Silent Night & The Time is Right!

Silent Night & The Time Is Right…for a Great Christmas Read!

Anyone who knows me knows that I love a great Christmas read. It usually starts right after Thanksgiving and I finish 3-4 books before Christmas. I’m very selective about my Christmas stories and I thought I’d share my top picks with you. So, in this post you will discover my Pro’s and Con’s of Christmas books and get a list of the BEST books I’ve read! Sound like fun? Hopefully you will find some wonderful books for yourself!

*I’d like to note that it takes me HOURS to scour the web for new Christmas Books. I’m not sure if they aren’t too popular, but finding them in general can be tricky. Amazon used to have a Holiday Page. You could choose Christmas and find the latest books. They have since changed that. Now it’s a “Christian” page. These books focus on the religious side of Christmas (absolutely nothing wrong with that, but not always what I’m looking for) and not always a lighthearted fun Christmas read. Therefore, it’s HARD! Plus, I have strict criteria. So, let’s begin with that…

Let’s start with what I like:

Normally, I am not a Contemporary/Romance fan. I like fantastic worlds and crazy plot twists. I’m not very interested in human behavior and more serious topics. I don’t enjoy predictable, sappy books. By predictable, I mean the books where you know that this person will overcome this and that person will deal with that….then they end up together. Sorry, I’m just not interested in books that focus on characters’ daily struggles or everyday life events. I like twists and turns, as I said. I like major suspense. SOOO it’s quite funny that during Christmastime…I LOVE those predictable romance books. Lol! I just love sappy endings and loveable moments during Christmastime. Now, I still want a good plot and if it’s too predictable (I’m lookin at you, Call Me Mrs. Miracle) I will still DNF it. So this list will be filled with sappy love stories, but they will still have good laughs or minor plot twists.

What I Avoid:

Christmas is a time to be cheerful and happy. I want to feel good and uplifted at Christmastime. I DON’T want to be brought down by children dying, their parents dying, or people struggling through cancer diagnoses. WHY do authors think this is acceptable??? Death during Christmastime is painful and people will forever remember that’s the Christmas their loved one died. Even if that older cancer patient taught the little boy a life lesson…good for him. I don’t want to hear about it around my happy/sappy time of year. Nope. No thanks. I’m sorry, to anyone who does find these books uplifting/enjoys them. That isn’t my preference. You will find none of those books on this list. That said, it must be a popular concept, because it’s very hard to find a Christmas book each year that doesn’t have those elements. Why would you want to cry around Christmas? The Christmas Shoes makes me bawl like a baby!! I have to change the radio station! Why?? Ok, I’m done. Taking a deep breath and moving on. Sorry about that.

As I mentioned, it’s very hard to find a book that is uplifting (not sad at all) AND doesn’t bore me to tears with predictability. So, if you agree with me or haven’t tried a Christmas book, but want to…look no further! Here we go!! (So excited!!!)

The Snow Globe by Sheila Roberts. Easily my favorite Christmas read and I will be rereading it this year! This story focuses on The Snow Globe, of course. A young woman comes into an antiques shop and discovers the globe. The man behind the counter tells a tale about a German toymaker who received the globe as a gift after a great tragedy in his life. (it won’t bring you down, because the book is not focused on this tale) It’s said that the toymaker saw the image of a beautiful woman when he looked into the globe. This woman did come into his life and mended his broken heart. The snow globe has been past down from generation to generation always ending up in the hands of someone who needs a Christmas miracle. (I paraphrased this from the summary on the jacket) Obviously, our main character needs that miracle and so the story begins! This book touched my heart and I hope it touches yours. I’m very eager for a reread. By the way, it’s only about 166 pages. So you can fly through this on a cozy Saturday!

• The Trouble with Christmas, It Happened at Christmas, and Snowbound at Christmas by Debbie Mason. These are apart of her Christmas, Colorado series and I adore them! I bought her debut book, The Trouble with Christmas and instantly fell in love. Obviously, I can’t sum up all of the books without spoilers but I can tell you about that debut book! So, the story focuses Madison Lane. She’s this big wig in the city and is accused of botching up a deal with Christmas, Colorado. Her company is supposed to spruce up the town and create a beautiful tourist destination. The town needs the money, the company needs the deal! Now that things are all messed up, Madison is shipped off to Christmas to clean up the mess. There, she meets Sheriff Gage McBride. Now, Madison isn’t met with a warm welcome and she’s quite a character. So, things just keep happening to her…funny things. Poor Gage is stuck cleaning up the mess. OF COURSE, the ending can be predicted. You see where it’s going already, right? The charming part… the characters in this book (they are all so unique and entertaining)…and the town that just comes to life. It’s a character of its own. You want to live in Christmas, Colorado. You wanna visit its shops, befriend its residents and laugh along with Madison. It gives you the warm fuzzies, but still has elements that you DON’T see coming. They may be smallish things, but I found them enjoyable. Now, all of Debbie Mason’s books tie together. So, Madison’s friend Skylar will become the focus of It Happened at Christmas. Cat is the main character in Snowbound at Christmas. I won’t get into how she relates (it’s not a spoiler, but it’s still fun to discover as you go) but each book focuses on people you are familiar with in previous books. Make sense? She also has Summer time books. They fall in between these books. I have found that I can read these pretty well and not feel like I’m missing something. If you enjoy the first book, maybe you want to give them a go. I will be, because I notice some minor plot points that I had to guess what happened…they don’t affect the overall story, but I’m curious. This is getting long, so I’ll stop, but if you want additional detail just tweet me or DM me over on twitter @letsbookaboutit.
• A Lakeshore Christmas by Susan Wiggs. This book is interesting to me, because I’ve tried a couple of her other books and was bored to tears. Sorry! Yet, somehow I loved this book. I may reread this one also! So, this story is about a Librarian! Yaaay!! Her name is Maureen and this is her big chance to direct the local holiday pageant. She’s going to make it PERFECT…or is she? Along comes Eddie…he’s a rock star (ohh yeahh! I’m a sucker for a bad boy, you?) The dude crashes his car into the town nativity scene!! Oops!! Now, he has to do community service and help Maureen with the pageant. Ya know that isn’t gonna go well! These two make each other crazy aaaand of course fall in love. How in the world does that happen? What does this mish mosh of a pageant look like? Read the Book!!! I really enjoyed this one. It could be the librarian/bad boy thing…either way, I highly recommend this particular book. OH, and you don’t need to read any of her other books to read this one. I don’t even know what number this is in the series.
• A Wreath of Snow by Liz Curtis Higgs. This is a Victorian Christmas story set back in 1894. Margaret Campbell is a teacher and can’t wait to go home for Christmas, but fate has another plan. She ends up meeting Gordon Shaw and her Christmas will never be the same. If I remember correctly, she’s forced to spend Christmas with his family and the characters learn a lot about each other. I feel like Margaret grows a lot in this book and it was a very interesting read. It’s written well and easy to understand. It’s not written like a Classic, as I expected it to be. Overall, I found this one very enjoyable and touching. I plan to reread eventually.

Honorable Mentions:

I found Sheila Roberts’ Merry Ex-Mas to be a cute little story. It has multiple character perspectives (all women) and focuses on how their lives unfold right before Christmas. They are each at different stages in life and it was a fun read. There were definitely predictability issues here, but I did experience quite a few giggles.

Also, Heather Graham’s Home in Time for Christmas. I’ll be honest, I didn’t finish this book, but it was me being me. I still think it’s a pretty good story. I just had trouble with the lack of twists. If you enjoy Contemporary love stories…this will be perfect for you. It’s a story about Melody Tarleton (I really enjoyed her). She’s driving home for Christmas and a man clad in Revolutionary War clothing pops out in front of her. He’s convinced he’s a Patriot soldier. His name is Jake. So, of course Melody brings him home to meet the family. Wouldn’t you? LOL! She makes up this story to explain his…eccentricities. Now she needs to figure out, is he really a Patriot soldier? Or is he just confused…very confused? Also, is she falling for him??? Hmmm! Check it out! I may try to reread eventually. So I’ve always kept the book.

Well, this was a long one folks! Sorry about that! I hope you enjoyed it though and you’ve found at least 1 book that appealed to you! If you have any wonderful Christmas Time reads, please send me a tweet/DM/Comment down below. I’m always on the lookout! Also, please check out my instagram page for pics!! Until next time!!