Cozy Up by the Fireplace With These Holiday Reads

Every year, four friends without holiday plans build their own outrageous, joy-packed Christmas together, until life starts tugging them onto separate tracks. Their tradition becomes the thing holding them steady as everything else shifts. It’s warm, witty and reads like a festive group chat you wish you were in.

Set in the beloved Winter Street Inn that’s run by a family with more holiday complications than a tangle of lights, this tale follows a season that unravels faster than wrapping paper on Christmas morning. Expect estranged spouses, love triangles and reunions that deliver peak “pass the cocoa, I’m invested now” energy.

Astra meets Jack inside a magical Christmas market that pops into Milwaukee once a year, only to learn he lives in a world where it’s always December... and visitors forget everything when it disappears. As she keeps returning, their connection gets deeper (and more complicated). It’s tender, charming and just the right kind of wonderfully weird.

When L.A. developer Bella Ross rolls into Maple Falls to buy the family Christmas shop, she meets Jesse Harrison, the grandson who refuses to sell. A festive wager pulls them into the town’s Holiday Games, along with a rivals-to-lovers spark that goes down easier than grandma's peppermint fudge.

When tree-farm owner Holly White gets pulled into a murder investigation during the town’s holiday festivities, her quiet season turns into a full-on festive fiasco. Suddenly she’s knee-deep in quirky suspects, relentless small-town gossip and holiday drama big enough to power the North Pole.

In the middle of her family’s annual Christmas getaway, Maelyn Jones finds herself stuck in a magical rewind that forces her to relive the holiday until she figures out what actually makes her happy. The result is a charming mix of romance, family mayhem and time-bending holiday magic.

When plus-size adult film star Bee Hobbes accidentally gets cast in a squeaky-clean Christmas movie, she ends up working alongside her former crush, now an ex–boy band member in desperate need of career rehab. Between secret identities and on-set hijinks, it’s a festive rom-com that’s equal parts sweet, spicy and joyfully unhinged.

When Luther and Nora Krank decide to skip the holidays entirely and escape on a sunny cruise, their plan sends their Christmas-obsessed neighborhood into a tailspin. What follows is a hilarious cascade of suburban peer pressure and holiday guilt trips, all simmering under twinkle lights they refuse to hang.

After losing her job, Carmen is sent to Edinburgh to help revive a crumbling old bookshop, only to find it’s in even worse shape than her résumé. Between dusty shelves, a grumpy-but-lovable bookseller and a city that feels like a snow globe, she stumbles into a little romance and a lot of unexpected purpose.

Sedaris recounts his experience working as a Macy’s Christmas elf with the kind of dry humor that could melt snow. Sharp, insightful and wildly relatable, his stories offer a holiday perspective you won’t find in any cozy rom-com. It's the perfect palate cleanser for when you need a break from sentimentality and want your holiday cheer served with a side of sarcasm.