I love a good Christmas romance, especially the kind that feels like it could be a Hallmark movie. Give me a snowy town, Christmas decorations, an inn or little shop, and two people who probably know exactly where this is going before they admit it.
These books have plenty of that. There are small towns, second chances, holiday competitions, Christmas magic and more than a few people who aren’t nearly as excited about Christmas as everyone around them.
If you’d rather have murder with your Christmas lights, I also have a list of Christmas thrillers and murder mysteries.
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Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop
by Jenny Colgan
Carmen manages a small bookshop in Edinburgh that is struggling to stay open. Then a production company decides the shop is the perfect place to film a cheesy Christmas movie, even though it is still summer.
The money helps, but Carmen still has plenty to deal with, including a millionaire who wants to buy the shop and turn it into a tourist trap. She’s also coming off a breakup and isn’t exactly excited about Christmas.
By the time the real holiday season rolls around, though, things start changing for both Carmen and the bookshop.
In a Holidaze
by Christina Lauren
Maelyn Jones is having a pretty terrible Christmas. She hates her job, she’s living with her parents and she has just made a romantic mistake she would really like to forget.
To make things worse, this is supposed to be the last Christmas at the Utah cabin where Mae and her family have spent the holidays for years. On the way home, she asks the universe to show her what would make her happy.
Then she wakes up and finds herself starting the same Christmas all over again.
Mae keeps getting another chance to redo the holiday, which means she also gets another chance to figure out what she actually wants and who she wants to spend Christmas with.
The Matchmaker’s Spell: A Santa Story
by Julie Leister
Eira Noelle Clawson is not a Christmas person, especially after losing her parents right before the holiday. While attending a grief support group, she reconnects with Stephen Christensen, someone she knew years earlier.
What Eira doesn’t know is that Stephen has a pretty big secret. He’s next in line to become Santa Claus and has been preparing for it his entire life.
There is also a magical matchmaking spell involved, which makes keeping that secret even harder. This one is a little more magical than the others, but it still has the Christmas setting and romance I wanted for this list.
The Holiday Swap
by Maggie Knox
Identical twins Charlie and Cass are both having problems, just in very different places. Charlie is working on a reality baking show in Los Angeles when an accident leaves her unable to taste or smell. Cass is back home running the family bakery and dealing with an ex who won’t quite go away.
With Christmas getting closer, Charlie asks Cass to switch places with her. They used to do it when they were younger, so they figure they can pull it off again.
Of course, switching lives turns out to be a lot more complicated as adults, especially once both sisters meet someone they weren’t expecting. Between the small mountain town, family bakery and two romances happening at once, this one feels very Hallmark to me.
The Santa Suit
by Mary Kay Andrews
Ivy Perkins has just gone through a divorce and decides she needs a fresh start, so she buys an old farmhouse without even seeing it first.
While sorting through everything the previous owners left behind, she finds an old Santa suit with a child’s note tucked inside the pocket. The little girl who wrote it only wanted one thing for Christmas: for her father to come home from the war.
Ivy starts trying to find out what happened to the girl and her family, and the search pulls her into the local community more than she expected. There is also some romance mixed in along the way.
I’ve read this one and gave it 3 stars. It wasn’t really my genre, but if you like sweeter Christmas stories with a little mystery and romance, it may work better for you than it did for me.
If you like Christmas stories where a little bit of magic or a miracle changes everything, I also have a list of books with a Christmas miracle.
Fool Me Twice at Christmas
by Camilla Isley
Chuck and Kate broke up months ago, but their families are so closely connected that they haven’t exactly figured out how to tell everyone yet.
They head home for Christmas planning to finally admit the truth. Instead, through a series of misunderstandings, everyone ends up thinking they are engaged.
Now they have to keep pretending while spending the holidays surrounded by people who are thrilled about the wedding. The problem is that all that fake affection starts bringing some very real feelings back.
This is basically a fake-dating Christmas story, except they’re exes who may not actually be over each other.
The Christmas Wager
by Holly Cassidy
Bella Ross comes to the small mountain town of Maple Falls for one reason: to buy a struggling Christmas shop and land the promotion she’s been working toward.
The problem is Jesse Harrison, the owner’s grandson, who has no interest in making things easy for her. Eventually they settle the argument with a wager involving the town’s annual Christmas games.
So now Bella and Jesse are competing against each other while also spending a lot more time together than either of them planned. Small town, Christmas shop, holiday competition and rivals who start catching feelings. This one absolutely has the Hallmark setup.
So, This Is Christmas
by Tracy Andreen
Finley Brown comes home to Christmas, Oklahoma, expecting everything to be exactly the way she left it. Instead, her best friend is dating her ex, her parents have separated and the boy she may have slightly oversold her hometown to has shown up expecting the perfect Christmas experience.
Now Finley feels like she has to prove that Christmas really is as magical as she made it sound.
This one is YA, so it has a younger feel than most of the books on the list, but the small town, family drama, Christmas setting and romance still fit the theme really well.
The Mistletoe Motive
by Chloe Liese
Gabriella Di Natale loves Christmas. Her coworker Jonathan Frost absolutely does not, and the two of them already get on each other’s nerves before they find out their bookstore is in financial trouble.
The owners tell them cuts have to be made, so Gabby and Jonathan make a deal: whoever brings in the most sales during December gets to keep their job.
Of course, competing all month means spending a lot more time together, and Gabby starts seeing a side of Jonathan she wasn’t expecting. A Christmas bookstore plus enemies-to-lovers is pretty much enough to get it on this list.
Christmas Is All Around
by Martha Waters
Charlotte is a former child actress who starred in a Christmas movie years ago and has spent most of her adult life trying to get away from it.
She heads to London for the holidays and ends up at Eden Priory, one of the filming locations from the movie. That’s where she meets Graham, whose family depends on Christmas tourism to help keep the property going.
Charlotte agrees to help with an art project tied to famous holiday movie locations, which means spending more time with Graham than she expected. Honestly, a former Christmas-movie star falling for the guy whose family owns one of the filming locations is about as on-theme as it gets.
Christmas at the Little Paris Hotel
by Rebecca Raisin
Anais ends up with a run-down hotel in Paris after her divorce and plans to fix it up just enough to sell it.
When selling it doesn’t work out, she decides to turn the place into a boutique hotel and get it open in time for Christmas. That would be stressful enough on its own, but then there is Noah, the grumpy American bar owner next door who keeps getting involved.
Anais also discovers a hidden room connected to an old love story, so there is a little mystery mixed in with the romance.
A Paris hotel renovation at Christmas with a grumpy neighbor next door? Yeah, this one belongs here.
If you’re in the mood for something sweet and very Christmas-y, these are the kinds of books I reach for when I want that Hallmark-movie feeling without actually turning on the TV. There are plenty of small towns, bookstores, bakeries, second chances and people falling in love when they absolutely did not plan on it.
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