Christmas Historical Fiction Books

Book Summary

Head back to Regency England to spend the twelve days of Christmas with Jane Austen in this historical mystery.

Spirits are high at a Christmas Eve gathering of wealthy and prominent guests in the Chute family’s lavish home, The Vyne. Jane’s Mansfield Park is selling well, and John Quincy Adams has just signed the Treaty of Ghent to end the War of 1812. Everyone is eager to celebrate the holiday season and the end of the war.

But then one of the fellow guests at The Vyne dies in an accident, which Jane suspects was really a murder. But if she’s right, the murderer is one of the fellow guests. Who can Jane trust to help her stop the killer?

Book Summary

In 1860, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow published his classic Revolutionary War poem, “Paul Revere’s Ride,” a month before Christmas. The political unrest in the country was on his mind as he celebrated with his wife, Fanny, and five children at Craigie House, their home in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

In present-day Boston, Sophia is a dedicated teacher whose music program has been sacrificed to budget cuts. Not only is she worried about her own unemployment, but she’s also concerned about the effect on her underprivileged students. Sophia is also the music director at her church and has chosen a carol set to a poem by Longfellow after being moved by the glorious words he penned one Christmas Day long ago.

Book Summary

In this prequel to A Christmas Story, we see orphans Clara and Jacob Marley trying to survive in the poorest section of London. Each night, Jake tells his sister that “tomorrow will be better.”

When he sees a chance to escape poverty, he pursues it, eventually partnering with Ebenezer Scrooge. But Clara can see the truth—that hardening his heart may lead to a terrible fate.

Book Summary

Did you know that Virginia, from the unforgettable line “Yes, Virginia, There Is A Santa Claus,” went on to become a teacher and principal at a school within New York General Hospital? In December 1952, reporter David Lindsey was sent to follow up with the now-adult “Santa Claus Girl.”

After the interview, he learns of a little girl who needs polio treatment with an iron lung, but none are available. A fundraiser is in motion, but it’s a race against time, feasibility, and even a snowstorm.

Book Summary

Charles Dickens wrote the A Christmas Carol in only six weeks. This novel takes that fascinating piece of history and reimagines what those weeks were like for Dickens and those around him.

The novel begins with Charles learning that his latest book, Martin Chuzzlewit, has been a flop in America. His publishers offer him one way out of the money he now owes them: write a Christmas book in a month, or they will call in his debts, and he could lose everything. His wife has just given birth to their fifth child, so failure is not an option.

Book Summary

If you’ve ever wondered what life was like for Ebenezer Scrooge and Jacob Marley before A Christmas Carol, this reimagining is for you! You’ll see the backstories of both men leading up to the events in the holiday classic. Why did the ghost of Christmas spirit give Scrooge a second chance but not Marley?

This book is told from Marley’s perspective and, like the original, is a tale of forgiveness and kindness.

Book Summary

In 1864, Eliza’s husband Will joined the Kansas volunteers to fight the Confederates, leaving her in charge of their land. She passes the time by working on a quilt to be his Christmas gift, which she hopes will keep him warm during his winter in the army.

Eliza finds comfort in her quilting group and tries to do her part by taking in a woman and child who have been left alone and made vulnerable by the war. Then, she is asked to help hide an escaped slave and must decide who she should be loyal to, and who will be loyal to her.

Book Summary

Stella is the first-ever head of holidays for Hanover’s Department Store, which includes oversight of twenty-six ‘Home for the Holidays’-themed Christmas windows. On Thanksgiving Day in 1942, just 48 hours before the windows will be unveiled to the public, her lead window designer quits.

It’s up to Stella to gather a rag-tag team of store employees to finish the job, including their picky luxury stylist, two flirtatious personal shoppers, a handful of delivery boys, and Stella’s best pal, Hector. When she discovers that Hector is newly single, she finds old feelings are trying to distract her from the task at hand.

Book Summary

Spanning four Christmas from 1914-1918, you’ll meet Evie, her brother Will, and his best friend Thomas. The boys are soon facing the front lines of World War 1, while Evie tries to help the effort from home. The compelling novel is told in epistolary form (through letters).

Book Summary

Did you know that the now-classic 1983 movie A Christmas Story was based on a series of short stories? This 144-page book contains the autobiographical humor that Jean Shepherd drew upon to create this enduring film.

Whether your favorite scenes include the Ovaltine decoder ring, the leg lamp prize, or Ralphie’s obsession with the Red Ryder carbine-action 200-shot range model air rifle, you’re sure to chuckle while reading this book.

Book Summary

Sabrina Post is a 26-year-old struggling writer who arrives at the Plaza Hotel to begin her next gig – ghost-writing a memoir for a famous art dealer. It’s a dream job – she gets her own suite and a big paycheck! Her week gets even more magical when she finds out the art dealer once worked for the author of the Eloise books, Kay Thompson.

Throw in a member of the British aristocracy that Sabrina meets at the hotel bar, and you have the perfect heartwarming holiday read!

Book Summary

In 1972, Joan’s husband is determined to build her a beautiful dining room table before Thanksgiving dinner. While he works on the table, Joan works on her mother’s recipes, inspired to make a delicious meal. Their lives are interrupted when Joan is diagnosed with breast cancer.

In 2012, a pregnant Lauren finds an old table that has recently been refinished. When she gets home, she discovers handwritten recipe cards, complete with loving notes from a mother to her daughter. After being raised in foster care without that kind of relationship in her life, Lauren is moved by the card and wants to learn how to cook for her baby using the recipes. She’s drawn to the family on the cards and hopes to unlock the mystery of who they belong to before Christmas.

Book Summary

On Christmas Eve sixty years ago, a delivery man makes a gruesome discovery that forever changes the small town of Tambilla. In the present day, Jess is a journalist in London when she gets a call to return home to Australia to help with her grandmother, Nora. Nora was more like a mother to Jess, after Jess’s mother, Polly, left her with Nora and moved to Brisbane when Jess was only 10. 

Nora fell in her attic while searching for something, and now she is mumbling about an event in her past in a way that is difficult to understand. As Jess tries to piece things together, she learns that Nora was agitated and restless even before the fall. She knows something is going on, and is determined to figure it out. As she searches the house for clues, she finds a true crime book about the Turner Family Tragedy of Christmas Eve. But what does this cold case have to do with her family?

Book Summary

Stella is about to spend her first Christmas season as the “Lady” of Morrington Hall. As an expat who married an aristocrat, she’s eager to embrace all the yuletide traditions in the English countryside. She’s thrown herself into starting a horse farm charity for the holidays. Initially, she doesn’t notice items disappearing from her bedroom. But then her housekeeper, Mrs. Nelson, is found dead in the cold on Mistletoe Lane.

Stella wonders if someone else on her staff knows the killer, but then another person dies at a Boxing Day race. Stella and her husband, Lyndy, must figure out what happens to save the estate’s reputation and keep themselves alive until the new year.

Book Summary

The King of Christmas fiction has a brand new book that is perfect for readers looking for Christmas books that are not romance titles. As the 1967 Christmas season approaches, it’s been a tough year for the Evans family. Richard’s brother Mark was killed in Vietnam, his father lost his job, they moved from California to Utah, and his parents separated. 

At his new school in Utah, Richard is bullied until an elderly neighbor, Mr. Foster, chases off the bullies and offers Richard hot cocoa. This is the start of an unexpected and important friendship that brings back a little joy and light of the Christmas season.

Book Summary

It’s 1952, and Verna is ready for a great Christmas season. But as she’s leaving the bank, a strong wind blows her Christmas Club money out of her hands and through the streets of busy downtown Cleveland. Strangers come to her aid and set in motion an unexpected turn of events.