favourite christmas novels to put you in the holiday mood

Christmas reading for me has always been a bit tricky since I haven’t been brought up in a western country with Christmas traditions. When you think about it, the most celebrated Christmas books are either quite religious or a bit silly.

Whether you celebrate Christmas religiously or treat it as a holiday, there is a good book for everyone. Here are all the best Christmas books for adults I’ve read and loved the past few years, plus a few still on my reading list. Happy holiday reading, Peoples!

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A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
When you think about it, A Christmas Carol is one of the most read Christmas books in the world! It is also the one to make you think about connection, friendship and life in general. Throw in three ghosts, and you have a winner.

A Christmas Carol is also the only well-known Dickens novel that I do not own. I have just checked my bookcases, where I keep my special books. First editions, old books I inherited from my Dad, signed first editions, antique shop-worthy classics. I have The Pickwick Papers, for example, in both English and Turkish, but there is no sign of A Christmas Carol!

To fix this situation, I’m planning to buy this deluxe gift edition for myself this Christmas:

Depending on your location, you can buy it from Amazon AU or Amazon US.

My favourite quotes from A Christmas Carol:

“No space of regret can make amends for one life’s opportunity misused.”

… and this one:

“There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humour.”

The Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan
Books and Christmas: an excellent combination! I so enjoyed this book that I even went to Edinburgh! It was so magical because I visited Edinburgh in my mind before I was physically there.

My favourite highlights from the book:

Carmen couldn’t, she thought, be the only person in the world who was both nearly thirty and who still turned into a stroppy teenager when confronted by her mother.

This next one is about Edinburgh:

This was a city in the lowering gray cloud, busy with its own affairs in the sky.

He was a good man, Federico, but like many others was guilty of letting his wife handle the domestics, despite the fact that she’d been to law school and graduated higher than he had.

Find something true to your spirit and your soul and do it every day.

Depending on your location, you can buy The Christmas Bookshop from Amazon AU or Amazon US.

This Year It Will Be Different by Maeve Binchy
I have been a huge fan of Maeve Binchy for a long time. As a matter of fact, the very first book I’ve ever read in English in my life was her Evening Class.

If you think about it, when I first started learning English at school, my English teacher suggested I have a pen pal from an English-speaking country. She made the arrangements for me, and I was matched with a boy from Ireland. Our correspondence helped me a lot back then, but we lost touch. Many years later, a book by an Irish author became the first one I read in English. How cool is that?

In This Year It Will Be Different, there are fifteen modern-day stories. They evoke growth, change and new beginnings, and Maeve Binchy does so with her signature wit, warmth and charm, infusing them with the magic and spirit of Christmas.

Depending on your location, you can buy This Year It Will Be Different from Amazon AU or Amazon US.

Winter Solstice by Rosamund Pilcher
This was a surprise for me because it was the first time I had read a book by Rosamund Pilcher. From a writing perspective, the structure is incredibly tidy, and the characters are pretty real. It’s a bit long but, it’s totally worth it.

Depending on your location, get your own copy of Winter Solstice from Amazon AU or Amazon US.

The Noel Diary by Richard Paul Evans
An excellent holiday read. Like his other Christmas stories, The Noel Diary blends loss, hope, love, and forgiveness. Another beautiful story. I wish it were longer. Read it, then watch the movie and thank me later.

Depending on your location, get your own copy of The Noel Diary from Amazon AU or Amazon US.

The interesting thing about The Noel Diary is that it is the first book in a box set. There are three more books in the series. Only available in the US. Get your copy from Amazon.

My Wishlist for Christmas

When someone asks what I want for Christmas, I say, “Books.” Well, even the first book I have on my list is called A Book for Christmas 🙂

I mentioned A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens at the beginning of my post and expressed my interest in a deluxe edition because I don’t have it. So, I won’t repeat myself. Here’s the rest of my wishlist for Christmas this year:

A Book for Christmas by Selma Lagerlöf
Growing up back in Turkiye, I have always enjoyed books from Scandinavian countries with their white winters. This is probably the reason I picked A Book for Christmas. One of those reasons, anyway.

I usually go for the Kindle version of books, but look at the cover and how Swedish it is. It brings back memories from my childhood. I do want it in hardcover, and it is going straight to the trophy room.

Description from Goodreads:
A little girl receives an unexpected Christmas present; creatures of the forest gather to celebrate the New Year in the glow of a wood nymph’s torch; an evil noblewoman schemes against her beautiful niece; and a cantankerous gravedigger dines with a skull on Christmas Eve.

In this selection of her most beloved winter stories, Selma Lagerlöf weaves together magic and miracles, Swedish folklore and Biblical fables, darkness and light with heartfelt joy and boundless imagination. Newly translated into English for the first time, these stories comprise the ultimate festive anthology from one of the most important woman writers of the twentieth century.

Grab your own copy from Amazon AU or Amazon US.

Last Christmas in Paris by Hazel Gaynor and Heather Webb
Last Christmas in Paris is a historical novel with a Christmas theme and I LOVE the cover of it!

Book description from Goodreads:
An unforgettably romantic novel that spans four Christmases (1914-1918), Last Christmas in Paris explores the ruins of war, the strength of love, and the enduring hope of the Christmas season.

August 1914. England is at war. As Evie Elliott watches her brother, Will, and his best friend, Thomas Harding, depart for the front, she believes—as everyone does—that it will be over by Christmas, when the trio plan to celebrate the holiday among the romantic cafes of Paris.

But as history tells us, it all happened so differently…

Evie and Thomas experience a very different war. Frustrated by life as a privileged young lady, Evie longs to play a greater part in the conflict—but how?—and as Thomas struggles with the unimaginable realities of war he also faces personal battles back home where War Office regulations on press reporting cause trouble at his father’s newspaper business. Through their letters, Evie and Thomas share their greatest hopes and fears—and grow ever fonder from afar. Can love flourish amid the horror of the First World War, or will fate intervene?

Christmas 1968. With failing health, Thomas returns to Paris—a cherished packet of letters in hand—determined to lay to rest the ghosts of his past. But one final letter is waiting for him.

Buy from Amazon US
Buy from Amazon AU

Depending on your location, you can buy The Christmas Bookshop from Amazon AU or Amazon US.