 1200 titles. New books are published every year. Their Biography Series is constantly expanding as newer Pop Culture artists become famous. The Taylor Swift Biography was the fastest selling book in the company’s history.
The story of Little Golden Books is a fascinating one, and I encourage you to read their page on Wikipedia.
Little Golden Books – Wikipedia
Also, if you are interested in looking at the most recent titles and reissues, you can check those out on their website.
I do know that I have a few Christmas records by Golden Records, a division under the same company that released Little Golden Books. When I go to collect Children’s Christmas records, Golden Records will be one of the first labels I look into.
I didn’t plan on discussing anything outside of Christmas music on this blog, but since my collection of Little Golden Books Christmas titles is near complete, and Little Golden Books are near and dear to so many people, I thought they deserved their own page in The Merry Music of Christmas.
Because the writers and illustrators became well established in the Children’s Book niche, I went ahead and included them in the list below. (I put them in separate columns mainly so that the Excel spread sheet I used to build it with can display titles by Author or Illustrator.)