“There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humour.”
There’s something particularly comforting about festive reading when it carries the same richness and timeless appeal as a literary classic. If you adore the elegance of Austen, the atmosphere of Dickens, or the quiet depth of early-twentieth-century fiction, overly gimmicky Christmas novels can sometimes miss the mark. That’s where festive literary fiction comes in. This list brings together festive books for fans of literary classics – novels that embrace the magic of the season while offering beautiful prose, complex characters, and thoughtful storytelling. These are Christmas classics with substance: holiday reads that feel timeless rather than trendy, and stories that wouldn’t feel out of place on a shelf beside the books you already love. Whether you’re looking for a wintry novel to savour slowly or a literary Christmas book that captures tradition, nostalgia, and human connection, these festive reads show that seasonal fiction is both meaningful and memorable!
A Christmas Carol – Charles Dickens
Where else could we launch a book list of the best festive literary fiction than with Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol? To the bitter, miserly Ebenezer Scrooge, Christmas is just another day. But all of that changes when the ghost of his long-dead business partner, Jacob Marley, appears one night, warning Scrooge to change his ways before it is too late.
Scrooge is then visited by the ghosts of Christmases Past, Present and Future, and taken on an epic journey throughout his life where he learns not only the true meaning of Christmas, but also a happy, fulfilling life.
The Dead – James Joyce
Often citied as one of the best short stories ever written, James Joyce’s The Dead chronicles a New Year’s Eve gathering in Dublin that is so evocative and beautiful that it prompts the protagonist’s wife to make a shocking revelation to her husband – closing the story with an emotionally powerful epiphany that is still considered to be one of the finest in modern literature.
Winter – Ali Smith
In Ali Smith’s Winter, lifeforce matches up to the toughest of the seasons. In this second novel of her acclaimed Seasonal cycle, the follow-up to her equally lauded Autumn, Smith’s shape-shifting quartet of novels casts a merry eye over a bleak post-truth era with a story grounded in history, memory, and warmth, its taproot deep in the evergreens: art, love, and laughter. Experimental yet accessible, this classic piece of festive literary fiction blends politics, family, and seasonal reflection.
The Enchanted April – Elizabeth Von Arnim
The women at the heart of The Enchanted April are alike only in their dissatisfaction with their everyday lives. They find each other – and the castle of their dreams – through a classified ad in a London newspaper one rainy February afternoon. The ladies expect a pleasant holiday, but they don’t anticipate that the month they spend in Portofino will reintroduce them to their true natures and reacquaint them all with joy. Now, if the same transformation can be worked on their husbands and lovers, the enchantment will be complete.
The Enchanted April was a bestseller in both the UK and the US, where it was a Book-of-the-Month Club selection and kickstarted a tourism boom to Portofino. More recently, this festive classic has been the inspiration for a major film and a Broadway play.
The Afterlife Of Holly Chase – Cynthia Hand
On Christmas Eve five years ago, seventeen-year-old Holly Chase was visited by three Ghosts who showed her how selfish and spoiled she had become. They tried to convince her to mend her ways. She didn’t. And then she died. Now she’s stuck working for the top-secret company Project Scrooge – as their latest Ghost of Christmas Past. So far, Holly’s afterlife has been miserable. But this year’s Scrooge is different. This year’s Scrooge could change everything.
The Afterlife of Holly Chase is a YA retelling of A Christmas Carol, and a witty, poignant, and insightful novel about life, love, and second (or third) chances.
Small Things Like These – Claire Keegan
It is 1985 in a small Irish town. During the weeks leading up to Christmas, Bill Furlong, a coal merchant and family man, faces his busiest season. Early one morning, while delivering an order to a local convent, Bill makes a discovery which forces him to confront both his past and the complicit silences of a town controlled by the church.
A global bestseller that’s always popular around the holiday season, Small Things Like These is a deeply affectionate tale of hope, quiet heroism, and empathy from one of the most critically acclaimed writers of recent times.
Skipping Christmas – John Grisham
Imagine a year without Christmas. No crowded shops, no corny office parties, no fruitcakes, no unwanted presents. That’s just what Luther and Nora Krank have in mind when they decide that, just this once, they’ll skip the holidays entirely.
Theirs will be the only house on the street without a rooftop Frosty the snowman; they won’t be hosting their annual Christmas Eve bash; they aren’t even going to have a tree. They won’t need one, because on December 25th, they’ll be setting sail on a cruise to the Caribbean. But, as this weary couple is about to discover, skipping Christmas brings enormous consequences – and it isn’t as easy as they first thought. A classic literary tale for modern times, Skipping Christmas presents a hilarious look at the chaos and frenzy that has become a part of our holiday tradition.
The Christmas Mystery – Jostein Gaarder
One day Elisabeth, whilst Christmas shopping with her mother, vanishes into thin air. Accompanied by angels, shepherds, kings, and even a Roman governor, she is rushing back through time and space to Bethlehem, to be present at the birth of Jesus.
Fifty years later, a boy called Joachim pieces together her story from a magic advent calendar and brings it to a conclusion in Jostein Gaarder’s classic children’s festive book, The Christmas Mystery.
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The Blue Castle – L.M. Montgomery
Valancy Stirling is 29, unmarried, and has never been in love. Living with her overbearing mother and meddlesome aunt, she finds her only consolation in the “forbidden” books of John Foster and her daydreams of the Blue Castle – a place where all of her dreams come true, and she can be who she truly wants to be.
After receiving shocking news from the doctor, she rebels against her family and discovers a surprising new world, full of love and adventures far beyond her most secret dreams. The Blue Castle is an unforgettable story of courage and romance. Will Valancy Stirling ever escape her strict family and find true love?
The Book Of Goose – Yiyun Li
Fabienne is dead. Her childhood best friend, Agnes, receives the news in America, far from the French countryside where the two girls were raised – the place that Fabienne helped Agnes escape ten years ago. Now, Agnes is free to tell her story.
As children in a war-ravaged, backwater town, they’d build a private world, invisible to everyone but themselves – until Fabienne hatched the plan that would change everything, launching Agnes on an epic trajectory through fame, fortune, and terrible loss. The Book of Goose is a haunting story of friendship, art, exploitation, and memory, perfect for anyone looking for a serious literary read this festive season.
The Snow Child – Eowyn Ivey
One of our favourite festive literary fiction books to read over the festive season, The Snow Child kicks off in Alaska, 1920. Jack and Mabel are childless and drifting apart. In a moment of levity during the season’s first snowfall, they build a child out of snow. The next morning, the snow child is gone – but they glimpse a young, blonde-haired girl running through the trees. This little girl, who calls herself Faina, seems to be a child of the woods.
She hunts with a red fox by her side, and somehow survives alone in the Alaskan wilderness. As Jack and Mabel struggle to understand this child who could have stepped from the pages of a fairy tale, they come to love her as their own daughter. But in this beautiful, violent place, things are rarely ever as they appear, and what they eventually learn about Faina will transform all of them.
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Part-time reader, part-time rambler, and full-time Horror enthusiast, James has been writing for What We Reading since 2022. His earliest reading memories involved Historical Fiction, Fantasy and Horror tales, which he has continued to take with him to this day. James’ favourite books include The Last (Hanna Jameson), The Troop (Nick Cutter) and Chasing The Boogeyman (Richard Chizmar).
