Between the shopping and the wrapping and the decorating and the baking and the parties, the holiday concerts and plays at schools, the mad idea you get two days before Christmas to bake artisanal sourdough bread for all of your neighbors (just me?)—in the midst of all the hustle and bustle of December, it gets difficult to find reading time. Even though reading by the Christmas tree with a mug of your favorite holiday beverage might just be the best thing a book lover can do in December. Short stories to the rescue!

Holiday Reading for the Harried and Frenzied

One of the awesome things about a collection of short stories is that you don’t have to read the whole book and yet you still get that satisfying sense of having finished something. So any one of these books are great to have around when you arrive at a little block of solitude in the midst of your holiday festivities. Pick it up, read a story, resume wrapping. Happy reading!

10 Short Stories for the Holidays

Holiday Short Stories | Librarian List

Holidays on Ice

By David Sedaris
Adult Fiction

Festive and funny!


Holiday Short Stories | Librarian List

Christmas Days: 12 Stories and 12 Feasts for 12 Days

By Jeanette Winterson
Adult Fiction

Novelist Winterson writes a short story every December; twelve of them are collected here, along with twelve recipes.


Holiday Short Stories | Librarian List

Letters from Father Christmas

By J. R. R. Tolkein
Adult Fiction

Not exactly short stories in their purest form, but still excellent fun: the letters Tolkein wrote in Father Christmas’s voice to his children, full of adventure and battles and winter-coated animals.


Holiday Short Stories | Librarian List

My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories

By Stephanie Perkins
Adult Nonfiction

This is a collection of holiday stories written by popular young adult authors.


Holiday Short Stories | Librarian List

A Lot Like Christmas: Stories

By Connie Willis
Adult Fiction

Even Willis’s introduction to her collection of Christmas stories is excellent. (“The Christmas-story writer has to walk a narrow tightrope between sentiment and skepticism, and most writers end up falling off into either cynicism or mawkish sappiness.”)


Holiday Short Stories | Librarian List

A Christmas Memory; One Christmas; and The Thanksgiving Visitor

By Truman Capote
Adult Fiction

At long last you will understand fruitcake.


Holiday Short Stories | Librarian List

The Mistletoe Murder: and Other Stories

By P. D. James
Adult Fiction

Four holiday-themed murder mysteries by the Queen of Crime.


Holiday Short Stories | Librarian List

The Usual Santas: A Collection of Soho Crime Christmas Capers

By Various Authors
Adult Nonfiction

This anthology brings together crime, thriller, and mystery writers who explore Christmas across the world.


Holiday Short Stories | Librarian List

Christmas Stories

By Diane Secker Tesdell
Adult Nonfiction

An anthology of classic Christmas stories, with authors ranging from Charles Dickens to Richard Ford, includes the original “The Night Before Christmas” tale.


Holiday Short Stories | Librarian List

The Dreaded Feast: Writers on Enduring the Holidays

By Michele Clarke and Taylor Plimpton
Adult Nonfiction

OK, this one is essays, not stories, but still: sardonic and bitter and endearing writing that explores the tension that can build up on a holiday.

Written by Amy, Reference Librarian