5 Fantastic Christmas Books for Young Adults
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Recently, I was trying to choose a new book for my daughter’s book club. We will meet in December, so I thought a Christmas book club sounded like a fun festive idea. I researched Christmas books for young adults and was honestly a little disappointed.
So many of the books were just romance stories that happen to be set at Christmastime. That is fine, but I wanted a few more options. The girls in my daughter’s book club were not interested in reading a holiday romance.
Here are the Christmas books for young adults that we considered reading this holiday season.
Christmas Books for Young Adults
The Afterlife of Holly Chase by Cynthia Hand
Last update on 2026-09-16 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Spoiler alert – this is the book we ended up choosing for my daughter’s December book club.
This book puts a unique spin on the traditional Christmas book, A Christmas Carol by Dickens.
Holly Chase is a spoiled seventeen-year-old. Her stepmother dies during plastic surgery. A few months later, her stepmother returns on Christmas Eve to warn Holly that she is about to be visited by 3 ghosts – the ghosts of Christmas Past, Christmas Present, and Christmas Future.
Like Scrooge, she is given the opportunity to change her ways. Unlike Scrooge, she continues to live her rude, self-indulgent life.
A week later, there is a freak accident, and Holly dies an untimely death. In her afterlife, she is drafted into working for Project Scrooge. If she is given a second chance, will she take it?
The Gift of the Magi by O. Henry
Last update on 2026-09-16 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
The Gift of the Magi is a classic Christmas short story. I read this story years ago when I was in high school. It is one of those tales that sticks with you for quite a while.
A young married couple is preparing for Christmas, but they don’t have enough money. Each person secretly decides to make a sacrifice in order to provide the other with a gift. Unfortunately, their individual sacrifices have made their gifts useless.
This discovery causes the couple to really discover what is important – being with someone you love.
Turn this Christmas short story into a lesson with these activities for The Gift of the Magi:
Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares by Rachel Cohn
Last update on 2026-09-16 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Okay, technically this is a young adult Christmas romance novel, but it feels like more than that.
Dash and Lily are two teenagers living in New York City. Lily has left a notebook full of dares hidden, just waiting for the right person to come along and want to play. Dash finds the notebook, and they begin completing dares and writing notes to each other. They leave the book around the city, and they each find it as sort of a personal scavenger hunt.
This book has been turned into a Netflix show.
This book is part of a series, so teens can keep reading about these characters if they want to see what happens later.
Last update on 2026-09-16 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
Holiday Princess is part of the Princess Diaries series.
The country of Genovia is preparing for all sorts of winter holidays. How do royalty spend their holidays? Some of their celebrations might seem familiar (hot cocoa with marshmallows) while others are a bit unique (Fabergé Advent calendar).
It is quite short at less than 150 pages, so it is a quick read for times when you are a bit crunched for time.
Related: The Princess Diaries Book Club Guide
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
Last update on 2026-09-16 / Affiliate links / Images from Amazon Product Advertising API
A Christmas Carol is another classic holiday book.
I knew I had to include it on my list of Christmas books for young adults because there are so many activities to complement this choice. Teens can:
- Watch any of the A Christmas Carol movies
- Watch The Man Who Invented Christmas (It is the story of how Dickens came to write A Christmas Carol.)
- Take part in the self-paced online A Christmas Carol book club
We have read this book as a family several times over the years.
Keep reading . . .
- Unique Christmas Activities for Teens
- Advent Calendar Activities for Teens
- December Homeschool Activities
- Christmas Chapter Books for Family Read Alouds
- How to Start a Homeschool Book Club
- Awesome Christmas Homeschool Activities
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