Come along, dear reader, and let us venture together into that most peculiar corner of the bookshelf where tinsel meets the twilight and holiday cheer dances with supernatural wonder. For there exists a special sort of magic—neither quite Christmas nor entirely fantastical—but something altogether more delicious when the two are stirred together like cocoa and cream.
These are the holiday urban fantasy novels that await you, each one a door to a world where the familiar comfort of the season meets the thrilling unknown.
Hogfather by Terry Pratchett
Now, here is a tale that understands something very important indeed—that believing in small things, like jolly gift-givers riding pigs through the sky, teaches us to believe in larger ones, like justice and hope.
When the Hogfather himself goes missing on the Discworld’s most beloved night, Death (yes, that Death, with the scythe and the horse named Binky) must don the red suit and deliver presents. His granddaughter Susan, a most sensible young governess who has inherited certain family peculiarities, must solve the mystery before dawn.
Pratchett gives us wit sharp enough to cut through any humbug, wrapped in a warmth that sneaks up on you quite unexpectedly. It is funny and clever and heartwarming—everything one hopes to find beneath the tree.
The Stupidest Angel by Christopher Moore
Here is Christopher Moore’s magnificently absurd gift to the holiday season—a tale that asks what might happen if Heaven sent its least competent angel to grant a child’s Christmas wish.
Young Josh witnesses what he believes to be Santa’s murder in the small California town of Pine Cove. When the well-meaning but spectacularly dim-witted angel Raziel attempts to bring Santa back, he accidentally raises all the dead in the local cemetery as zombies instead. What follows is chaos of the most entertaining variety—undead holiday shoppers, a sword-wielding actress with a tenuous grip on reality, and a talking fruit bat.
Moore won the Quill Award for this heartwarming tale of Christmas terror, and one understands why. It is pacy, sharp-witted, and absolutely barmy in the best possible way.
Wolfsbane and Mistletoe edited by Charlaine Harris
Let us face a peculiar truth, shall we? The holidays can bring out the beast in anyone—particularly if one happens to be a lycanthrope.
This anthology, assembled by the creator of Sookie Stackhouse herself, offers fifteen original tales where werewolves and Christmas collide most unexpectedly. Patricia Briggs, Carrie Vaughn, and Charlaine Harris herself contribute stories ranging from funny to genuinely eerie. Harris’s own “Gift Wrap” brings us back to Sookie’s world for holiday adventures, while other tales explore what it means to find one’s pack during the season of togetherness.
The expertise of these wolfish authors creates a collection that runs the gamut from comedic to creepy—a little something for every taste, as they say.
The Lost Child of Lychford by Paul Cornell
In the cozy English village of Lychford, three witches—Autumn, Lizzie, and Judith—guard the borders between our world and stranger realms. This Christmas novella finds Reverend Lizzie preparing for her first Christmas service when a ghostly boy appears and peculiar things begin happening at the church.
Paul Cornell (whom you may know from Doctor Who and Marvel Comics) weaves together fast-paced mystery and genuine existential chills. Publishers Weekly noted his wry humor and atmospheric English countryside—disarming readers with magic and danger lurking just beneath the festive surface. It is, as one reviewer perfectly described, “the literary equivalent of a Christmas-special episode of a television show.”
Curl up by the fire with this one, dear reader. It gets deliciously dark indeed.
The Sugar Queen by Sarah Addison Allen
If you find yourself susceptible to the charms of holiday films on certain television channels, here is the book for you—magical realism set in a small North Carolina ski resort town where snowflakes fall and the air smells perpetually of peppermint.
Josey has hidden herself away in her mother’s house with nothing but sweets and romance novels for company—until a local waitress appears in her closet and turns her narrow existence upside down. She befriends Chloe, a young woman to whom books magically appear whenever she needs them most. Soon Josey discovers a world where eggs fry in their cartons from passion and the color red holds startling powers.
It is a lovely, heartwarming read—perfect for winter, brimming with female friendship, second chances, and just enough enchantment to make the ordinary feel extraordinary.
A Lot Like Christmas by Connie Willis
The Science Fiction Hall of Famer and seven-time Nebula winner offers twelve brilliantly reimagined holiday tales in this expanded collection. Here you will find the Spirit of Christmas Future working as a bookstore clerk, aliens who respond only to Christmas carols, and snow falling miraculously everywhere at once.
Willis embraces and gently sends up our finest Christmas traditions—the dreaded holiday newsletter, Secret Santas gone wrong, and office parties of legendary awkwardness. Kirkus Reviews called it perfect for those seeking to get into the holiday spirit, while Publishers Weekly deemed it a perfect stocking stuffer for fans of humorous speculative fiction.
There is humor, love, capers, dancers, alien invasions, time travel, and abundant Christmas spirit. What more could one want?
Holidays Are Hell (Anthology)
Four masterful authors—Kim Harrison, Lynsay Sands, Marjorie M. Liu, and Vicki Pettersson—each tackle a different holiday with supernatural flair. Kim Harrison contributes a Hollows novella featuring a solstice séance gone demonically wrong, giving fans of Rachel Morgan delightful backstory while welcoming newcomers to her clever world.
The collection spans from Halloween ghosts to super-powered Thanksgiving to blood-chilling New Year’s revelry. Harrison proves herself, as always, a wonderfully clever writer who introduces supernatural elements without awkward explanations—simply inviting you into worlds where such things are quite ordinary.
All I Want for Christmas Is a Vampire by Kerrelyn Sparks
For those seeking romance with their holiday fangs, this fifth book in the Love at Stake series offers a Scottish vampire hero nearly five centuries old (though he looks a dashing twenty-seven) and a heroine determined to prove vampires exist to free her institutionalized friend.
Sparks delivers humor and romance with precisely the right amount of heat. There are male vampires in Santa suits, laugh-out-loud moments aplenty, and the sort of passion that will warm you on the coldest December night. If you desire a book that leaves you grinning beside a warm fire, this witty paranormal romance delivers handsomely.
Jingle Spells (CyberWitch Press Anthology)
This feel-good holiday collection gathers witch-themed tales ranging from a witch hunt at the winter solstice to a Christmas dinner nearly ruined by an imp. Within these pages, a sparkly pair of shoes holds one woman’s destiny, and holiday magic takes delightfully unexpected forms.
Short, enchanting, and perfect for reading between wrapping presents and decorating trees—these stories capture the cozier side of supernatural Christmas celebrations.
Your Magical Holiday Reading List
There you have it, dear reader—a treasury of books where the supernatural and the seasonal intertwine like fairy lights around a banister. Whether you prefer your holidays with zombies or werewolves, witches or vampires, philosophical meditations on belief or pure comedic chaos, there exists here a book waiting to become your new Christmas tradition.
For the magic of the holidays, you see, is not so very different from the magic in these pages. Both ask us to believe in impossible things, to find wonder in the familiar, and to let ourselves be transported somewhere extraordinary.
Happy reading, and happy holidays. May your cocoa be warm and your books be enchanting.
