The season of Christmas is upon us, and it is a season of the year that has inspired the setting of many iconic pieces of literature. The religious iconography of the holiday symbolizes themes of rebirth, renewal, sacrifice, forgiveness, grace, and the archetypal character of the chosen one. But even more than that, Christmas is a holiday that brings people together, and many authors write about their fond memories of this time shared with loved ones while others focus on those less fortunate who suffer the terrible fate of poverty or homelessness.
The following list of novels, novellas, short stories, and poems represent some of the most well-known and most beloved Christmas stories ever written. This is a great list to help inspire your final literature units leading up to the holiday break. You could even give this list to your students and allow them the freedom to choose pieces to read for book club. This is an excellent list to use alongside your ELA curriculum.
50 Pieces of Literature about Christmas
Novels, Novellas, Collections, & Long Poems
1. A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
2. Papa Panov’s Special Christmas by Leo Tolstoy
3. Jane Austen’s Christmas: The Festive Season in Georgian England
4. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Simon Armitage
5. Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
6. Holidays on Ice by Dave Sedaris
7. Wishin’ and Hopin’, A Christmas Story by Wally Lamb
8. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
9. A Prayer for Owen Meany by John Irving
10. Old Christmas by Washington Irving
19. “Last Christmas of the War” by Primo Levi
20. “At Christmas Time” by Anton Chekhov
21. “Christmas Eve in War Times” by Edward Payson Roe
22. “A Burglar’s Christmas” by Willa Cather
23. “Christmas is a Sad Season for the Poor” by John Cheever
24. “The Night Before Christmas” by Nikolai Gogol
26. “A Worn Path” by Eudora Welty
27. “The Little Match Girl” by Hans Christian Andersen
30. “A Kidnapped Santa Clause” by L. Frank Baum
31. “Bertie’s Christmas Eve” by Saki
32. “How Santa Claus Came to Simpson’s Bar” by Bret Harte
33. “A Letter from Santa Clause” by Mark Twain
34. “The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle” by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
35. “Christmas Day in the Morning” by Pearl S. Buck
36. "The Holy Night" by Selma Lagerlof
Poems
39. “Journey of the Magi” by TS Eliot
40. “Christmastide” by H.P. Lovecraft
41. “Christmas Trees” by Robert Frost
42. “Christmas Bells” by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
43. “Christmas in India” by Rudyard Kipling
44. “Christmas Eve” by Anne Sexton
45. “A Child’s Christmas in Wales” by Dylan Thomas
46. “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” by Clement Clarke Moore
47. “On the Morning of Christ’s Nativity” by John Milton
48. “For the Time Being: A Christmas Oratorio” by W.H. Auden
49. “The Death of the Old Year” by Lord Alfred Tennyson
50. “A Visit from St. Nicholas” by Clement C. Moor