Some Christmas traditions are loud and sparkling—twinkling lights, cheerful music, crowded parties, and brightly wrapped presents. Others are wonderfully quiet.
Few things feel quite as cozy as curling up with a Christmas book while the tree glows nearby and winter settles in outside. Holiday stories can transport us to Victorian London, the North Pole, snowy villages, bustling family homes, mysterious Christmas gatherings, and childhood Christmas Eves filled with the possibility that something magical might happen before morning.
The best Christmas books do more than simply take place in December. They explore many of the ideas that have come to define the season: generosity, family, hope, forgiveness, imagination, love, nostalgia, and the joy of giving.
From Charles Dickens and J.R.R. Tolkien to beloved picture books and modern Christmas novels, these 25 books are wonderful additions to a holiday reading list.
🎄 25 Christmas Books to Read This Holiday Season
1. A Christmas Carol — Charles Dickens
No Christmas reading list feels complete without Ebenezer Scrooge.
Charles Dickens’ famous story follows the miserly Scrooge through one extraordinary Christmas Eve, when visits from the Ghosts of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come force him to reconsider the way he has lived his life.
It is sometimes remembered mainly as a ghost story, but underneath the supernatural elements is a deeply hopeful tale about compassion, generosity, family, loneliness, and the possibility of changing for the better.
First published in 1843, A Christmas Carol helped shape the way generations of readers imagined the emotional spirit of Christmas.
Best for: Classic literature lovers and anyone who enjoys a meaningful Christmas tradition.
2. The Polar Express — Chris Van Allsburg
Few picture books capture the mysterious wonder of Christmas Eve as beautifully as The Polar Express.
A young boy boards a magical train bound for the North Pole, where he is chosen to receive the first gift of Christmas. His journey becomes a quiet meditation on belief, wonder, and the fleeting magic of childhood.
Chris Van Allsburg’s dreamlike illustrations make the story especially atmospheric. Snowy forests, glowing train windows, shadowy landscapes, and the dazzling North Pole create a Christmas world that feels almost real enough to step into.
Best for: Christmas Eve reading with children—or adults who still love a little Christmas magic.
3. How the Grinch Stole Christmas! — Dr. Seuss
The Grinch may begin the story determined to ruin Christmas, but his journey ultimately becomes one of the season’s most recognizable lessons.
After stealing the decorations, presents, and food from Whoville, the Grinch expects Christmas morning to be a disaster. Instead, he discovers that the Whos still gather together to celebrate.
Christmas, he realizes, cannot simply be packed into boxes and carried away.
With playful rhymes, memorable illustrations, and a surprisingly touching message beneath all the silliness, this remains one of the most entertaining holiday books for families.
Best for: Kids, families, and anyone who loves a Christmas story with humor and heart.
4. The Night Before Christmas (A Visit from St. Nicholas) — Clement Clarke Moore
Few pieces of Christmas literature have influenced our modern picture of Santa Claus as much as A Visit from St. Nicholas, better known as The Night Before Christmas.
The poem describes a quiet household on Christmas Eve suddenly interrupted by the arrival of St. Nicholas, his miniature sleigh, and eight flying reindeer.
Today, beautifully illustrated editions turn the famous poem into a wonderful Christmas picture book.
Reading it aloud on Christmas Eve has become a tradition in countless households, and the story’s snowy rooftops, stockings, sleigh bells, and mysterious midnight visitor still capture the anticipation children feel while waiting for Christmas morning.
Best for: A traditional Christmas Eve read-aloud.
5. Nutcracker and Mouse King — E.T.A. Hoffmann
Long before The Nutcracker became one of the world’s most famous Christmas ballets, there was E.T.A. Hoffmann’s imaginative tale.
The story begins on Christmas Eve when young Marie receives a nutcracker among the family’s Christmas gifts. Soon, the ordinary world gives way to an elaborate fantasy involving the Mouse King, enchanted toys, battles, and strange magical kingdoms.
Different translations and adaptations vary considerably, and many children’s editions simplify the original story. But its central ingredients—Christmas Eve, toys coming to life, and a journey into another world—remain wonderfully enchanting.
Best for: Readers who love fairy tales, fantasy, and The Nutcracker ballet.
6. Letters from Father Christmas — J.R.R. Tolkien
Long before Tolkien’s fantasy worlds became literary landmarks, he created another extraordinary imaginary world for his own children.
For years, Tolkien wrote letters to them as if they had been sent by Father Christmas himself.
The letters describe life at the North Pole, mischievous adventures involving the accident-prone Polar Bear, goblin troubles, spectacular accidents, and the enormous amount of work required to prepare for Christmas.
Tolkien also created illustrations, elaborate handwriting, and other details that make the letters feel like artifacts from a secret Christmas world.
The result is funny, imaginative, and remarkably tender.
Best for: Tolkien fans and families who enjoy elaborate Christmas mythology.
7. Little Women — Louisa May Alcott
Little Women isn’t exclusively a Christmas novel, but Christmas is woven into some of its most memorable scenes.
The story famously begins with the March sisters facing a Christmas without presents while their family struggles financially. Instead of dwelling on what they lack, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy eventually turn their attention toward another family in even greater need.
That opening establishes many of the themes that continue throughout the novel: generosity, family devotion, gratitude, sacrifice, and finding happiness without extravagant possessions.
It is a lovely book to revisit during the quieter days of the Christmas season.
Best for: Readers who love family-centered classics.
8. The Gift of the Magi — O. Henry
O. Henry’s famous Christmas story is short enough to read in one sitting, yet its message has endured for generations.
Young married couple Jim and Della have very little money but desperately want to give one another meaningful Christmas gifts.
Each secretly sacrifices a treasured possession in order to purchase something for the other.
The resulting twist is both bittersweet and deeply touching, turning a simple tale about Christmas presents into something much larger: a story about love, sacrifice, and what makes a gift truly valuable.
It is often published in beautifully illustrated stand-alone editions that make wonderful keepsake Christmas books.
Best for: A short, heartfelt Christmas read.
9. The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus — L. Frank Baum
Before creating the world of Oz, L. Frank Baum turned his imagination toward another legendary character: Santa Claus.
Rather than simply presenting Santa as a mysterious old man who appears every Christmas Eve, Baum invents an entire mythology explaining his childhood, his relationship with magical beings, and how he eventually begins making toys for children.
The result feels almost like a fantasy origin story for Santa Claus.
Readers who enjoy exploring the folklore surrounding Christmas may especially appreciate seeing how an influential American fantasy writer imagined Santa’s world.
Best for: Fantasy readers and anyone fascinated by Santa Claus lore.
10. The Best Christmas Pageant Ever — Barbara Robinson
What happens when the most badly behaved children in town take over the church Christmas pageant?
Absolute chaos—and eventually something unexpectedly beautiful.
The Herdman children have a reputation for causing trouble wherever they go. When they become involved in the annual Nativity play, everyone assumes the pageant will be a disaster.
Instead, seeing the Christmas story through their unfamiliar eyes causes everyone else to reconsider a story they may have started taking for granted.
Funny, irreverent, and surprisingly moving, the book has become a holiday favorite for generations of young readers.
Best for: Families, elementary-age readers, and anyone who enjoys funny Christmas stories.
11. A Child’s Christmas in Wales — Dylan Thomas
Snow, firesides, relatives, presents, neighbors, food, games, and childhood memories tumble together in Dylan Thomas’ nostalgic remembrance of Christmas.
Rather than following a traditional plot, A Child’s Christmas in Wales feels like opening a box filled with half-remembered holiday moments.
Some details are ordinary. Others become exaggerated through the imagination of childhood.
Together, they create a wonderfully atmospheric portrait of the way Christmas can live in memory long after childhood itself has passed.
Best for: Readers who love nostalgic and lyrical holiday writing.
12. The Christmas Miracle of Jonathan Toomey — Susan Wojciechowski
Jonathan Toomey is a lonely woodcarver who has withdrawn from the people around him after suffering great personal loss.
Then a widow and her young son ask him to carve a set of Nativity figures.
As the project progresses, their visits gradually begin to soften the grief that has isolated him from the world.
Paired with P.J. Lynch’s beautiful illustrations, the story explores healing, kindness, community, and the quiet ways people can bring light into one another’s lives.
Best for: Families looking for a gentle, meaningful Christmas story.
13. The Story of Holly and Ivy — Rumer Godden
A lonely orphan named Ivy wants a family.
A Christmas doll named Holly wants a child.
And a woman named Mrs. Jones longs for someone to share Christmas with.
Their wishes slowly draw the characters toward one another in this tender holiday story by Rumer Godden.
There is something wonderfully old-fashioned about The Story of Holly and Ivy. It combines dolls, toy-shop windows, wishes, snowy streets, and Christmas longing into the kind of story that feels perfectly suited to reading beside a glowing tree.
Best for: Children and adults who love nostalgic Christmas tales.
14. Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree — Robert Barry
Mr. Willowby has a problem: his magnificent Christmas tree is just a little too tall for his enormous house.
The solution seems simple—cut off the top.
But that discarded treetop soon becomes someone else’s Christmas tree. Then another piece is trimmed away and becomes a tree for someone smaller still.
The process continues as animals throughout the story find their own ways to share in the Christmas celebration.
It is a charming reminder that even something small can bring enormous happiness.
Best for: Young children and family read-aloud time.
15. The Legend of the Poinsettia — Tomie dePaola
Tomie dePaola retells a Mexican legend explaining how the poinsettia became associated with Christmas.
A young girl worries because she has no impressive gift to bring to the Christmas Eve celebration. What she offers instead appears humble—but something extraordinary happens.
The story beautifully connects Christmas with generosity, faith, humility, and the idea that a heartfelt gift does not need to be expensive.
DePaola’s distinctive illustrations make the book especially lovely to share during Advent or around Christmas Eve.
Best for: Families interested in Christmas traditions from around the world.
16. Olive, the Other Reindeer — Vivian Walsh, illustrated by J. Otto Seibold
Olive is a dog who hears a familiar Christmas song and becomes convinced that she must actually be “the other reindeer.”
Naturally, she heads for the North Pole.
What follows is a wonderfully silly adventure in which Olive discovers that she may not look like one of Santa’s reindeer, but her unusual canine talents can still prove surprisingly useful.
Bright, quirky illustrations and playful humor make this a fun contrast to more sentimental Christmas stories.
Best for: Kids who love funny and unconventional holiday books.
17. The Jolly Christmas Postman — Janet and Allan Ahlberg
Christmas mail becomes an adventure in this inventive interactive picture book.
The Jolly Postman travels through a fairy-tale world delivering holiday letters, cards, and other surprises to familiar characters.
Part of the fun comes from physically exploring the envelopes and little pieces tucked into the pages.
It turns reading into something closer to opening a collection of tiny Christmas presents.
Best for: Young children who enjoy interactive books.
18. The Christmasaurus — Tom Fletcher
For children who think Christmas would be improved by adding dinosaurs, The Christmasaurus delivers exactly that.
The story combines Santa, elves, Christmas wishes, friendship, adventure, and one very unusual dinosaur.
It is larger and more adventurous than a traditional Christmas picture book, making it a good choice for families looking for a holiday chapter book to read over several evenings.
Beneath the fantasy is a warm story about belonging, friendship, and accepting what makes us different.
Best for: Young fantasy readers and family bedtime reading.
19. A Redbird Christmas — Fannie Flagg
Sometimes Christmas magic doesn’t involve flying reindeer or enchanted toys.
Sometimes it involves finding a place where you belong.
In A Redbird Christmas, Oswald T. Campbell leaves Chicago and travels to a small Alabama community, expecting little more than a change of scenery. Instead, he becomes drawn into the lives of the people around him.
The story unfolds with the warmth, eccentric characters, humor, and community spirit that make small-town Christmas fiction so comforting.
Best for: Adults looking for a warm, cozy holiday novel.
20. Skipping Christmas — John Grisham
Luther and Nora Krank decide that Christmas has become far too expensive and exhausting.
Their solution?
Skip it completely.
Instead of decorations, presents, parties, and holiday obligations, they plan to spend the money on a tropical cruise.
Of course, escaping Christmas turns out to be much more complicated than expected.
John Grisham’s humorous departure from his usual legal thrillers pokes fun at holiday stress while eventually circling back to community, generosity, and the reasons traditions matter.
Best for: Adults who enjoy Christmas comedy and family chaos.
21. The Christmas Box — Richard Paul Evans
Richard Paul Evans’ The Christmas Box began as a story he wrote for his own children and eventually became a widely read holiday novel.
The book centers on a young family and their relationship with an elderly woman named Mary.
As their lives become connected, the story gradually turns toward questions about family, time, loss, and what matters most.
It is sentimental by design, making it especially suitable for readers who want their Christmas stories heartfelt rather than humorous.
Best for: Readers who enjoy emotional, inspirational Christmas fiction.
22. The Christmas Train — David Baldacci
A cross-country train journey at Christmastime provides the setting for this holiday novel from David Baldacci.
Journalist Tom Langdon boards a train traveling across America, where he encounters an eclectic collection of fellow passengers—and someone from his own past.
Snowy landscapes, railway compartments, unexpected relationships, and the unusual temporary community that forms aboard a long-distance train create an atmosphere that feels tailor-made for Christmas storytelling.
Best for: Adults who like romance, travel, and a little mystery mixed into their holiday fiction.
23. Hercule Poirot’s Christmas — Agatha Christie
Not every Christmas gathering is peaceful.
Agatha Christie takes the classic holiday setup—a wealthy family assembled under one roof for Christmas—and turns it into a murder mystery.
When the unpleasant family patriarch Simeon Lee is killed, Hercule Poirot must sort through grudges, secrets, complicated relationships, and numerous possible motives.
It may not deliver the comforting side of Christmas, but snowy country houses, tense family reunions, and closed-circle mysteries have their own irresistible winter atmosphere.
Best for: Mystery lovers who prefer murder with their mistletoe.
24. The 13th Gift: A True Story of a Christmas Miracle — Joanne Huist Smith
Christmas can be especially difficult during periods of grief.
In this memoir, Joanne Huist Smith describes the first Christmas she and her children faced after the death of her husband.
Then mysterious gifts began appearing on their doorstep.
The anonymous acts of kindness gradually helped the family reconnect with one another and with a holiday they had barely felt capable of celebrating.
Its message is simple but powerful: generosity does not have to be grand to change someone’s Christmas.
Best for: Readers drawn to true stories about kindness, grief, and hope.
25. Winter Street — Elin Hilderbrand
Christmas on Nantucket sounds idyllic—until family complications arrive.
Winter Street centers on the Quinn family and their inn during a particularly eventful holiday season.
Relationships unravel, secrets emerge, old problems return, and family members discover that picture-perfect Christmases rarely exist outside greeting cards.
What gives the novel its seasonal charm is the combination of wintry Nantucket atmosphere with recognizable family messiness.
Best for: Readers who enjoy contemporary family dramas with plenty of holiday atmosphere.
🎁 What Makes a Great Christmas Book?
The books on this list are remarkably different from one another.
Some feature Santa Claus and flying reindeer. Others revolve around ordinary families trying to make it through December. There are ghosts, dinosaurs, detectives, enchanted toys, lonely widows, troublesome children, magical trains, and grumpy green creatures.
Yet many of the best Christmas stories eventually arrive at similar ideas.
Christmas becomes meaningful when someone chooses generosity over selfishness, connection over isolation, hope over despair, or love over possessions.
Scrooge discovers it. The Grinch discovers it. Jim and Della understand it from the beginning.
Again and again, Christmas literature reminds us that the most memorable parts of the season are often the things that cannot be wrapped.
📖 Start a Christmas Reading Tradition
You don’t have to finish 25 books before December 25.
Instead, choose one or two favorites and make them part of your family’s Christmas traditions.
Read The Night Before Christmas every Christmas Eve. Work through A Christmas Carol during December. Read a chapter from a longer children’s book each evening before bed. Give everyone in the family a Christmas book on December 1 and spend the month reading together.
You could even keep a basket of Christmas books beside the tree and bring it out every year with the decorations.
Over time, those books begin collecting memories of their own.
A story you first read to a five-year-old may become the same story that five-year-old eventually reads to children of their own.
And perhaps that is one of the loveliest things about Christmas books.
The story may stay the same, but every Christmas we return to it as someone slightly different.
🔗 Related Articles
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- Rediscovering the Magic: An Old-Fashioned Christmas Through the Ages
📚 Sources
- Penguin Random House — A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Penguin Random House
- HarperCollins — The Polar Express by Chris Van Allsburg. HarperCollins
- HarperCollins — Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien. HarperCollins
- HarperCollins — The Best Christmas Pageant Ever by Barbara Robinson. HarperCollins
- Academy of American Poets — A Visit from St. Nicholas by Clement Clarke Moore. Poets.org
- Project Gutenberg — The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry. Project Gutenberg
- Project Gutenberg — Christmas Stories collection, including Nutcracker and Mouse King. Project Gutenberg
- Agatha Christie — Hercule Poirot’s Christmas. AgathaChristie.com
- Simon & Schuster — The Essential Christmas Classics Collection. Simon & Schuster
- Simon & Schuster — Classic Tales of Christmas. Simon & Schuster
