Looking for a Christmas read

Try Trollope - Christmas at Thompson Hall. He's wordy but the stories are good and I always like his characters. I prefer him to Dickens.

Have you tried "How Far to Bethlehem?" by Norah Lofts? She has written stories of some of the characters in the Nativity story, starting with Mary, and how they get to Bethlehem. I read it most years, and love it.

I recommend A Redbird Christmas by Fannie Flagg; and Christmas at Cold Comfort Farm by Stella Gibbons

Another vote here for ‘How Far to Bethlehem’. It’s my favourite Christmas book. I hardly ever read a book twice, but this one comes out every two or three years, I love it.

Oh yes 'A red bird Christmas' is lovely. You must read it!

The Winter Ghost by Kate Mosse is a good story. Not too long either.

It’s funny reading this post as I gravitate to my old miss read books every Christmas. And a winter solstice by rosamunde pilchard. My tradition.

I tend towards an unsettling read for this season, a bit of contrast to all the frivolity, so would recommend MR James - The Turn Of The Screw, The Woman In White by Wilkie Collins, The Small Hand by Susan Hill or Sophie Hannah's The Orphan Choir. The dark afternoons & twinkly lights are perfect these I think.

But my heart warming choice is always The Christmas Angel by Marcia Willet!

keepcalmandcavachon

I tend towards an unsettling read for this season, a bit of contrast to all the frivolity, so would recommend MR James - The Turn Of The Screw, The Woman In White by Wilkie Collins, The Small Hand by Susan Hill or Sophie Hannah's The Orphan Choir. The dark afternoons & twinkly lights are perfect these I think.

Christmas ghost stories are perfect for December aren’t they?
Unless you live alone and are of a nervous disposition.

Another vote for How far to Bethlehem. I'll start re reading it tomorrow, first Sunday of Advent. Perfect pre Christmas read.
I also enjoy Christmas crime/ ghost stories.

I like a 1930s Christmas murder mystery, usually set in a large country house.

Me too WWM2. I don't know why but I do!

My vote too, for “how far to Bethlehem”!

How about The Penguin Book of Christmas Stories?

Truman Capote makes whisky-soaked fruitcake in Alabama; Laurie Lee slides across a frozen pond in Gloucestershire; and Shirley Jackson is outwitted by a wily Santa Claus at the bank. Ghosts haunt the Christmases of Muriel Spark and Elizabeth Bowen, while Dostoyevsky, Daphne du Maurier and Italo Calvino take a cynical view of the season and Selma Lagerlof and Angela Carter celebrate its miracles. Ranging from Cork to Lagos to the Wild West and from Paris to San Paolo to outer space, this is Christmas as imagined by some of the greatest short-story writers of all time.

Available in paper book and audio book formats.

I've earmarked a book for December, The Land in Winter by Andrew Miller, nominated for the Booker. I've recently read a good book by this author. This one is set in the harsh winter of '63. Possibly not a Christmas theme though. I'd also go with WW's suggestion, vintage crime in a big house to evoke a specific seasonal feel.

Another one for Miss Read. I love her stories of gentle country folk and their Christmas activities.

Christmas Jigsaw Murders by Alexandra Benedict is good fun, full of puzzles.

Glad to be reminded of the Miss Tead books, I will seek them out, but at Christmas I’m another one who likes a Golden Age type crime set in a country house.

Aveline

Try Trollope - Christmas at Thompson Hall. He's wordy but the stories are good and I always like his characters. I prefer him to Dickens.

As a Trollope fan I’ve got his complete works on my Kindle but don’t ever recall seeing this! Must have another look….

I’d recommend Hello from the Gillespies. A harassed mum sends out the wrong Christmas round robin - the one she typed out in a rage, that tells about the family’s life as it really is.

😂 that sounds like fun Maggiemaybe

Dark Matter by Michelle Paver. Not Christmassy as such but quite scary.

keepingquiet

Dark Matter by Michelle Paver. Not Christmassy as such but quite scary.

Well….there is snow!
A very scary story indeed, that stays with you.