Christmas fiction recommendations

[tooglamtogiveadamn]

What has been your favourite Christmas fiction book? I'm talking warm, festive, merry, well written... I have yet to find the perfect story to curl up with a mince pie with during the xmas build-up. I feel duped so far as have often fallen for the publisher's ploy of a nice christmassy title/cover only to find out thay it is not about Christmas at all and the title has just been changed for a winter re-release. Bah

I'm in bed now but I have lots of good ones on my bookcase so will come back to you in the morning!

What kind of thing do you like reading OP?
At Christmas I usually dust off the following:
A Christmas Carol (classic)
The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding/ Hercule Poirot's Christmas (Poirot hidden away in an old English mansion complaining about the lack of central heating - more fun than it sounds)
The Box of Delights (classic/surreal children's book, my all time favourite)
And last year I read There's Something About Christmas, a cheesy romance about a hard-bitten journalist (I think) finding love at Christmas (it was brill). I've got some more packed away upstairs so I'll come back if I remember any more!

If your children are slightly older I'd say over 8 years then I recommend
"A boy called Christmas" by Matt Haig

Winter solstice Rosumunde Pilcher. The Dark is Rising Susan Cooper (kids book but very Christmassy).

I've just realised you may have meant a book for yourself not to read with the kids! Whoops

That is a lovely book philippa for adults as well! My favourite children's Christmas story is Teddy Robinson Meets Father Christmas.

I've started reading the boy called Christmas just to check my kids will like it ahem, rather enjoying it I have to say. My son is 9 on Xmas day so hopefully he will relate to the little boy in it :-)

OP,

Great idea for a thread: will watch with interest for some new ideas to add to my old, very well-thumbed, standard re-reads.

Haven't read it myself yet, but have borrowed "A Christmas Memory", Truman Capote for nearer the time:
www.goodreads.com/book/show/9919.A_Christmas_Memory

I second Winter Solstice by Rosumunde Pilcher. It’s a nice gentle Christmasy read and I always find myself reaching for it around December time.

OP, my previous suggestion isn't strictly fictional^, which is what you wanted.
Memoir/autobiographical, embellished with fiction, perhaps.
Hope still allowed/

Still looks great, though!

To recommend, in a similar memoir-plus-fiction vein: "A Child's Christmas In Wales", Dylan Thomas. Heart-warming for anyone. Through the eyes of a 1920s child. Lovely to read as an adult, for cosy nostalgia, or together with a child (or for them to read alone, maybe aged 8ish upwards)

I love a bit of Christmas fiction and have been collecting festive books for a few years now. I'm not a big fan of romance/chick lit which seems to be the most popular genre but I enjoyed Comfort and Joy by India Knight. I have The Christmas Train by David Baldacci, Skipping Christmas by John Grisham (made into Christmas with the Kranks film with Steve Martin, the book is better in my opinion!), Hercule Poirot's Christmas, Mystery in White and a couple of the other Christmas British Library crime classics. Oh and Mistletoe Murders by PD James which I got for Christmas last year and haven't read yet. I'm sure I'll think of more...

A couple of not strictly Christmas books but based at that time of year: December by Elizabeth H Winthrop, The Snow Child by Eowyn Ivey, Wolf Winter by Cecilia Eckback. And A Bitter Chill by Sarah Ward is an excellent crime novel.

The books I always go back to are The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper, and The Box if Delights. Winter Solstice by Rosamund Pilcher is pretty good, and I have a copy of There's Something about Christmas saved up on my Kindle to read this year. My children love The Story of Holly and Ivy by Rumer Godden. The Christmas Mystery by Jostein Gaardner is good because you can read it as an advent calendar, but t isn't as lovely as some of the other books mentioned. But there aren't as many really good Christmas books as you might expect.

Wow lovely book ideas thank you everyone. This is so exciting for me!

I love Carole Matthews With Love at Christmas. It's funny and so relatable to busy mum's at Christmas. I read it every year. I also like Skipping Christmas by John Grisham. The film Christmas with the Kranks was based on this book.

Tales I absolutely loved December as well, v atmospheric. There's also Murder at the Old Vicarage by Jill McGown, a mystery with a bit of bite to it.
Love this thread, am picking up loads of ideas as well, thanks OP.

If anyone is a fan of Tolkien and Christmas you might enjoy his Letters from Father Christmas. The book has letters and drawings that he sent his children from 1920 to 1943. Some beautiful drawings and funny goings on in the North Pole with annual catch up of Father Christmas and the Polar Bear's trials and tribulations. It looks like a book for kids but it's not really, more a glimpse into Tolkiens imagination and family life.

I bought grown up DD Let it Snow, 3 short romances by different authors including John Green, Who wrote a Fault in Our stars if anyone fancies some YA festive romance.

YY to The Dark is Rising. I read it every year, and save it for the 23rd/24th because I can get through it very quickly

Ooh. Love a good festive book in the run-up to Christmas. I also read 'The Box of Delights' every year (or watch the ancient BBC TV version on DVD). Agatha Christie did a festive Poirot. Think it's called Hercule Poirot's Christmas or something, if you like a murder mystery. Not fiction but I'm currently reading the new Nigel Slater book, The Christmas Chronicles and that's lovely. Lots of it is recipes but also really sweet essays on stuff like winter hedgerows. It's like an almanac that takes you from early November up to New Year. Not a story, but a definite 'lose yourself in with a glass of port in front of the fire hardback'.

Adding The Dark is Rising and Christmas Chronicles to my list.
Off to google rest

Hogfather by Terry Pratchett.

Hebe Yes Nigel Slater's book is lovely isn't it?

I'm also loving The Winter Chronicles. As a child I loved The Christmas Book by Enid Blyton. It's out of print but you can sometimes find secondhand copies on Amazon & Ebay.

Christmas I mean!