Ahh ’tis the season! As I’m writing this I’m in the coziest pajamas I own, with freshly fallen snow on the ground (not nearly as much as they said we’d get but I’ll take it), a cup of cocoa next to me, two blankets on me and the strongest vibes to read all the Christmas romance books!
It seriously does wonders to my soul in December to consume all the Christmas movies and Christmas themed romances — ESPECIALLY in these times. A steady diet of Christmas romcoms and cozy Christmas romance novels is the perfect way to close out this year and it definitely is one of my ways to enjoy winter.
So prepare your future reading list and don your coziest apparel and let me tell you about 11 Christmas romance books to add to your list!
ALSO please tell me the best Christmas romances to read that I might not have gotten to yet!
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links which means that if you click on a link and purchase something I’ve talked about or recommended, I’ll receive a very small percentage of the sale. Please see my disclosure policy for more info.
A Little Tip…
Below you’ll see Bookshop.org mentioned. Bookshop.org is a fantastic place to buy books online that supports local bookstores. If you are looking to shop small when it comes to your books, I personally buy my books from here (when I can’t shop in person) and highly recommend! Local bookstores are the heart of communities and Bookshop.org makes it SUPER easy to support them.
New Christmas Romances For 2025
Looking for newer Christmas romance books to read? Here are some newly published and upcoming Christmas rom-comes and romances to read this year if you feel like you’ve already read most of the ones you see recommended and need something fresh & new.
My Christmas reading pile is huge considering how many new holiday related romances are coming out this year.
Anne of Avenue A by Audrey Bellezza and Emily Harding
Read it if you want: a NYC holiday setting, a modern Jane Austen retelling, second chance romance, medium spice/open door
If you are looking for something full on Christmas-centric romance, this one is more one of those holiday romances where the holiday aspect settles into the background to bring the magic of the holiday season than full on a Christmas-centric romance.
It’s cozy, nostalgic and definitely drops you into the NYC holiday season which really becomes a magical backdrop to watch two exes, whose futures never seemed to align, finding their lives intertwining again when they become neighbors in the city.
*part of an interconnected series but can be read as standalone
Good Spirits by B.K. Borison
Read it if you want: a Christmas romance with a hearty dose of paranormal, A Christmas Carol retelling, something heartwarming and cozy, grumpy x sunshine
This one is a festive story about a (hot Irish) Ghost of Christmas past and the Christmas-loving woman who is his latest assignment.
As he tries to go through her memories with her he finds two problems: he can’t figure out how he’s supposed to help her when it doesn’t seem like a Scrooge in need of redemption and he finds himself falling for her.
So fun, so adorable – with some spice!
Christmas Fling by Lindsey Kelk
Read it if you want: a Christmas spent in the Scottish Highlands, fake dating hijinx at the holidays, lower spice
I loved this author’s book A Christmas Wish and this fake dating romp through the holidays seems so fun. A memorable meet-cute and a case of mistaken identity leads to a fake dating charade that includes the holidays spent at his family home.
While It Was Snowing by Julia London
Read it if you want: a festive holiday spent at a snowy lake, forced proximity, older MCs (40s/50s), something feel good but with emotion, lower spice
Two people, in need of a little escape, find out that they accidentally are both booked at the same huge lake house during the holiday season.
The two agree to share the space and, especially thanks to a snowstorm, find themselves deeply bonding and sparks flying uncertain whether it is a Christmas fling or something more as their departure date looms.
Date Night in December by Jaqueline Snowe
Read it if you want: a festive and cozy small town Christmas setting, a second chance falling-back-in-love story between a married couple whose marriage is in peril, Hallmark vibes but with spice
Laney and Connor, whose marriage is crumbling, get a second chance at their relationship when Laney leaves the city to spend the holidays at the festive small town she grew up in.
This wake up call sends Connor following her to the small town to win her back and prove that their marriage is more important than his work.
Holiday Ever After by Hannah Grace
Read it if you want: an enemies to lovers romance, ultimate small town Hallmark holiday romance vibes
Clara shows up in the small town of Fraser Fall’s with hopes to charm the people and smooth over a PR nightmare after her family’s toy company is accused of stealing a doll design — a mission that is going to be hard to complete as she is up against aggrieved toy maker who won’t let himself be tricked by this company again and is beloved by the town.
The Christmas Cure by Kristine Winters
Read it if you want: a Christmas romance with a dose of Christmas magic, a festive small town setting, heart-warming Hallmark vibes, a closed door Christmas romance
A woman returns to her small town for the holidays to get away from her hectic life and heartbreak only to, thanks to a pot-bellied pig and a knock to the head while enjoying festivities, end up time traveling to this time last year.
While she tries to figure out what to do with this second chance at life, she also finds an unexpected romance unfurling with the cute baker in her small town.
Grace & Henry’s Holiday Movie Marathon by Matthew Norman
Read it if you want: slow burn romance, a second chance at love between two widows who are grieving, that feels really nostalgic with the holiday movie marathon
Two grieving widows dreading the holidays find a second chance at love and happiness as they take on a holiday movie marathon together.
You May Also Like: The Best, Unique Gifts For Book Lovers (That Aren’t Books)
Christmas People by Iva-Marie Palmer
Read it if you want: the equivalent of a fun Hallmark Christmas movie, a dose of magic
A screenwriter who isn’t a fan of Christmas wakes up to realize she is stuck in a Heartfelt (read: Hallmark) holiday movie set in the now Christmas-fied small town she has avoided after her heartbreak years ago.
If she wants to get out of this movie, she’ll need to complete the plot of the movie filled with Christmas festivities galore, real people from her life and a romance.
Merry Christmas You Filthy Animal by Meghan Quinn
Read it if you want: to return back to Kringletown, enemies to lovers, full on Christmas shenanigans, something pretty spicy
While I thought the first in this series was just okay, I do plan to return to Kringletown for plenty of holiday shenanigans in this Christmas-crazy town! It’s just fun at the holiday time for some over the top Christmas goodness plus I really did love Max!
This rivals-to-lovers romance is about two people whose rival Christmas tree farms have them warring all season long bringing holiday chaos and growing feelings.
You May Also Like: Best Gifts For Book Lovers On Amazon
My Top Christmas Romance Recommendations
These are the ones I loved the most and am always recommending when people are looking for some Christmas-y romances for the season. I really enjoyed all of these so feel free to ask questions or let me know what you thought!
The Twelve Dates of Christmas by Jenny Bayliss
Dating hijinx set at Christmas-time in this rom-com when a woman, down on her luck in that department, gets suckered into a dating agency that promises LOVE before Christmas in the form of 12 dates with 12 different men.
Perfect for: fans of small town set romances with nosy neighbors (a la Lorelei in Stars Hollow but British village), lovers of banter in their rom-coms, cute & cozy books
The Christmas Wish by Lindsey Kelk
Perfect if you like: Groundhog Day-esque plots (especially if you enjoyed the plot of In A Holidaze), books in the Bridget Jones vein or Sophie Kinsella’s work, second chance romances/ the boy-next-door trope, books that are more contemporary fiction with a heap of romance, dysfunctional family sideplots
Family shenanigans & meddling + a Christmas wish made by a family member has the newly single main character waking up to relive Christmas Day over and over again.
As she tries to figure out what she needs to do to get out of this cycle, she sees a way to use this time to make her family member’s wishes come true. Not to mention she enjoys spending time the guy next door who could be her second chance at love.
A Cosy Christmas In Cornwall by Jane Linfoot
Ivy, a lover of Christmas, has been hired to make a Cornish castle rental be super festive and ultra Instagrammable for a client.
When she arrives early to start the decorating, she finds two things in the way of succeeding in this task: she basically got castle catfished as it doesn’t look at all like the pictures and the owner of it is a (grumpy) crush from her past.
Perfect for: fans of cozy settings, lovers of grumpy male leads, people who love a great secondary cast of characters, readers who want a sweet and heartwarming book
10 Blind Dates by Ashley Elston
One of my FAVORITE romances set around Christmas-time: this book is an absolute DELIGHT.
When Sophie gets dumped by her boyfriend, she flees to the refuge of her grandparents house and gets to spend her Christmas break with her HUGE (super fun and nosy) family that live nearby too.
Wanting to help her with her heartbreak, they create a competition in which each of them set her up on a blind date with 10 different guys.
Absolute fun dating shenanigans in this smile-inducing YA rom com that will make you want to be a part of this fictional family.
Perfect for: Lovers of cute and funny YA books, readers who are looking for books featuring close knit families you will fall want to adopt you, readers looking for a sweet kind of romance (aka not remotely on the steamy side)
You May Also Like: The Best Wintry Reads Book List
Want to make the holidays even better?
One of the ways I find extra time to read as a busy mom is through audiobooks via my Libro.FM subscription (the Audible alternative you really need to know about). I love listening to Christmas romances like these while I wrap gifts and drive from store to store shopping. Check out my review of LibroFM.
A Princess for Christmas by Jenny Holiday
You’ll be content prying yourself away from the Hallmark channel for this one, I promise.
When cab driver and guardian to his little sister, Leo, stops to help a woman nothing will prepare him for the fact that a real life princess will be sitting in his cab and is in need of his help for the rest of her help in her quest to prove herself as the fate of her small country is on her shoulders. And little did either of them know that maybe they could be what each other needs.
Perfect for: lovers of Hallmark Christmas movies, people who want their Hallmark Christmas movies with a little more sex, fans of fictional royalty and romances featuring royalty and a regular guy, lovers of wonderfully cheesy (in the best way) romances
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Duke, Actually by Jenny Holiday
Perfect for: readers who are looking for a heartwarming contemporary Christmas romance, lovers of royal related romances, fans of A Princess For Christmas, readers who appreciate a slow burn friends to lover romances, Hallmark Christmas lovers that want a bit of added steam
This one is a followup to last year’s Christmas romcom A Princess For Christmas and is about Leo’s bff Dani. You don’t have to read that one to enjoy this one but you’ll be familiar with the characters and have more context if you do.
Maximillian von Hansburg is being pressured, by his father, to find a suitable bride before he inherits the title he feels like will trap him. Sent to New York to meet a potential bride, he ditches his responsibilities and shows up at the doorstep of the woman who is the Best Woman in the Eldovian wedding he’s the Man of Honor in to get to know her better.
Dani is newly single and swearing off men, especially a rake like Max, which is a perfect match for Max who is looking to escape life and seek a distraction also. As they form a friendship and their bond deepens, this shouldn’t-happen romance finds a spark.
Kiss Her Once For Me by Alison Cochrun
Check it out if you like: second chance romances, queer romcoms, the fake-dating trope (but with a twist!), heart-warming romcoms
This one is about a woman who fakes an engagement of convenience with her landlord to help him get his inheritance (and her to get a nice chunk of change for doing so) only to find out that his sister is the woman she fell for last Christmas Eve after their meet cute and never saw again.
In A Holidaze by Christina Lauren
I can always count on my fave romance/romcom duo of Christina Lauren to make my heart happy and this one did the trick for me in a escapist holiday read. I will be honest — it was a little disappointing in any explanation of the time loop so beware if that will bother you.
Life for Maelyn has been messy and disappointing lately and, when on her long time traditional holiday cabin trip with her family and two other families, things get a bit messier romantically AND she gets the blow that this will probably be the last year this trip happens.
Super upset on her drive away from this cabin for the last time, she pleads with the universe to share her what will make her happy.
Next thing she knows a car accident happens and everything goes black — and she wakes up on the plane to start the holiday over. And over. And over. And over again. Playing out the same trip wondering which outcome will get her out of this loop.
Perfect for: lovers of Groundhog Day-esque setups, rom-com seekers, friends to lovers fans
The Holiday Swap by Maggie Knox
A holiday-themed romantic comedy about identical twins who switch lives, thanks to a work related disaster, in the days leading up to Christmas.
One heads off to keep a cooking show alive while the other makes their way home to run the family business. It’s a tough act to keep themselves straight especially when they both experience some romantic feelings.
Perfect for: romcom lovers, fans of twin swap plots a la Parent Trap or The Princess Switch,
One Last Gift by Emily Stone
Check it out if you like: a good cry, scavenger hunts, this author’s book ALWAYS IN DECEMBER, slow burn romances, the movie P.S. I Love You, a book with romance but also that life-affirming women’s fiction type story, friends to lovers romances
This one would make a great book club book for the holidays!
Cassie feels the weight of loneliness and grief this year at the holidays after the recent and tragic passing of her brother. She and her brother have relied on each other, and the found family they chose, since becoming orphans at a young age.
And then an envelope arrives with Tom’s handwriting and she knows it’s the first clue in the yearly scavenger hunt he puts on for her every year at Christmas and this one he’d been boasting about as the best one yet.
This last bittersweet gift from her brother sets her off on a journey of a lifetime of traveling and reconnecting with friends, herself and an old love that had drifted away and who also happened to be Tom’s best friend and a huge part of Cassie’s life years before.
Meet Me In London by Georgia Toffolo
An aspiring fashion designer and the son of a high end department store mogul, in need of a girlfriend to satisfy his family’s pressuring, come to an agreement on a faux relationship for his story’s grand opening in exchange for a spotlight on her work. This temporary business arrangement is in jeopardy when sparks fly and neither one of them have room in their life for something real.
Perfect for: readers looking for a book that has minimal Christmas aspects (more so just set around Christmas-time than about Christmas), fans of fake engagements, readers who will be smitten with the London Christmas-time backdrop, readers who won’t shy away from some tough issues alongside the sweet romance aspect
In The Event of Love by Courtney Kae
Check it out if you like: steamy slow burn romances, second chance & friends-to-lovers tropes, books by Casey McQuiston, Alexandria Bellefleur or Ashley Herring Blake’s romances, queer romances, small-town Hallmark Christmas movie vibes, towns that feel a little like Stars Hollow
A tabloid blowup sends event planner Morgan Ross back home to her small town for a strategic retreat to regroup over the Christmas holiday and fix her image by throwing an event to save a local business.
Shortly into her return home she is forced to confront her former best friend and first love, Rachel, who also happens to be running the Christmas tree farm that the town and Morgan’s event will aim to save against greedy developers.
Heartache and lingering feelings must be put aside to throw this important event to save Rachel’s Christmas tree farm, her career and the small town she loves so much.
Love, Holly by Emily Stone
Perfect if you like: Christmas romances with more emotional elements (if you’ve read her other books you know), family dramas
Oh this one really was amongst my holiday favorites last year! Ooh still get a little teary.
The last few Christmases, now estranged from her family after a horrible & tragic accident, have been very lonely for Holly — with the exception of the one bright light to the season which is the anonymous letter writing/pen-pal club she joined and connects with other lonely strangers via letter every December.
This year the letter she receives from an older woman, who shares in a grief she knows well, mentions a location she is very familiar with and this connection makes her want to seek out the sender of the letter outside of the letters and maybe even help her reunite with her estranged grandson.
When she does track down the grandson, Jack, she realizes they met once and had a crazy connection — on the very night of the accident that changed everything for her.
Once Upon A December by Amy E. Reichert
Check it out if you like: books with a touch of magic, sweet romances more than spicy, Christmas markets, romances featuring 30-somethings, star-crossed lovers, sweet & heartwarming books, Hallmark Christmas movies
warning: have pastries nearby reading this!!
Newly divorced Astra makes her yearly trip to the Milwaukee Christmas market determined to have a great time with her friends shopping and eating and, once she’s there, adding flirt with the cute baker she meets.
What she doesn’t know is that she’s met this cute baker, Jack, several times before at his family bakery but magic prevents her from remembering him — though she does always feel an inkling of familiarity with him.
Jack lives inside Julemarked — a magical Christmas alley that defies time and where it’s always December even after it disappears from one location and pops up at the next.
The two fall for one another after spending some time together but can they be with each other given they live in parallel worlds?
A Winter In New York by Josie Silver
Perfect if you like: winter in New York vibes, a pretty slow-burn romance, heart-warming books, family secrets, foodie-centric, something wintry but not exclusively Christmas-centric
Iris, a chef, comes to New York looking for a fresh start from her abusive ex and the death of her late mother who had a special connection to New York.
She stumbles upon a family-owned gelato shop that her mom visited decades ago and has seen in photographs and finds out, from the handsome owner, that it’s in danger of closing as his uncle forgot the secret family recipe after he had a stroke.
After tasting the gelato she realizes she just might have the key as it tastes EXACTLY like the gelato she makes — a recipe she knows his uncle must have given her mother but she doesn’t know why.
She decides to help him by offering her chef talents to recreate the recipe but without letting on to the fact she knows the secret recipe in order to not dredge up family drama and old secrets with this man who just could be something more in her life.
Faking Christmas by Kerry Winfrey
Perfect if you like: fake dating (well husband) plots, snowed in romances, enemies to lovers romances, rom-coms
If you like faux dating/marriage plots — the main character of this one fakes a whole husband (with her nemesis), kids and ownership of a local farm (that’s really her twin sister’s).
A misunderstanding makes her boss think she actually owns her twin sister’s farm (she only does the social media for it) and doesn’t think it’s a big deal to correct — that is until her boss, after getting dumped by his wife before the holidays, invites himself over for the big holiday dinner at the farm that he thinks SHE owns.
No problem though, right? She can just pretend to not be her hot mess self and turn into her cozy home-maker sister complete with a fake family for the duration of the dinner festivities.
Posing as impressive hostess for her boss proves to be difficult especially when her fake husband is her nemesis from her sister’s wedding and a snowstorm makes the festivities last a whole lot longer than intended.
Emergency Contact by Lauren Layne
Perfect if you like: rom-coms, second chance romances, Christmas romances with no spice, travels gone hilariously awry, forced proximity
Bad enough to get a concussion before the holidays but our main character, an ambitious NYC attorney named Katherine, gets one and has to be monitored for 48 hours.
Having forgotten to change her emergency contact, the person that gets called is her ex-husband and they both reluctantly agree, with nowhere else for Katherine to go, to travel with Tom to his family in Chicago for the holidays where he plans to propose to his new girlfriend. (Just let me take the chances and be concussed alone, amirite?).
A blizzard turns a quick plane ride into quite the misadventure to get them to Chicago and old, complicated feelings start to stir between the exes.
Last Year’s Standouts (Newer Recommendations)
The Christmas Countdown by Holly Cassidy
Read it if you want: LOTS of Christmas cheer & festivities, Hallmark feel good vibes, a grumpy/sunshine pair, a Christmas challenge/game aspect, closed door romance
If you like your Christmas romances heavy on the Christmas cheer and activities of the holiday season, this one is for you.
What it’s about: Still down in the dumps from being dumped by her childhood sweetheart, Callie is officially hibernating for Christmas (and life).
Her sister intervenes and cooks up a homemade Advent Calendar challenge inspired by a childhood tradition — full of gifts as well as festive tasks — to help snap her out of her Scrooge mode at home and get her feeling more positive about life again.
As she reluctantly plays along on her sister’s challenge for her, she finds herself trading bah-humbug for more cheer — especially when she meets a cheerful baker who helps her out along the way.
Out October 22, 2024 from G.P. Putnam’s Sons.
Kiss Me At Christmas by Jenny Bayliss
Read it if you want: a romance revolving around a rag-tag cast of characters putting on a derelict theater’s last Christmas production
This one was really sweet and heart-warming! I enjoyed the romance but the thing that sealed the deal was the rag-tag group of people putting this play on that gave me all that Christmas warmth.
What it’s about: It’s about a divorced mom feeling pretty blah about Christmas when her college-aged daughter decides to spend her holiday away from home.
Her holiday season turns unexpected after a one-night stand and a trip to the police station after she takes the fall for a group of her students breaking into a derelict theater.
Her penance to the owner is to help clean up the theater and help put on what will be the theater’s last production ever — A Christmas Carol.
And just who is the lawyer the theater owner has involved in this agreement and overseeing it? The very man she had a one night stand with.
Out now from G.P. Putnam’s Sons.
The Christmas You Found Me by Sarah Morgenthaler
Read it if you want: a heartfelt & emotional marriage of convenience romance with a small ranch town setting at Christmas-time
This Idaho-set romance is about a divorced rancher who enters in a marriage of convenience all thanks to a “husband for hire” ad a friend put up as a joke for her. But a man does respond as a serious inquiry — a man whose 4 year old daughter is in kidney failure and who desperately is fighting to help her.
This one took me by surprise and required some tissues! I could absolutely see this as a Hallmark movie.
Out October 1 from MIRA.
All I Want Is You by Falon Ballard
Read it if you want: exes (and professional rivals) snowed in together at Christmas-time
I love Falon Ballard’s romances so I was so excited to see she was coming out with a Christmas-time romance featuring exes who are romance writing rivals and (my favorite) forced proximity, only-one-bed goodness during a snowstorm!!
Better yet — they are both in writing slumps and realize that channeling their own personal frustrations/tension might be the cure to ridding them both of it. *fans self*
The Merriest Misters by Timothy Janovsky
Read it if you want: something with The Santa Clause vibes on the outside but deeper on the inside plus a marriage in peril romance
The Santa Clause with Tim Allen was a staple as a kid and I still find it being one of my comfort Christmas movies and this book is giving the fun that movie brings to Christmas but with a gay married couple whose marriage is straining under the weight of life and being married.
What it’s about: A couple, barely keeping their marriage together in its first year, find a new challenge on Christmas Eve: having to save Christmas after one of them knocks out an intruder who happens to be Santa Claus.
It doesn’t end there — they must assume their roles as Santa and his Merriest Mister or else Christmas is cancelled forever. They decide to stay together – if only to save Christmas – for the next year to fulfill the duty but it might take a Christmas miracle for their relationship to survive.
Out October 1 from St. Martin’s Press.
P.S. Check out some new romance reads for this year or perhaps you want the winter vibes but a complete about face from romance with some wintry thrillers! Or maybe you need to deck the halls with Christmas decorations for book lovers.
So let me know…what are some of your fave romance or rom com books set during Christmas, Christmas-themed romances or just any romances that feeling particularly wintry.
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