What about spending these holidays travelling the globe without leaving your cosy reading corner? This is the first post of the Holiday Season Reading series, with recommendations for Christmas and New Year’s stories by authors from different countries.
In these posts, you’ll find picture books for children that will also be enjoyed by adults, anthologies, reimaginings, and cosy stories in general, but also some that invite reflection. All this to read during the holiday season and beyond.
Let’s start with longer stories by authors from English-speaking countries, presented in alphabetical order by country.

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Christmas in the Australian Summer

• Tea and Sugar Christmas by Jane Jolley. Set on the vast Nullarbor Plain in the 1950s, this tender picture book follows a young Aboriginal girl awaiting the Tea and Sugar train’s annual Christmas run. Evoking themes of kindness, anticipation, and strong historical context, it beautifully captures how the holiday spirit travels even to the remotest parts of Australia. A cosy, moving read for children that adults will also treasure, with rich illustrations and quiet emotional depth.

• Australian Christmas Stories by Mary Grant Bruce. This nostalgic collection of tales brings a distinctively Australian warmth to the festive season. Set in the bush and country towns of the early 20th century, Bruce’s stories reflect generosity, humour, and resilience under the summer sun. A charming choice for readers of all ages who enjoy traditional storytelling infused with a sense of place and community.

Wintry Christmas Tales from Canada

• An Aboriginal Carol by David Bouchard. This lyrical work reimagines the nativity story through an Indigenous perspective, blending English and Michif text with stunning art. An Aboriginal Carol invites reflection on spirituality, heritage, and shared humanity during Christmastime. It’s both a cultural treasure and a thoughtful family read as a meaningful addition to a festive library.

• Christmas with Anne and Other Holiday Stories by Lucy Maud Montgomery and others. This festive anthology brings together Anne of Green Gables and other beloved Canadian characters in heartwarming holiday tales. Anne’s enduring charm and the warmth of Canadian Christmas traditions make this collection a perfect read for anyone who loves classic stories and seasonal nostalgia. Considered a celebration of Canadian literary heritage, these Christmas stories are a must-read for the season.

English Christmas Stories

• A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Dickens’s timeless classic remains the definitive Christmas tale, telling the story of Ebenezer Scrooge’s transformation from miser to benefactor after a supernatural night of reckoning. It’s both a ghost story and a moral fable, rich with Victorian atmosphere and enduring humanity. Modern readers of all ages will still find it profoundly moving and restorative.

• Letters from Father Christmas by J.R.R. Tolkien. This volume gathers the illustrated letters J.R.R. Tolkien wrote to his children between 1920 and 1943, narrating Father Christmas’s adventures at the North Pole with the North Polar Bear, elves, goblins and other characters. It is a charming, nostalgic collection that works beautifully as a family read-aloud at Christmas, appealing to children and to adults who enjoy imaginative, slightly old-fashioned festive storytelling with a strong sense of Tolkien’s wider imaginative world.

Reflective Irish Christmas Fiction

• The Dead (from Dubliners) by James Joyce. This long short story unfolds during a snow-dusted Christmas gathering in early 20th-century Dublin, where Gabriel Conroy attends his aunts’ annual holiday party. As the evening progresses and a song stirs memories for his wife, the story deepens into a poignant reflection on love, loss, and the quiet distances within marriage, making it an intense, reflective Christmas. While not a feel-good Christmas story, it is Ireland’s most renowned Christmas-themed fiction.

• A Very Irish Christmas: The Greatest Irish Holiday Stories of All Time. This anthology gathers fourteen Irish Christmas pieces, including eleven short stories and three poems by writers such as James Joyce, W.B. Yeats, Elizabeth Bowen, William Trevor, Colm Tóibín, and Anne Enright. Ranging from nostalgic and tender to sharp and contemporary, read Christmas stories through characters of Ireland in freezing Dublin, tough Belfast, and hopeful Irish communities in London and America.

• Small Things Like These by Claire Keegan. Set in a small Irish town in 1985 in the days leading up to Christmas, this slim novella follows coal merchant Bill Furlong as his deliveries bring him to a local convent and expose the reality of a Magdalene laundry. Quietly told yet emotionally powerful, it combines the atmosphere of a wintry Irish Christmas with questions of complicity, courage, and care. It’s a modern literary Christmas classic, socially aware fiction, having been described as a ‘feminist version of A Christmas Carol’.

Cosy Scottish Christmas Novels

• Winter Solstice by Rosamunde Pilcher. This novel is widely regarded as a modern Christmas classic, beloved for its cosy, heartwarming feel. Its gentle atmosphere brings a handful of wounded, slightly lonely characters together in a small Scottish village as Christmas approaches, where an old house becomes a place of refuge and renewal. With its wintry landscapes, interwoven lives, and quiet midlife romance, it’s a deeply cosy, absorbing winter read in the form of a character-driven story about second chances.

• A Highland Christmas by M.C. Beaton. In this festive instalment of the Hamish Macbeth series, the village policeman finds himself dealing with missing cats, a stolen Christmas tree, and local reluctance to embrace the holiday, rather than grisly crimes. The result is a light, gently comic mystery steeped in Highland charm, perfect for readers who enjoy low-stakes crime, eccentric villagers, and a Christmassy setting more than hard-boiled detection.

American Christmas Favourites

• A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote. This beloved short story recounts the narrator’s bittersweet memories of a Christmas spent with his eccentric cousin in rural Alabama, gathering pecans, making fruitcakes, and celebrating with simple joy. With its warmth, innocence, and subtle poignancy, it’s a timeless Christmas tale that resonates with readers who cherish nostalgia and the quiet magic of childhood traditions.

• The Christmas Box by Richard Paul Evans. This bestselling novel tells the story of a grieving couple who discover a mysterious box and the profound lessons it holds about love, loss, and the true meaning of Christmas. With its gentle wisdom and emotional depth, it’s a touching read for anyone seeking a heartfelt, uplifting Christmas story at the holidays.

Welsh Christmas Classics and Contemporary Reads

• A Child’s Christmas in Wales by Dylan Thomas. This classic piece of lyrical prose evokes a boyhood Christmas in a Welsh seaside town, all snow, sweets, relatives, and small adventures, remembered through richly musical language rather than plot. It’s a beautiful choice for reading aloud by the tree to savour nostalgic, language‑driven writing, and a short, enduring Christmas classic.

• One Last Gift by Emily Stone. This contemporary novel by a Welsh author follows Cassie as she embarks on a Christmas scavenger hunt created by her dying brother. The clues take her from London to the Welsh mountains and the French countryside, weaving the Welsh landscape into her emotional and festive journey. With its heartfelt storytelling and evocative settings, it’s a touching read for anyone drawn to stories of family, healing, and the magic of Christmas.With its heartfelt emotional journey, evocative settings, and gentle festive spirit, it’s a touching story for those who value themes of love, healing, and rediscovery at Christmas.

Wrapping Up Our Holiday Season Reading Part I

It doesn’t matter if you choose something comforting or a story that digs deeper; these Christmas books will make you experience the season around the globe through the pages.
Thank you for joining this first stop in the Holiday Season Reading series from your cosy reading corner.
In the next post, we’ll stay on our festive world tour with Christmas books originally written in other languages and available in English translation, so you can discover how different cultures celebrate, question, and reimagine this time of year.

Want something cosy but not necessarily Christmassy? Explore these iyashikei and K‑healing books for gentle, comforting reads all year round.