Every year on the run up to Christmas I read 'Winter Soltice' by Rosamund Pilcher, what books do you read that get you in the festive mood?

[Swifey]

It is a tradition now, especially in front of the fire with a small (or large) sloe vodka in hand!

I love The twelve days of Christmas by Trisha Ashley. Total fluff but it really captures the mood. I want to be snowed in at a country house and eat lovely food and have the space for a giant real tree! I have Christmas envy..

I had forgotten Box of Delights, I will dig that one out. Also the two Agatha Christie books: The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding which is a long short story written to be v Christmassy and Hercule Poirot's Christmas. I also like 12 Days of Christmas by Jenny Overton which I bought from the penguin book club many years ago.
Some great ideas on this thread.

"Coming Home " - Channel 5.

Riders, Rivals, Polo. Cross ref to the Jilly threads.

littlemousewithclogson its on channel five 3.15- it's a two parter on today and tomorrow

What a fab idea! I'd never think of reading a specific book to get the christmas spirit flowing but I will now. Might go for Rosamund Pilcher - don't think I've read her before.

Gorgeous thread - I'm definitely going to hunt out some of these.

Early December sees me digging out my copy of 'A Country Child' by Allison Uttley to read the first few chapters up to the richly evocative Christmas chapter. It's somehow reminds me so strongly of how I felt at Christmas as a tiny child, even though I absolutely did not live on of an isolated farm in the middle of nowhere.

I also like Terry Pratchett's The Hogfather, although I only re-read that one every few years.

Any Chalet School fans here? There's a book of CS Christmas stories that I reread every year, it's lovely. And Winter Solstice is my other annual December read. It's so atmospheric, it always puts me in a Christmassy mood.

The Hogfather. The film version is also good.

Definitely The Hogfather for me. I always watch The Snowman on C4 too.

I second Winter Solstice. It was recommended on MN last year and I've just finished it. It really gets me into the Xmas spirit.
Think I'll end up reading it at this time every year from now on.

I read aloud to the DC a funny American book called The Best Christmas a Pageant Ever about a nativity play that goes wrong then right when the worst kids in the world get the main parts. It's a classic in the States, I think, but not really known over here. It does the 'real meaning' of the Christmas story thing but with lots of humour.

The Hogfather.

I also watched Love Actually at the weekend which makes me happy :)

Antonia Forest - End of Term and Run Away Home.

Ooh that pageant one is also called The Worst Kids in the World, I loved it as a kid and bought it from Amazon :)

Another American fave from my childhood is The Christmas Bower by Polly Redford. It's about a sensitive boy called Noah whose parents run a New York department store. They decide to do a bird related Christmas theme, and rope in mad uncle Willie, the museum ornithologist. Mayhem ensues.

Brilliant illustrations too.

Lovely thread op.For me it has to be The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper.

Does the Jolly Christmas Postman Count?

No? Am going to download the Rosamund Pilcher then.

For the dcs it was always The Owl and the Star. They loved it.

Box of Delights and The Dark is Rising here. Lovely, comforting big hugs of a read. The Christmas chapters of the Little House books, too, especially By the Shores of Silver Lake.

I had a really nice hardback Christmas anthology as a child - lots of Christmas related short stories, but also recipes, craft ideas and all sorts of other lovely things. I always wanted to make a home made yule log - not the cake sort, it was a project to drill holes into a log and fill it with all sorts of chemicals 'which you can find in your home chemistry set' so that it would burn with different colours. Would be highly disapproved of now.

My mum rehomed the book, to my annoyance (she doesn't usually do that sort of thing, but I remember seeing it on the pile of 'books to get rid of' and saying 'no, I'd like to keep that' and she went ahead and got rid of it....grrr). Would love to find a copy of it again one day.

Every year, I re-read my very battered copy of "The giant under the snow" by John Gordon. It's wonderful. I'm now 50, but I've loved it since I was about 10. Like others, I am also very fond of A Christmas Carol (pretty much the only Dickens I enjoy), A Child's Christmas In Wales and my favourite Christmas poem is Cultivation of Christmas Trees"https://www.brainpickings.org/2013/12/24/t-s-eliots-the-cultivation-of-christmas-trees/ by TS Eliot which pretty much summarises my approach to this time of the year.

I now have a rather large Amazon order heading in my direction. I may need to start Christmas reading earlier this year. I always feel slightly sad reading Christmas books after the 25th.

Miss Read has a few Christmas books, Village Christmas, Christmas Mouse, and No Holly for Miss Quinn spring to mind - very gentle, traditional Christmases.

Laura Ingalls Wilder's The Long Winter has a very cold and bleak Christmas, then a better one in march when the thaw arrives!

Susan Hill's The Magic Apple Tree is lovely to read in the run up to Christmas - beautiful descriptions of festive baking and preserving.

Fannie Flagg's A Redbird Christmas is a bit schmaltzy but a nice seasonal read.

Jean Stubbs is my guilty secret author and her book Kelly Park is one of my favourites, about a woman setting up a hotel. Also Charades is set around Christmas and contains lots of descriptions of opulent food and gifts.

The Christmas tree by Jennifer Johnston

Not placemarking for ideas. Not at all.

I have a box in the loft marked 'advent' with the calendar, the dvds, and the books. I'm a sucker for rubbishy Christmas chick-lit (Jenny Colgan, Trisha Ashley) but will definitely be checking out some of the suggestions here, too.

Ageeees ago I remember watching Winter Solstice on TV because I was obsessed with Jason Durr at the time and I've never forgiven my dad because he taped over the end so I never found out what happened! I've just ordered the DVD thanks to this thread so now I'll finally know the ending!