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A Christmas Carol (1843)
7.9/10on Open Library
Published
Dickens makes a miser watch how his choices land on other people. Discuss which of the three spirits would have changed Scrooge’s mind on its own, and which part of his life he most needed to see again. An especially workable choice for a short December meeting.
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Small Things Like These (2020)
8.5/10on Open Library
Published
Just before Christmas, a coal merchant in a small Irish town discovers something he can no longer ignore. Ask what makes Bill’s eventual choice possible and why many of his neighbors choose differently. A short novel with institutional abuse behind its quiet setting.
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Skipping Christmas (1998)
6.3/10on Open Library
Published
A couple decides to trade its usual Christmas obligations for a cruise. The joke is in how seriously the neighbors take a missing rooftop decoration. Ask which holiday ritual you’d happily drop and which one you’d defend if your street did the same.
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The Best Christmas Pageant Ever (1972)
8.8/10on Open Library
Published
The Herdmans upend a church pageant after hearing that rehearsals come with snacks. Adults and kids can ask why the newcomers understand parts of the Christmas story that the regular performers have stopped noticing.
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Mr. Dickens and his carol (2017)
6.0/10on Open Library
Published
An imagined Charles Dickens is under pressure to deliver a Christmas book and find a way out of his debts. Read alongside A Christmas Carol if the group has time, then discuss which experiences the novel uses to explain the ghost story and which it leaves mysterious.
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A Christmas Memory (1956)
Published
A boy and his much older cousin make fruitcakes for a long list of recipients, many of whom barely know them. Discuss how making something together can matter as much as giving it. Often read as a short story, and available in gift editions or story collections.
More about A Christmas Memory7
The Christmas hirelings (1894)
8.0/10on Open Library
Published
An elderly baronet brings children to his house for Christmas, an arrangement that soon pushes at his assumptions about family. Ask what makes such a heavily planned celebration feel genuine by the time it happens.
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The Father Christmas letters (1976)
9.0/10on Open Library
Published
Tolkien kept up a family tradition by sending his children illustrated letters from Father Christmas. The voice changes when the North Polar Bear gets involved. Ask what the drawings make possible that a letter alone couldn’t, then compare the imaginary North Pole with the rituals your own families kept up.
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The Christmas Pig (2021)
9.3/10on Open Library
Published
A boy enters a realm full of lost belongings to find the toy he misses at Christmas. Invite younger readers to name the lost object they’d try hardest to rescue, then ask what makes a replacement start to matter in its own right.
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The Nutcracker and the King of Mice (1853)
10.0/10on Open Library
Published
Read Hoffmann’s original for the parts many productions of the ballet leave out, including the nutcracker’s backstory. Ask how the story changes when the clashing mice and the threat to the heroine feel more like a nightmare than a dance.
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The Christmas Bookshop (2021)
6.0/10on Open Library
Published
An Edinburgh bookshop in trouble gives Carmen and her sister something practical to argue about while the holidays approach. Ask whether a shop can become part of a neighborhood again by listening to the people it has overlooked.
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Midnight at the Christmas Bookshop (2023)
Published
Return to the Edinburgh bookshop as a film crew, a threatened sale, and the holiday rush compete for space. Try The Christmas Bookshop first for the earlier relationships. Discussion can start with whether an improbable publicity stunt is worth what it asks of the shop.
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A Redbird Christmas (2004)
10.0/10on Open Library
Published
Fannie Flagg sends an ailing man to a small Alabama town, where a rescued redbird and the people who care for it become part of his new routine. Ask what the town offers him that looking after his own health never could.
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Winter solstice (1957)
8.0/10on Open Library
Published
Several people carrying very different private losses find themselves together in a Scottish house at Christmas. Give each reader a character to follow, then compare which small acts of hospitality feel natural and which take a deliberate effort.
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The Christmas Box (1993)
8.0/10on Open Library
Published
Richard Paul Evans’s short novel follows a family who move into an older woman’s home and discover a box containing personal letters. For a group discussion, follow who notices the letters and ask how the book uses private grief to change what a family values about the holiday.
More about The Christmas Box16
Christmas Days: 12 Stories and 12 Feasts for 12 Days (2016)
8.0/10on Open Library
Published
Jeanette Winterson pairs twelve stories with food writing and recipes connected to the holiday. Read one story and one recipe aloud and ask which tells you more about the people expected to sit around the table. It’s an easy choice to divide among several readers.
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Christmas Orphans Club (2023)
Published
A close group of friends has spent Christmas together in New York for years. When one is planning to move away, they realize they’ve been relying on a tradition that might not survive a change in routine. Ask who gets to steer a holiday when friends are the family who shows up.
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Last Christmas In Paris (2017)
Published
Letters sent during World War I link an old promise about Paris at Christmas to the people who gradually lose faith in a short war. Compare what the characters can write to each other with what they have to leave out. Co-written with Heather Webb.
More about Last Christmas In Paris19
A Boy Called Christmas (2001)
10.0/10on Open Library
Published
Matt Haig sends a boy named Nikolas north in search of his father and gives familiar Christmas figures a new origin. Ask a group with children and adults which parts of the resulting legend seem to come from kindness, and which seem to come from stubbornness.
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Christmas bells (2015)
8.0/10on Open Library
Published
Longfellow and the story behind his Christmas poem share the book with a modern choir. Listen to the carol after reading the novel and discuss which words sound different once you've spent time with the poet’s family and with the people singing them.
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Hercule Poirot's Christmas (1939)
8.2/10on Open Library
Published
The reunion of Simeon Lee’s children is already uncomfortable when the head of the family is killed. Give the group one chance to name a suspect before the answer is discussed, then ask why the family needed to be together for the puzzle to work.
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