It’s that time of year! Time for Hallmark Channel, Lifetime and Netflix Christmas holiday movies. And time for the best new Christmas novels, mysteries and romances to read for the 2022 holiday season, for everyone who loves fiction and books with a Christmas theme. We’ve rounded up the best new releases this year. Happy holiday reading!
the best new 2022 Christmas fiction and novels and books with a holiday theme
If you’re been waiting all year for the new Christmas novels, your time is now! This fall sees a sleigh full of new novels, all with a Christmas theme.
best new Christmas novels, mysteries and romances to read for the 2022 holiday season
Whether you’re heading to New York City to see the lights and shows, or to London for some shopping; or maybe to Nantucket for the Christmas Stroll, or off to Europe for the Christmas Markets, or just curling up at home, these will be great companions.
The best new Christmas novels, mysteries and romances to read for the 2021 holiday season, for everyone who loves fiction and books with a Christmas theme.
Here’s our roundup of the best new Christmas fiction for 2021. These 14 new 2021 books with a Christmas theme are sure to bring the spirit of the season home. They’d also be great gifts for friends and family who love the holidays as much as we do.
The Best New Christmas Novels this 2021 Holiday Season
1. Dear Santa by Debbie Macomber.
In Dear Santa, Lindy Carmichael isn’t feeling particularly joyful when she returns home to Wenatchee, Washington, for Christmas. The man she thought was “the one” has cheated on her with her best friend, and she feels completely devoid of creativity in her graphic-design job. Lindy’s mother, Ellen, remembers an old tradition that might lift her daughter’s spirits. Will reading through a box of childhood letters to Santa and reminiscing about what she’d wished for as a young girl be just the inspiration Lindy needs?
BUY NOW: $14.79.
2. Always, in December by Emily Stone.
Always, in December is one of the best new Christmas romances. Every December, Josie posts a letter from her home in London to the parents she lost on Christmas night many years ago. Each year, she writes the same three words: Missing you, always. But this year, her annual trip to the postbox is knocked off course by a bicycle collision with a handsome stranger–a stranger who will change the course of Josie’s life.
BUY NOW: $
3. The Christmas Village by Annie Rains.
In The Christmas Village, Annie Rains returns to Somerset Lake, North Carolina, with a Christmas story about a midwife and her ex-fiance who face high stakes when they must team up to compete in the neighborhood house decorating contest.
BUY NOW: $11.99.
4. Santa Cruise: A Festive and Fun Holiday Story by Fern Michaels.
In Santa Cruise, four lifelong friends embark on a holiday singles cruise. Nina, once the star of every school play, moved to Hollywood and landed a recurring role on a sitcom. Amy, fondly known as “the brains of the operation,” is now a Silicon Valley bioengineer. Outgoing and compassionate, Frankie works for a New York publishing house. Rachael, always the most boy-crazy of the crew, married—mostly to please her parents—but is now divorced. Over the course of one festive, unforgettable week, all four will set sail on surprising new adventures.
BUY NOW: $
5. The Christmas Promise by Richard Paul Evans.
On the night of her high school graduation, Richelle Bach’s father gives her and her identical twin sister, Michelle, matching opal necklaces. The two drift apart and years pass, until—at their father’s behest—they both come home for Christmas. What happens then damages their relationship, and Richelle vows never to see or speak to her sister again. In their father’s last days, he asks Richelle to forgive her sister. But soon its too late, as her twin is tragically lost. Now struggling to write a novel based on her sister, she meets a kind man struggling with his own loss and comes to understand that the story she’s writing is the one of her own life.
BUY NOW: $17.49.
6. A Christmas in the Alps by Melody Carlson.
Simone Winthrop discovers a tantalizing letter from her French great-grandmother, including a tantalizing hint that she is the heir to a family treasure. Urged on by her friends, she boards a jet to Paris at Christmastime to learn whether anything in the letter is true. On the flight she meets a charming apprentice clockmaker. When he shows up at her family’s factory, it’s time for a new adventure. After all, what better place to spend Christmas than in the French Alps?
BUY NOW: $14.53.
7. A Christmas Legacy by Anne Perry.
In A Christmas Legacy, the latest in the delightful series of Victorian-era holiday mysteries that appear each year, Charlotte and Thomas Pitt’s former maid goes undercover to save the job of a young woman whose mother was her close friend. Items are disappearing from the kitchen, and Grace is determined to out the culprit before her young friend is fired. What she discovers instead is a murder that is unfolding slowly in a household where everything is not as it seems.
BUY NOW: $17.99.
8. Best in Snow: An Andy Carpenter Mystery by David Rosenfelt.
In the Christmas mystery Best in Snow, the latest installment in a beloved series, New Jersey lawyer Andy Carpenter and his golden retriever, Tara, are on the beat again. A body turns up in the snow and a journalist is the prime suspect. The victim is Mayor Alex Oliva, who had a stormy relationship with the town newspaper and got one of its lead reporters fired just one year ago. As the snow falls, the clock keeps ticking on the urgent need to solve the case.
BUY NOW: $19.34.
9. The Twelve Jays of Christmas: A Meg Langslow Mystery by Donna Andrews.
This Christmas mystery series returns with The Twelve Jays of Christmas, in which a large family holiday sleepover takes a turn for the worst. Roderick Castlemayne, irascible wildlife artist, is parked in the family library creating twelve paintings of birds to illustrate a new nature book. He’s a most-wanted man: reporters, bill collectors, process servers, and several ex-wives in search of unpaid alimony are all clamoring at the door for him. Then someone murders Castlemayne in the middle of a blizzard and sets loose the birds he was painting. Can the family matriarch solve the mystery before the killer strikes again? Or will the chickens come home to roost this holiday?
BUY NOW: $23.49.
10. God Rest Ye, Royal Gentlemen (A Royal Spyness Mystery) by Rhys Bowen.
God Rest Ye, Royal Gentlemen is the newest entry in a best-selling series about a lady spy. Newlywed Georgie is summoned to spend Christmas in Sandringham at an estate near that of the Royal Family. The invitation proves to be more about work than play. Strange accidents – including the deaths of two gentlemen of the royal household and a bullet gone astray – demand an explanation. Is a member of the Royal Family the true target? And is Georgie’s new husband going to get caught in the crossfire?
BUY NOW: $19.44.
11. Twisted Tea Christmas (A Tea Shop Mystery) by Laura Childs.
In Twisted Tea Christmas, tea maven Theodosia Browning and her tea sommelier, Drayton Conneley, are catering a Victorian Christmas party at a swanky mansion in downtown Charleston. The host, a spry elderly woman, confides to them that she’s about to announce the distribution of her vast estate to a number of local charities. But before she can share the big news, someone silences her – permanently. Now the two experts will have to read the tea leaves to figure out whodunnit.
BUY NOW: $17.99.
12. Christmas Dessert Murder (A Hannah Swensen Mystery) by Joanne Fluke.
The new Christmas Dessert Murder collection features two classic mysteries set in Hannah Swensen’s Cookie Jar bakery in Lake Eden, Minnesota: Christmas Caramel Murder and Christmas Cake Murder. The “Queen of the Culinary Mystery” is serving up a delicious holiday read.
BUY NOW: $11.49.
13. Slashing Through the Snow: A Christmas Tree Farm Mystery by Jacqueline Frost.
Slashing Through the Snow sees Reindeer Games Christmas Tree Farm in snowy Maine going into the B&B business. It’s all holiday lights and sugar cookies until a new guest checks in. Cleo is a vicious B&B critic whose review could make or break the new inn. That is, until she turns up dead in the Christmas toy drive donation box. Now, its up to the entire family and their friends to put the holiday killer on ice before their Christmas goes up in flames.
BUY NOW: $24.49.
14. The Santa Suit by Mary Kay Andrews.
We wrap up our list of the best new fiction books book releases, including novels, mysteries and romances with a Christmas theme to read for the 2021 holiday with a fan favorite author. In the new novella The Santa Suit, newly-divorced Ivy Perkins buys an old farmhouse sight unseen.
BUY NOW: $13.38.
the best new books with a Christmas theme novels 2022
That’s it! Our picks of the best new books of fiction, including novels, mysteries and romances, with a Christmas theme this 2022 holiday season. What’s at the top of your list? Happy holidays – and happy reading!
