2016 Holiday Books & Celebration

In previous years, I have really cozied up in the holiday season and done a lot of Christmassy reading. I absolutely love letting the snow fall outside and reading holiday books with a nice cup of hot chocolate. I am a very indoorsy person during the winter months, let me tell you. As always, I have to include a TBR post for this holiday season and share what I plan on doing on the blog. I like to read and review the books quickly so you may have some recommendations before it’s too late. (Most of my reviews are scheduled weeks or months out, which wouldn’t help you read holiday books during the actual holidays.) You can see past TBRs, readathons, and wintery graphics from 2014 and 2015 if you’re curious.

---

I love featuring holiday-themed reviews that start at the end of November and end before New Year’s. I hope it gives people enough of a shot to get some last-minute holiday recommendations while they’re in the mood! I started a new holiday cheer-o-meter feature last year, where I rate the book on how much holiday-related cheer and feels it brings to the table. Some books I read are more winter-focused while others are full-on Christmas stories. I also include a little graphic to tell you quickly the holidays that are involved in the story. If you’re looking for something more specific, I’ve got you covered.

In each review, I want to let you know just how holiday-oriented the story is, as well as which holidays are involved. I know I mostly read Christmas stories, but there may be some others tossed in that I’m not aware of at the time! These extra parts of the review let you know what to expect hopefully. I wanted to use the same system as last year but revamped it a little bit. Now it’s the holiday cheer-o-meter! It only has four categories instead of five. I just really had no need for that many since most books fall into one of these broad categories…

Full-on holiday cheer
Level 4

The book is jam-packed with holiday things. It’s easily the main focus of the book, drives the whole plot, and gives you huge holiday feels. Grab your hot chocolate and stare at the snow fall!

Big part of the plot
Level 3

This level involves quite a bit of holiday planning and/or activities, but there are other plotlines and issues that are more central to the story.

Some holiday feels
Level 2

There are references to the holidays, or maybe it mostly takes place on a holiday, but there are not too many major ~holiday things~ going on.

Only wintery
Level 1

This book takes place in the wintertime and gives you those cozy, cold-weather vibes for sure. There aren’t any holidays to be seen.

I’ll have little graphics for the holidays themselves as well. I would love to see Hanukkah in one of my books but I’m not sure that any on my TBR involve it? Regardless, I wanted to include it just in case! I’ll be mostly reading Christmas books, but I feel like some will also be winter-oriented or have New Year’s involved too (I hope you can tell that’s mistletoe because you kiss on New Years. Why is there no ball-dropping graphic I could have used?).

---

Of course, this wouldn’t be a holiday-related post without me showing you what books I’m thinking of reading! I definitely don’t think I’ll get to all of these, but I feel like there’s a good mix here to choose from. There are some new releases, some older ones, some winter-oriented, some YA, some adult, and some novellas. I recently came across more (after putting the graphic together) so we’ll see what ends up on my nightstand.

Mistletoe and Mr. Right by Lyla Payne // Winter Street by Elin Hilderbrand // All I Want for Christmas by Jenny Hale // Top Ten Clues You’re Clueless by Liz Czukas // The Twelve Days of Dash and Lily by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan // What Light by Jay Asher // Mistletoe and Magnolias by Kristi Cook // Make a Christmas Wish by Julie Williams // Snowflakes on Silver Cove by Holly Martin // Blame it on the Mistletoe by Nicole Michaels // Love on the Lifts by Rachel Hawthorne // Season of Second Chances by Brighton Walsh

Related Posts