Everyone has their personal biscuit-tin image of their perfect Christmas. And for most, it’s not munching away at a festive spread, kissing under the mistletoe or hunting for gifts under the Christmas tree. Rather, it’s the quiet joy of sitting in front of a crackling fire, a glass of port or a warm mug of chocolaty brew, at hand, thumbing through a book. 

So get an old favourite, or a new read that has already become a classic in its shelf-life, and drift away. 

Big reads

Classics old and new for adults

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens

A Christmas Carol

This classic has been done and redone in a variety of guises – but like a fizzy drink, the original remains the best. This Charles Dickens masterpiece has everything – from ghosts to a cold-hearted villain, a poor little boy and a happy ending. And that’s no spoiler alert because we’ve read the ending a hundred times – and will continue reading it. Because there’s no better festive ending than cold-hearted Scrooge finding love and kindness in his heart. 

The Christmas Bookshop by Jenny Colgan

Laid off from her department store, Carmen is left with just one option – taking over an old bookshop in Edinburgh. It will take more than a miracle to turn the bookshop around – but it’s Christmas and, with a right festive recipe of love, relationships, family and redemption, that might just be possible. 

Village Christmas by Laurie Lee

This collection of essays features one of Laurie Lee’s best works – Village Christmas. A nostalgic and moving look into a vanished world – that of Lee’s childhood – this essay explores the traditions and stories of The Cotswolds, including carol-singing in the snow. Haunting. 

Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm

This 1932 classic is a collection of 16 short stories, including the title story – which sees the return of the Starkadder family as they sit down for Christmas dinner and tuck into a Christmas pudding – with a difference. Cue Gibbons’ trademark wit, satire and enough period detail to simmer up a bit of nostalgia

A Maigret Christmas by Georges Simenon

For those familiar with George Simenon’s classical fictional detective, then this collection of short stories is a sort of Christmas bonus. For those who’ve never met Jules Maigret, then this is the best introduction. A collection of ingenious mysteries set in snow-covered Paris during Christmas? Let it roll. 

Hogfather by Terry Pratchett

From the Discworld series comes Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather – probably the strangest Christmas novel of all time. And the strangest Christmas – because instead of a jolly Christmas Father, we have Death himself creeping down the chimneys. The hunt for the “real man in the red suit” is on. 

Small reads

Send the little ones to bed so they can read

The Night Before Christmas by Clement Clarke Moore

An intrinsic part of Christmas, this classic is jolly and bouncy with rhymes that the little ones will continue to sing well past the festive season. 

The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Andersen

This poignant tale tells of a poor little girl selling matches in the cold. On New Year’s Eve, she lights matches to warm herself – and in the flame sees visions of a lovely holiday feast. The ending is, on the first read, devastating – but it illustrates the power of the imagination to warm us with hope, like fire. 

The Dark is Rising by Susan Cooper

The Dark Is Rising

An epic battle between light and dark, good and evil – the second instalment from Susan Cooper’s sequence is a festive one. But not in the fuzzy, warm sense of Christmas – rather, it is set in a snow-ravaged, harsh and wintery world where the hero must find the six signs of the light before the twelfth night. A classic.