Some people leave their Christmas trees up all year. Some people bake Christmas dishes all year round. And some people—like me—read Christmas books throughout the year. I even have a bookshelf in our house where I keep all the Christmas books, so I can easily find them and display them attractively during the actual Christmas season.
To cut to the chase: I wrote a post for SleuthSayers some time ago called From the Christmas Shelf that focuses on only five of the books. I chose five at the time to make that article brief and approachable.
If you don’t want to click over, here are the books I mention. (Most of these are affiliate links, which means if you buy any of these books I’ll get a small commission at no cost to yourself.) Before you read this, understand that these are my picks for best books. Ones that I have personally enjoyed over the years. They may not necessarily be your cup of tea.
History Books
The Battle for Christmas: A Social and Cultural History of Our Most Cherished Holiday, by Stephen Nissenbaum. The title is bad, but the book is actually a historical look at how Christmas came to be such a massive holiday in the U.S. Nissenbaum, a historian, credits the creation of the Santa Claus myth for altering the holiday from its Baachanialin roots to something child- and family-centered
Christmas: A Biography, by Judith Flanders. Another book by a fine historian, but this one looks at the story of Christmas from a worldwide perspective.
Literary Fiction for Adults
A Christmas Memory, One Christmas, & The Thanksgiving Visitor, by Truman Capote. The lead story in this collection is a classic, about a boy and his older cousin enjoying the holiday together, making fruitcake. It’s amazing how great a writer he was at the beginning of his career. The stories are short enough that you can read them aloud in front of the fire.
Seth’s Christmas Ghost Stories, illustrated by Seth. This is a series of 22 short stories that celebrate the tradition of telling ghost stories at Christmas. (A tradition, I might add, that inspired Dickens to write A Christmas Carol.) The stories are all by famous writers, and I encourage you to pick the one you like best. If you read on an e-reader, you can get all the stories for $18! (I have the short story by Edith Wharton shown at top right.)
For Kids
The Snow Queen, illustrated by Vladyslav Yerko. This edition of the Hans Christian Andersen fairy tale by the Ukrainian artist Yerko is stunning. The book is out of print, but you can still find various editions online. There is a 32-page edition, but the one I love is a 96-page stunner in a slipcase cover. (The slipcase cover is shown top row, right; the book is shown separately in the image above—the one with the two kids.) I can’t provide a link for these books because as soon as one of these pops up online, it gets snapped up. Check rare book sites such as Biblio , Alibris, and Bookfinder. MAKE SURE YOU ARE BUYING THE ENGLISH EDITION—unless you speak Ukrainian, that is.
Okay—those are just the books I mentioned in that SleuthSayers post way back in 2021. Here are more books I keep on the Christmas shelf, in case you’re a bigger geek than I am.
Fiction for Adults
My fiction list skews heavily toward mysteries because—duh!— I’m a mystery reader and writer.
Mr. Timothy, by Louis Bayard. This is a strange, dense novel that imagines Tiny Tim’s adult years, after the reformed Scrooge’s largesse saved his life.
This is the 25th book in the Ellery Queen mystery series.
The Finishing Stroke, by Ellery Queen. This mystery novel has the great sleuth solving a murder at Christmas in the 1920s.
The Mistletoe Murder, and Other Stories, by P.D. James. I love P.D. James novels, and never knew that she wrote an abundance of short fiction. Luckily, they saved four for this edition, and they are more “cozy” in nature than any of her more realistic-yet-cleverly-plotted novels.
This is the first of the nine paperback editions of the Holiday Anthology series (edited by Kristine Kathryn Rusch) currently available.
The Holiday Anthology Series, by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. Every year, the writer Rusch runs a subscription-based “advent calendar” of short stories, in which she emails a daily short story by a variety of writers from the day after Thanksgiving till the end of the year. Romance, mystery, ghost stories—you name it. I subscribed one year, and loved having a new story show up on my phone every day during the holidays. Later, she pubs them in paper editions. You can easily choose the genre you like.
A Lot Like Christmas, by Connie Willis. Willis, a giant in the field of SFF, is also a huge Christmas geek and a comic genius. This massive book collects most of her science fiction/fantasy Christmas stories, which often read like screwball comedies, but also reveal her encyclopedic knowledge of Christmas music, the Bethlehem story, the history of the Rockettes, the It’s a Wonderful Life vs Miracle on 34th Street debate, and so much more. Be warned that this might be the only book you read in a single Christmas season, because mot of the stories are sizable novellas. I can’t think of a better way to spend the season.
The Last Christmas Letter, by Kristine Kathryn Rusch. I read this one every year because it’s a short story. A group of sisters receive their father’s annual Christmas letter in the mail, which is strange, because their elderly dad has been in a hospice, lingering near death. Each time one of the women reaches for the letter, a new page appears. A magical, ultimately uplifting story by a master of the craft.
Nonfiction
The Man Who Invented Christmas, by Les Standiford. This was a surprise. A remarkable piece of narrative nonfiction that tells how Dickens came to write A Christmas Carol, thinking he’d make a mint on the Christmas market. He self published the book and nearly lost his shirt because it was so lavishly produced, with gilt edging and illustrations. Yet it ended up becoming his most famous book. I haven’t seen the movie version of Standiford’s book. Why would I, when this book is so good?
This is Christmas, Song by Song, by Annie Zaleski. This a gorgeous book, perfect for gift-giving, by a respected music writer. Zaleski tells the behind-the-scenes stories of 100 Christmas songs. In her hands, you really get to see the rich variety of tunes we've heard all our lives, from deeply religious to hilarious, fun-loving, romantic, and secular. The production value of the hardcover book itself is wonderful, so you’ll really make the music-lover on your list a happy camper.
Classic Books for Kids
How the Grinch Stole Christmas! by Dr. Seuss. I’d seen the TV version a million times but it wasn’t until I married that I read this book, which my wife has treasured since her own childhood. This is one of those books that is fun to read aloud to the family because nearly everyone knows—or can guess—the endings of all the rhymes, not unlike the next book on my list.
The Night Before Christmas, illustrated by Charles Santore. There have been tons of editions of this classic poem, but this specific hardcover with Santore’s illustrations became a New York Times bestseller and has been spun off into different types of books—board books, coloring books, a book-and-CD combo, etc. You can’t go wrong gifting any of these to a child on your list. Be sure to choose carefully so you pick the version appropriate for the child. (Board books are intended for really little kids, for example.) The CD version is read by the Dude himself, actor Jeff Bridges.
The Polar Express, by Chris Van Allsburg. I don’t love the movie, but I love the original book. This edition comes with a little ornament to hang on your tree. It’s fun to also hide a little “reindeer bell” in your pocket and ring it at the appropriate moment in the story. You’re sure to create magic when reading aloud to young family members. (Rest assured that you can find numerous “Polar Express Reindeer Bells” online.)
Digital Reads
These last two are not found on my shelf but on my phone. Technically they don’t really qualify for this post, but I’ll mention them because I think they are quite special.
A Child's Christmas in Wales, by Dylan Thomas. This audio version of the prose poem was recorded in 1952 by the Welsh poet himself. (He died a year later, at age 39.) As you listen, you really understand that the story consists of multiple voices, and Thomas is playing each of them. A treasure, and marvelous listening for the entire family. Also available via Apple iTunes and Audible.
A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens. Public domain works are often churned out in crappy editions by no-name publishers trying to make a quick buck. Top Five Books is a Chicago publisher that curates a list of truly special ebooks. Their Complete Sherlock Holmes ebook, for example, is arguably the best on the market, and comes with all the original illustrations—none omitted. This ebook edition of Scrooge’s story contains all the illustrations that appeared in the first 1843 edition, plus ones that appeared in a U.S. edition published in 1869. This would be a lovely book to read to family members on an iPad or full-color Kindle.
That wraps my current list of Christmas books. I’m sure I’ll be adding more. I’m a junkie for the subject, obsessed with good stories and great illustrations. Christmas may well be the only time of year where families have the time to read to each other in a relaxed setting. If you’re going to do it, do it in style.