December is an interlude in the year; separate from all the other seasons. There is autumn until Thanksgiving, then Christmas, and really winter doesn’t start until January. I like winter well enough, I’m always ready for it when it comes around, but not thinking it’s winter until January makes it seem shorter.

In December, I choose a word or two to inspire everything I do. I often have a theme song. I cook richer, more special food, that I don’t make any other time of year. Puzzle time is quality time. Making paper snowflakes or coloring a holiday picture is a way to spend time with the girls in my family. I get a Christmas devotional to center my thoughts on the meaning of the season.

And I plan my Christmas reading.

Christmas stories are notoriously trite and filled with cliches. Often they are too sad. Some try to be funny. Most are hopelessly sentimental and nostalgic. That’s what’s so great about them.

Below are the ones I have to choose from this year. These books showed up on my shelves during the year, or they are leftover ones that I didn’t get to last year. They are all short. Only one is over 200 pages and that by just a few. These descriptions are from the back of the book or the inside flap.

Heaven and Nature Sing: 25 Advent Reflections to Bring Joy to the World by Hannah Anderson. “Joy to the world, the Lord has come!” We sing these words every year, but what does it mean that the Creator came to His creation as a baby? How exactly does the “earth receive her King”? What does it sound like when rock, hills, floods, and plains echo His praise? And what would it mean for you to join in the chorus? Through these 25 advent meditations you are invited into a fresh reading of the Christmas story— one where earthly, overlooked things like snowflakes, serpents, bodies and swaddling bands reveal the glory of the Promised Son. As you walk through Heaven and Nature Sing, journeying from the first pages of Scripture to the last, you’ll experience the goodness of our Creator King and learn how the whole earth sings His praise.

The Greatest Gift by Philip Van Doren Stern. On the night before Christmas, a mysterious stranger saves George Bailey from a moment of despair by giving him a precious opportunity to understand the difference that his unassuming life makes to those around him and to the world. (This is really what it says. I had to read it twice.)

Update November 28, 2025. This year I started reading Christmas stories before Thanksgiving. I was looking at The Greatest Gift and ended up reading the whole thing one evening. This story came to the author fully formed, he wrote it and sent it to publishers and magazines for a couple years. In 1943 he revised his story one more time and printed 200 24-page booklets that he sent out as Christmas cards that year. In the spring he recieved a telegram asking for rights to make a movie of his story. This movie is the Christmas classic It’s a Wonderful Life. (I found the back story as interesting as the story.)

What Child Is This? A Christmas Story by Caroline B. Cooney. Katie, a foster child, is seeking a family. Two teenagers lives, whose paths intertwine at an inn where children’s wishes hang on a special tree, and Katie’s life intersect at Christmas. Is there someone who can bring Katie such an immense gift?

Update November 28, 2025. I stayed up late last night to finish this. It’s a unique Christmas story that made me cry tears of joy. There are at least five main characters in this 150 page book. The beginning chapters introduce the main characters with short sketches. In between the lines you get to know at least seven more secondary characters. All of them seem like real people. This author is superb at showing, not telling. There are very sad elements and nearly everyone does not know how to grieve or deal with their troubles or ask for help. Things got very bad and I didn’t know how they would be recsuced. There’s not really a main character that takes action, unless it’s Matt, and he does it by admitting that he’s in over his head and doesn’t know what to do. It’s so real to life. I loved this book and will try to find other books by Caroline B. Cooney! Each short chapter it titled with lines from Christmas carols, some I had never heard of, so that’s a rabbit trail I still want to follow. Recommend it to all!

The Christmas Shoes by Donna VanLiere. If we’re open to it, God can use even the smallest thing to change our lives… to change us. It might be a laughing child, car brakes that need fixing, a sale on pot roast, a cloudless sky, a trip to the woods to cut down a Christmas tree, a schoolteacher, a Dunhill Billiard pipe… or even a pair of shoes. Some people will never believe. They may feell that such things are too trivial, too simple, or too insignificant to forever change a life. But I believe. And I always will.

Update November 28, 2025. A typical Christmas story. I skimmed parts of it. If you like Richard Paul Evans Christmas stories you will like this one.

The 13th Gift: a True Story of a Christmas Miracle by Joanne Huist Smith. After the unexpected death of her husband, Joanne Huist Smith had no idea how she would keep herself together and be strong for her three children—especially with the holidays approaching. The cheerfulness of the season made her feel more alone than ever, no matter how much she wanted to reach out to her children and find ways to comfort them. Then thirteen days before Christmas, a poinsettia appeared on the Smiths’ doorstep. The next day, another gift arrived… then another. Each gift was accompanied by a note signed “Your true friends.” The gifts began to work a kind of magic on her and the kids. And they began to look for ways to show kindness to others too and their hearts began to heal.

What are you reading in December? If you have a favorite Christmas book, tell us about it in the comments, please!