Festive Holiday Books Set in New York: Christmas & Hanukkah Novels

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

Hannah lost her parents at a young age, and Finn’s family disowned him when he came out. With nowhere else to go, these two Christmas orphans have spent the holiday together every year since their years at Boston College. After school, both moved to NYC, where they added stylish Priya and mysterious Theo to their found family.

Thanks to offbeat adventures that get a bit more outrageous each year, their Christmases are anything but traditional. But when Finn announces plans to move to LA, the group realizes this holiday might be their last together.

Book Summary

At the Sullivan’s Harlem brownstone, Christmas doesn’t exist. The family has suffered a devastating loss, so this year, there are no Christmas trees, cookies, gifts, or invited guests.

But then guests and gifts related to the Twelve Days of Christmas begin arriving. The happenings in the book follow the classic “Twelve Days of Christmas” song.

Book Summary

Nineteen-year-old Marion’s dreams come true when she’s cast as a member of the Rockettes, Radio City Music Hall’s precision dance troupe. It’s an honor for any dancer to be selected for the role and given the opportunity to perform at the Art Deco masterpiece of a theater that is Radio City. But Marion soon learns that, behind the scenes, the days are long and the rehearsals grueling.

One night, in 1956, a bomb exploded in the theater. It’s suspected to be the work of the infamous “Big Apple Bomber,” who has been planting bombs in crowded places around the city for the past sixteen years. The police still have no leads, leaving citizens living in fear. At Marion’s urging, the police agree to try psychological profiling, a radical new technique at the time.

While the Rockettes are trained to stay in line, Marion realizes that to help catch the bomber, she’ll have to stand out.

Book Summary

This classic Christmas story follows a divorced mom, Doris, as she raises a young daughter on her own. Doris works for Macy’s in NYC and oversees the annual Thanksgiving Day parade. After her original Santa is found drunk on parade day, she hires a man named Kris Kringle for the parade, and soon after, as the Macy’s store Santa.

Doris is disillusioned with her divorce and has passed her skepticism on to her daughter, Susan. When their neighbor, Fred, learns that Susan doesn’t believe in Santa, he sets out to convince her of the magic of Christmas.

When Doris realizes that Kris actually believes he is the real Santa, she is concerned that he may be mentally ill, and perhaps even dangerous. Fred, a lawyer, ends up representing him at a resulting hearing, standing up not just for the man he believes in, but also for the ideas he represents.

Book Summary

Anne and Freddie had a good thing going on, but when he accepted a job overseas, following him to another country wasn’t in her five-year plan. Instead, they broke up, and they’ve both spent the past eight years trying not to focus on their regrets.

Now thirty, Anne has continued to live in her childhood home all these years. But financial trouble is forcing her dad to rent out their family penthouse.

When a new job brings Freddie back to New York City, he’s shocked to find out that Anne is not only his new neighbor, but also the former resident of his new Greenwich Village penthouse.

Despite their desire to keep their relationship a thing of the past, thanks to nosey neighbors and flirtatious friends, Anne and Freddie’s lives soon become entangled. Somewhere between a disastrous off-Broadway show and a drunken Thanksgiving dinner, old feelings begin to rise to the surface.

Book Summary

This series revolves around midwife Sarah Brandt and her detective significant other, Frank Malloy. In this book, however, these two main characters are off on their honeymoon, and their family and friends are carrying on without them.

Una, the daughter of their neighbor, Mrs. O’Neill, has recently married a wealthy man. However, her happiness soon comes to an end when she is found with her husband’s dead body. With Una being the chief suspect, and Frank and Sarah away, the others work together to uncover the real murderer.

Book Summary

Single mom Hayley takes her nine-year-old daughter, Angel, to NYC for a magical holiday season. They immediately fall in love with Christmas in the big city, from hot chocolates and carriage rides in Central Park to Christmas shopping on 5th Avenue and ice skating at Rockefeller Centre.

As much fun as they’re having, Angel’s Christmas wish is for something much bigger… to find her real dad. Hayley wants to fulfill her daughter’s wish, but it was a one-night stand a decade ago. All she knows is that his name is Michel. As she searches for Michel, Hayley crosses paths with billionaire Oliver Drummond and starts to wonder if her own Christmas dreams might also come true.

Book Summary

Twenty-eight-year-old Holly Snow used to dream of being an international flight attendant. But she put those plans on hold four years ago when her sister and brother-in-law were killed so that she could become the guardian of her niece, Faith. Now, she works three jobs to pay the rent and care for 4-year-old Faith.

When Holly’s friend mentions that her boss, Archibald, wants to pay someone to do his Christmas shopping for him, Holly jumps at the opportunity. Archie is a Scroogy investment banker who is too busy to deal with Christmas. The last thing he wants is for his new personal shopper, Holly, to send him constant texts asking for more info about the people on his shopping list.

And how can it be that Holly is developing feelings for this grumpy man on the other end of the text, who has no Christmas spirit?

Book Summary

Like Charles Dickens’ Scrooge, seventeen-year-old Holly received a Christmas Eve visit from three ghosts who showed her how selfish and spoiled she’d become. Unlike Scrooge, she was unconvinced, and she did not change her ways. Then, she died.

She’s now stuck working for the top-secret company called Project Scrooge, where she serves as the new Ghost of Christmas Past. Each year, she helps the company as they attempt to save another miserly grouch. Despite helping many people, she remains miserable – watching as her family and friends go on living while she stays frozen at seventeen, unable to interact with them. But the Scrooge she’s been assigned to help reform this year may change everything.

Book Summary

Iris, a young chef, grew up in London watching nostalgic movies set in New York with her mom while eating their special homemade gelato, a secret recipe. Now an adult, Iris didn’t fully grasp the scale of Manhattan before moving there to restart her life. She’s ready to hide away instead of exploring her new home, but her BFF Bobby drags her to a street fair in Little Italy instead. She’s surprised when she sees a little family-run gelateria that looks just like one in a photo her mom had.

She returns to the shop to find a handsome man, Gino, who shares that the shop is in danger of closing. His uncle kept all the recipes secret, but he’s in a coma, and they haven’t been able to make any more. When Iris samples the last batch of vanilla gelato, she knows it’s her mother’s recipe. She volunteers to help Gino restore their business and finds that they have chemistry outside the kitchen as well. But when his uncle finally wakes up, everything she has built is at risk.

Book Summary

Harriet Knight is a shy, big-hearted dog walker who has decided that December will be her month of bravery. With her twin sister moving out and the holidays approaching, Harriet challenges herself to do one thing each day that scares her, including taking a pet-sitting job that lands her in the ER with an injured client’s dog. That’s where she meets grumpy, overworked emergency room doctor Ethan Black.

Ethan is brilliant with patients but a disaster at emotional connection, and he definitely doesn’t have time for holiday romance. When Harriet agrees to stay in his Manhattan apartment to care for the dog, the two are suddenly sharing close quarters. As they wander snow-dusted streets, admire Christmas lights, and slowly open up, Harriet and Ethan discover that love in New York City at Christmastime might be worth the risk.

Book Summary

Christmas has always been the time of year when everything goes wrong in Lucie Quigley’s life. When her friend Petra asks her to be a bridesmaid in her extravagant Manhattan wedding, it feels like the perfect excuse for Lucie to escape her usual holiday misery.

Dale has been Lucie’s best friend for as long as he can remember. When she asks him to be her plus one for Petra’s wedding, he jumps at the chance to help Lucie through what he knows to be her most miserable time of the year.

When he tries to explain to his mom why he won’t be home for the holidays, his family gets the wrong impression about his relationship with Lucie. But as snow starts to fall in NYC, Lucie and Dale begin to realize that their feelings might run deeper than friendship.

Book Summary

Despite the title, this book spans a full year and will whisk you through three of the world’s most glamorous cities: New York, London, and Paris. Christmas only plays a very small role in the overall story, but that portion of the book is set in New York City.

Cassie married young and now, ten years later, with a failed marriage and no career, she needs to find herself again. She leaves her quiet life in Scotland to travel for a year, staying with her best friends as she tries on each of their cities for size. Left to her own devices, Cassie is a jeans and sweaters kind of woman, but as she explores life in each of these glamorous cities, she puts herself in her friends’ hands. From hair and makeup to wardrobes and diets, they try to mold Cassie in their images. But before her globetrotting ends, she’ll have to find what makes her happy outside of anyone else’s expectations.

During her four months in Paris, a lot of Cassie’s experiences reminded us of Emily in Paris. Cassie takes on a challenging job in the world of high fashion, explores the city, and discovers French cooking from a chef who takes her under his wing.

Book Summary

Abby Cohen is the only Jew on the tourism board for her small Vermont town, and as such, she’s been tasked with planning the town’s inaugural Hanukkah festival. The problem is that every vendor in town simply wants to repurpose their Christmas decorations. Can’t the Three Wise Men from the light-up Nativity scene just wear yarmulkes?

Desperately in need of support, Abby puts out a call for help online and is surprised to discover that she’s not the only Jew within 100 miles, like she thought. It turns out there’s also Seth – the annoyingly cheerful man who comes into her cafe each day.

She soon learns that Seth’s parents have been begging him to bring a “Nice Jewish Girlfriend” home to NYC for Hanukkah. He promises that if she poses as his fake girlfriend, he will introduce her to all the vendors she needs to make her festival a success. It doesn’t take long, however, for Seth to start melting Abby’s frozen heart over latkes, doughnuts, and winter adventures in Manhattan.

Book Summary

Rachel is a nice Jewish girl and the daughter of a Rabbi. She also has a big secret she’s been keeping from her family for years. Not only does she love all things Christmas, but she’s also a bestselling author of Christmas romance novels. But this year, her publisher wants something different – a Hanukkah novel. As far as Rachel is concerned, there is nothing magical or merry to write about.

Desperate not to lose her contract, Rachel agrees to volunteer for a Jewish music celebration being held in Manhattan on the last night of Hanukkah. On the upside, she hopes it will inspire her writing. On the downside, it means working closely with her old summer camp archenemy, Jacob.

Book Summary

Clara Davenport’s family runs a toy business, and she’s been slowly climbing the ladder. Everything was going according to plan until the company was accused of stealing a doll design from an independent toy maker, which resulted in a lot of bad press. Clara is promised the promotions she’s been working for if she can visit the town where the smaller company is located and smooth over the PR nightmare.

Jack would be happy never to hear the Davenport name again. A year ago, someone from the company made him many big promises about signing him up for their small business program. Instead, they just copied his designs. So when Clara shows up in Fraser Falls to convince everyone that Davenport Innovation Creative is not the enemy, he won’t be fooled twice.

Book Summary

Batya fled her hometown of Rivertown, New York, years ago, hoping to escape her embarrassing past. She was also hoping to get over her unrequited crush on Abe Neumann. But when she’s chosen as the web designer for a latke fry-off competition, she learns that it will require her to return to Rivertown. Unwilling to give up the career opportunity, she agrees.

Abe is now an accountant, but he dreams of owning his own Jewish deli one day. He can’t pass up the opportunity to enter the latke contest because the prize money could put him closer to his dream. Seeing Baty again, however, has him wishing for more than just a win.

When the celebrity host of the competition has to pull out, Batya is asked to step up to the challenge. With Hanukkah approaching, can Abe do the same?

Book Summary

Christmas is a romantic time of year, but as the holidays approach, each Belvedere sibling has a love life crisis on their hands.

The oldest, Liz, is a Hollywood showrunner struggling to follow up on her show’s hit first season, not to mention her giant crush on the show’s star, Violet Grace.

Birdie is trying to turn her middle-child syndrome into a stand-up comedy career, but she’d be more successful if she spent more time writing material and less time wooing women (at least according to her manager, who just fired her).

And then there’s the youngest, Rafi, the golden boy. He just proposed to his girlfriend in front of the whole company, and she said no.

The three siblings have three different fathers but share one mother – famed actress and singer Babs Belvedere. This Christmas, looking to escape work and swear off love, Liz, Birdie, and Rafi are all heading to Babs’s house in the Catskills. None of them could predict the delightful and festive ways in which their plans would be derailed.

Book Summary

Olivia Nachman is the outgoing mayor of a small town in New York’s Hudson Valley, and she’s recently been elected to the county legislature. She’s worked hard to serve the town and the Jewish community, but her mayoral legacy is suddenly in jeopardy due to a public relations disaster.

The town is set to accept a dreidl sculpture from a local hockey team, crafted from championship-winning hockey sticks. But the team representative coordinating the event presents a proposal to the town that amounts to little more than Christmas traditions painted blue for Hanukkah. The hockey team sends in “fixer” Artur Rabinovitch to clean up the PR mess.

Artur knows how to spin a story to fix almost any problem, but in this case, he initially makes things worse. He turns to Mayor Olivia for help, but she is loath to trust him. To make matters worse, Artur finds himself attracted to Olivia. Can he find a way to mix business and pleasure without his career spinning out of control?