Christmas Books for 2021 – for Christmas Cheer ASAP!

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Normally, I’m a proponent of enjoying all good things in their proper season. However, getting my hands on the Christmas Books for 2021 even before we’ve celebrated Halloween is one aspect of holiday creep I don’t mind a bit. Especially this year! 

The new crop of Christmas books for this year seems especially delightful, filled with humor, romance, nostalgia, and loads of Christmas cheer.

If you’re looking for books to help you get into the holiday spirit as soon as possible, check out my recommendations of the best Christmas books for 2021!

It’s a Wonderful Christmas, Classics Reimagined

By Julie Cantrell, Lynne Gentry, Allison Pittman, Kelli Stuart, and Jayne Tromp

I was lucky enough to receive an advanced copy of this delightful anthology and so enjoyed all five novellas. I’m sure you will too – especially if you love Christmas movies as much as I do! Each charming story is a reimagined version of a holiday film classic.

Nothing jump-starts Christmas nostalgia quite like the movies. With stirring images of snow-covered hills, crackling fireplaces, and happy families gathered around the decorated tree, these silver-screen tales capture all the magic and wonder of the season. Inspired by some of their favorite holiday films, each of these novelists has paid homage to the classic stories we all love, crafting an eclectic collection that delivers something for everyone.

From small-town romance to a Sugar Plum Fairy, this Christmas box set includes five stories sparked by National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, White Christmas, Miracle on 34th Street, The Nutcracker, and Remember the Night.

Topped with a whole lot of cheer and sentimentality, It’s a Wonderful Christmas: Classics Reimagined will delight readers from the first page to the last.

Dear Santa

By Debbie Macomber

I always look forward to Debbie Macomber’s annual Christmas novel and 2021 is no exception. Debbie’s holiday tales are always filled with such heart and warmth; there’s a reason she’s known as “the queen of Christmas.”

Lindy Carmichael isn’t feeling particularly joyful when she returns home to Wenatchee, Washington, for Christmas. The man she thought was “the one” has cheated on her with her best friend, and she feels completely devoid of creativity in her graphic-design job. Not even carolers or Christmas cookies can cheer her up—but Lindy’s mother, Ellen, remembers an old tradition that might lift her daughter’s spirits.

Reading through a box of childhood letters to Santa and reminiscing about what she’d wished for as a young girl may be just the inspiration Lindy needs. With Ellen’s encouragement, she decides to write a new letter to Santa, one that will encourage her to have faith and believe just as she’d done all those years ago. Little does Lindy know that this exercise in gratitude will cause her wishes to unfold before her in miraculous ways. And, thanks to some fateful twists of Christmas magic—especially an unexpected connection with a handsome former classmate—Lindy ultimately realizes that there is truly no place like home for the holidays.

A Little Christmas Spirit

By Sheila Roberts

Sheila Robert’s latest has everything I’m looking for in my list of Christmas books for 2021 – family, humor, a touch of romance, and a heartfelt happy ending!

Single mom Lexie Bell hopes to make this first Christmas in their new home special for her six-year-old son, Brock. Festive lights and homemade fudge, check. Friendly neighbors? Uh, no. The reclusive widower next door is more grinchy than nice. But maybe he just needs a reminder of what matters most. At least sharing some holiday cheer with him will distract her from her own lack of romance…

Stanley Mann lost his Christmas spirit when he lost his wife and he sees no point in looking for it. Until she shows up in his dreams and informs him it’s time to ditch his scroogey attitude. Stanley digs in his heels, but she’s determined to haunt him until he wakes up and rediscovers the joys of the season. He can start by being a little more neighborly to the single mom next door. In spite of his protests, he’s soon making snowmen and decorating Christmas trees. How will it all end?

Merrily, of course. A certain Christmas ghost is going to make sure of that!

The Christmas Bookshop

By Jenny Colgan

Any story that involves a bookstore immediately piques my interest. Sprinkle on some Christmas spirit and set the story in Scotland, and I’m all in! Can’t wait to read this one! 

Laid off from her department store job, Carmen has perilously little cash and few options. The prospect of spending Christmas with her perfect sister Sofia, in Sofia’s perfect house with her perfect children and her perfectly ordered yuppie life does not appeal.

Frankly, Sofia doesn’t exactly want her prickly sister Carmen there either. But Sofia has yet another baby on the way, a mother desperate to see her daughters get along, and a client who needs help revitalizing his shabby old bookshop. So Carmen moves in and takes the job. 

Thrown rather suddenly into the inner workings of Mr. McCredie’s ancient bookshop on the picturesque streets of historic Edinburgh, Carmen is intrigued despite herself. The store is dusty and disorganized but undeniably charming. Can she breathe some new life into it in time for Christmas shopping? What will happen when a famous and charismatic author takes a sudden interest in the bookshop—and Carmen?  And will the Christmas spirit be enough to help heal her fractured family?

The Santa Suit

By Mary Kay Andrews

Looking for a Christmas novel with a touch of mystery and magic? Then this page-turning novella by Mary Kay Andrews should be at the top of your Christmas list!

When newly-divorced Ivy Perkins buys an old farmhouse sight unseen, she is definitely looking for a change in her life. The Four Roses, as the farmhouse is called, is a labor of love―but Ivy didn’t bargain on just how much labor. The previous family left so much furniture and so much junk, that it’s a full-time job sorting through all of it. 

At the top of a closet, Ivy finds an old Santa suit―beautifully made and decades old. In the pocket of a suit she finds a note written in a childish hand: it’s from a little girl who has one Christmas wish, and that is for her father to return home from the war. This discovery sets Ivy off on a mission. Who wrote the note? Did the man ever come home? What mysteries did the Rose family hold?

Ivy’s quest brings her into the community, at a time when all she wanted to do was be left alone and nurse her wounds. But the magic of Christmas makes miracles happen, and Ivy just might find more than she ever thought possible: a welcoming town, a family reunited, a mystery solved, and a second chance at love.

The Christmas Wedding Guest

By Susan Mallery

What could be more romantic than a Christmas wedding? How about two? Or maybe even three? If your ideal Christmas novel involves mistletoe and new beginnings, Susan Mallery’s might be your next great read!

The Somerville sisters believe in love, but they’ve lost faith it will happen for them. Reggie hasn’t been home since the end of the world’s shortest engagement. When her parents decide to renew their vows, she buffs up her twinkle to help with the Christmas wedding. Unexpectedly, Toby, her first love, is back too, and the spark between them shines as brightly as ever. In the spirit of the season, will they let go of past hurts and greet the New Year together?

Done waiting for the one, Dena is pregnant and on her own—on purpose. But then a gorgeous, sad-eyed songwriter checks in to a room at her inn. Micah, unable to write since he lost his wife, finds inspiration in Dena’s determination to be a mom. One snowflake-speckled kiss and he’s a goner. But Dena is afraid to believe that a rock star could fall for a cookie-cutter small-town girl like her.

As the Christmas wedding draws closer, these two sisters just might unwrap the most treasured gift of all—love.