New Christmas Books to Read in 2026

Book Summary

Mabel is a reclusive author and plans to spend another Christmas alone with her cats and none of the decorations or traditions that normally happen in December. But sometimes life throws a curveball and not one, but two cars spin into the stone wall at your isolated cottage.

Now, Mabel has a house full of strangers, including a family with two young children expecting Santa to visit down the chimney. The other car contained work colleagues trying to make the best of the situation. While Mabel starts this unwanted adventure trying to protect her privacy and long-buried secrets, she soon finds herself making cocoa and cookies. Most surprisingly, she’s even let them into the library that has been off-limits for years.

Could this be her opportunity to rewrite her past and move forward in a more festive way?

Book Summary

Belle’s had to do a lot of things as an executive assistant, but this Christmas season her boss may have finally gone too far. Her boss has been called out of town, but her nephew was supposed to be visiting her for the holidays. So now she needs Belle to “babysit,” with the promise of a dream job in New York if she does. Except her nephew is anything but a baby. He’s Finn, a six-foot-three, seemingly arrogant Scotsman.

When they meet in the lobby of the Ritz, things get off to a rough start. Belle overheard him calling her a “minion,” and Finn overheard her grumbling about him, so he decides to play up to her worst assumptions. But soon they’re criss-crossing London together, from carols at the Royal Albert Hall to the London Zoo, and getting to know each other beyond first impressions. There’s just one problem: Finn is an explorer, and he leaves for the rainforest on Boxing Day.

Book Summary

It’s 1932, and while Grace’s title at Macy’s is “assistant to the assistant,” she’s really the heartbeat of the famous store and keeps everything running smoothly behind the scenes. Three days before the annual Thanksgiving Day Parade, the store Santa leaves her a note saying he’s received a death threat. After talking to the store detective about parade security, Grace is confident everyone will be safe.

Unfortunately, on the day of the parade, a dead body is found. When the police seem to have the wrong idea about who’s responsible, Grace is determined to find the killer, both so the victim gets justice and to save the reputation of the iconic store.

Book Summary

The Chapman family is obsessed with looking impeccable and wealthy from the outside. They spend Christmases at their grand lakefront cottage on Mackinac Island, which comes with years of inflexible traditions.

This year, adult son Chris is on the verge of losing everything, from his role leading the family business to his wife’s respect. Kat is fed up with her critical in-laws and being forced to spend her holidays living by their rules. Much to the horror of the Chapmans, she decides to invite her working-class parents for Christmas. Everyone can see this will be a disaster…and that’s before the snowstorm traps them all together.

Book Summary

When Sage’s sister is deployed to Florida to help with hurricane relief, Sage finds herself caring for her five-year-old nephew, Ricky, throughout December. She’s a workaholic whose idea of Christmas is store-bought cookies and an artificial tree, and she barely knows Ricky, but she’s determined to make his holiday special. There’s just one problem: Ricky insists on meeting the real Santa.

With help from her kid-loving best friend, Erica, and her colleague Ethan, who plays a very convincing Santa, Sage and Ricky go ice-skating, bake (and survive a few kitchen disasters), and pack in as many Christmas festivities as they can. But Ethan’s help comes with a catch. He wants a date with Sage. She’s nursing a broken heart, not sure she’s ready for romance, and Ethan also happens to be her competition for the promotion she’s worked years to earn.

Book Summary

Kelsey has only ever been happy in Christmasville, Maine, so when she sees a job opening there for the town’s social media manager, she’s eager to escape her life in Boston. She’s just lost her job and her boyfriend, so a fresh start in her favorite place is perfect. When she arrives, a suit-wearing big-city businessman and the charming local bookstore owner both seem to be vying for her attention, and she feels like her life has turned into a Christmas movie.

Except Kelsey finds a dead body on her first day. And then there’s a second murder, and a third. While the mayor insists they’re just accidents and strange messages start appearing on the town’s social media posts, Kelsey has to figure out who’s behind it and help her town return to its normal rom-com self before all the tourists cancel their reservations.

Book Summary

In this collection of three holiday novellas, you’ll meet Anna, who knew the food would be a disaster at her Christmas dinner, but didn’t expect her high school ex-boyfriend to show up. Luckily, he also needs to save face with their families, so a last-minute fake-dating scheme seems like a good idea.

In the next story, Matty is stuck sitting in a diner all day dressed as a zombie Santa after losing a bet. But his funny (and cute) server might turn the day around.

Lastly, Lauren’s best friend has decided to get married after knowing someone for only three days. Her plan is to make her friend understand how ridiculous that is, but then Lauren meets the best man. Maybe there’s something special in the air in the town of Little Christmas.

Book Summary

The only explanation for the things that happen to Devra’s family is that they must be cursed. Every December for the last thirty years, something has gone dramatically wrong. From house fires and hot cocoa burns to endless breakups, the lead-up to Christmas is miserable. As you might expect, Devra has become a Christmas recluse who avoids the holidays at all costs.

Her new neighbor, Bradley, is thrilled to have his life back on track. He’s one year sober, has a new home, and he’s ready to continue his family tradition of extravagant holiday decorations. He can’t figure out why his cheerful display seems to make his prickly neighbor even more upset.

While Devra tries to drive Bradley away, and their over-the-fence feud escalates to attempted snowman murder, he’s equally determined to figure out what’s really going on with her. When he learns about the curse, he sets out to help her break it. But is Bradley the curse’s latest catastrophe, or the key to ending it for good?

Book Summary

Three years ago, Casey became a meme when a video of her declining her boyfriend’s marriage proposal went viral. She’s done her best to avoid both the public and relationships ever since, spending her nights restocking shelves at a family-owned department store in a small English village.

One night in the run-up to Christmas, Casey notices a strange woman in the store. When the police arrive, no one else can see her, and Casey discovers that the woman, Margo, is the Spirit of Christmas Present. She’s burned out and has decided to sit this holiday out.

After some coercion, Margo agrees to erase the meme that made Casey notorious. But first, Casey has to witness five alternate realities in which the meme never happened. If she still wants that piece of history erased after that, Margo will grant her wish on Christmas Day. But what might Casey lose in the process?

Book Summary

The town called Christmas is as cozy and charming as you’d expect, which means the local police have no experience investigating crimes. So when a tourist is found stabbed to death with an icicle in the middle of the town nativity scene, they’re quickly out of their depth, and Special Agents Holly Frost and Mark Shepherd are brought in to help.

Both Holly and Mark are on thin ice after major screw-ups, and whoever cracks the case gets the one open spot in Major Crimes. They have just twelve days to catch the killer before the town’s all-important Jingle Bell Jubilee. But it’s not only their jobs on the line. Last Christmas, they hooked up at the holiday party, and now they’re both full of regret. It’s going to be tough catching the killer without killing each other.

Book Summary

Phoebe, the youngest of four siblings, is tired of being seen as the family’s lovable mess, and she has a special mission this holiday season. She needs to get Steve, a rescue puppy meant as a surprise for her nieces, from London to her sister’s family in Devon in the next 24 hours. That task would be a lot easier if her car hadn’t just broken down. Luckily, her sister’s house sitter has one!

Joshua is a mathematician visiting from New York to focus on his work and heal his broken heart. He has no interest in driving a disturbingly cheerful stranger and a howling dog through a blizzard on Christmas Eve. But Phoebe is very persuasive, and somewhere between a snowball fight and a snowed-in night in a shepherd’s hut, the ice between them starts to melt.

Book Summary

Nisa’s small Highland town can’t stop gossiping about the end of her marriage. So she’s looking for a distraction, and she finds one in the town’s Christmas house-decorating competition. As a bonus, it gives her a chance to get under the skin of her neighbor, Kerr Murdoch. After all, her ex-husband left her for Kerr’s girlfriend, and Nisa is sure things would have gone differently if Kerr had cracked a smile once in a while.

Kerr is an introvert who has never been at ease around people he doesn’t know well. Newly single, he decorates his house every year in memory of his mother, who loved Christmas lights. When his display ends up nearly identical to Nisa’s, their long-running rivalry turns into an all-out war of gaudy wreaths, twinkle lights, and far too many reindeer.

However, it’s getting harder for Nisa to ignore Kerr’s toned forearms and his soft spot for animals as the town’s veterinarian. After years of putting her husband’s wishes first, she’s determined to win this time. But as Christmas gets closer, she has to decide whether she wants to keep fighting Kerr or let herself fall for someone new.

Book Summary

For the last twenty years, bakery-owner Ellie and Lucas have found their way back to each other at Christmas. But every year, something also pulls them back apart. Across two decades of missed chances, bad timing, betrayals, and deployments, their reunion and separation is like a bad tradition that can’t be broken.

This year, an emergency has forced them back into each other’s lives on Christmas Eve. As the story unfolds in two timelines between the past and present, we’ll see Ellie forced to decide if Lucas is a lost love or a mistake.