I have two cats, and I have had several others over the years, so I know first-hand the sort of excitement that Christmas can inspire in felines. I’ve often experienced their fondness for batting at ornaments with their paws, and on one occasion, one of the cats decided to take a flying leap into the mostly-decorated tree and send it crashing across the living room. They love to curl up underneath the branches and investigate all the extra food that seems to turn up around Christmas. Thanks to my cats, A Pussycat’s Christmas, written by Margaret Wise Brown and illustrated by Anne Mortimer, feels very familiar to me.

With poetic language appealing to all of the senses, Brown describes Pussycat’s reaction to all the sights, sounds and smells of Christmas. The book is fairly evenly divided between her time outside, where she basks in the silence of a muted world and gleefully rolls in the “cold, dry, fresh, white, wild, and feather, powdery snow,” and inside, where she peeks at the trimmings strewn across the table and gets herself evicted from the living room for showing too keen an interest in the ornaments.

There’s not much of a story to this book. It follows a particular Christmas Eve in the life of this cat, but nothing much happens that wouldn’t happen on any given Christmas Eve. Well, except that she sees Santa Claus and his reindeer streaking through the sky before she ventures in for the night, which strikes me as odd since this is before her humans head off to church. That seems way too early for Santa to be showing up.

But Santa is really just an afterthought here. The rest of the book involves everyday aspects of a traditional Christmas celebration and of a snow-covered landscape. Pussycat has experienced this before, so there’s a combination of nostalgia and fresh curiosity. I haven’t read the book with its original illustrations, but I love Mortimer’s. Pussycat is a big fluffy black and white cat with enormous yellow eyes.

Those eyes are often my favorite part of the paintings, as when she peeks at all the freshly wrapped presents on the table, her nose only halfway visible in a pose reminiscent of Home Improvement‘s Wilson, or when she stretches out near the departing humans, her eyes just barely open as she struggles to stay awake. She looks soft and warm, completely cuddly, and Mortimer makes her surroundings nearly as palatable to us as they are to her.

Anyone who has ever loved a cat is likely to appreciate this charming little book. I’m sure it won’t be long at all until my own cats replicate this furry feline’s antics. If you don’t have kitties of your own to observe, put a little purr in your December with A Pussycat’s Christmas.

This review is an entry in Chelledun's "Get Those Holiday Reviews Out" Write-Off.  Let's get into the Christmas spirit!

Recommended: Yes