The Holiday Romance Industrial Complex
'tis the season for smut
Hello, friends, and happy holidays! I don’t know about you, but I’m looking forward to doing a lot of reading while wrapped in a blanket and drinking a hot chocolate. It’s finally chilly in Austin and it’s been a long year. I want to be cozy.
Looking at the proliferation of holiday romance novels flooding the market, I think that’s a popular sentiment. But are they flooding BookTok? Not as much as you’d think. Let’s dive in.
A Timeline of Recent Holiday Reading
Over the past few years, there has been an absolute explosion of holiday romances - some of the first I read were Jenny Holiday’s Christmas in Eldovia series (cute!). This aligned with the moment that Hallmark Christmas movies broke containment and spread across platforms. Netflix’s The Princess Switch was released in 2018 and their holiday releases have only snowballed from there (heh).
This year, there are holiday movies across platforms - too many for one single festive elf to watch. Like Taylor and Travis? Watch Lifetime’s absolutely unhinged Christmas in the Spotlight. Like the Chiefs? Watch Hallmark’s Holiday Touchdown. Miss Lindsay Lohan? Watch Netflix’s Our Little Secret. And on, and on. (Side note - if you’re looking for a fun holiday romance, one of my favorites of recent years was Round and Round, a Hanukkah time loop romance).
But if you watch a few of these movies, you’ll notice how shockingly chaste they are. Even on Netflix, the platform that produces Bridgerton! And romance novels have finally stepped in to fill that gap.
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Of course, none of this is really new - my copy of A Wallflower Christmas by Lisa Kleypas can attest to that. And just look at the books included in this TikTok:
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Nicholas Sparks! Elin Hilderbrand! Mary Kay Andrews! Kristin Hannah! None of these authors, save Kristin Hannah, are really BookTok stalwarts. And then Brady veers into BookTok territory - Big Nick Energy is pretty representative of the punny, spicy kind of book you might expect when thinking about a BookTok Christmas read. The holiday book landscape contains multitudes and crosses genres.
As I discussed earlier this year, BookTok saw a big shift towards seasonal reading focused on the fall and halloween - The Pumpkin Spice Cafe (and now the third book in the series, The Christmas Tree Farm) is one of the most popular books of the year. But I definitely saw more videos about autumnal reading on my FYP than I have about holiday season reading.
Just How Long is a Novella Supposed to Be, Actually?
Having embarked on a quest to read some of the holiday romances I was seeing shared on BookTok and in Kindle Unlimited, I immediately noticed something. I started with Ali Hazelwood’s Cruel Winter with You on a night when I just wanted something reliably entertaining. The novella is one of five in a collection called Under the Mistletoe, published and packaged by Amazon Original Stories. The other authors included are some of the heavy hitters of current contemporary romance: Tessa Bailey, Olivia Dade, Alexandria Bellefleur, and Alexis Daria. Interestingly, Amazon is calling these short stories in their marketing copy, which is perhaps more accurate.
I really enjoyed Cruel Winter with You, a very classic Ali Hazelwood story about a tech genius who has been pining for his older sister’s best friend for years, but it was only 72 pages long. Sure, the premise wasn’t that deep, but I would’ve liked to spend more time with these characters.
And then I moved on to Lauren Asher’s My December Darling, and that’s when the real confusion began. This novella (and it is indeed being marketed as a novella), is one of the new holiday reads that I’ve been seeing the most in BookTok videos on my FYP for the past month (along with Meghan Quinn’s How My Neighbor Stole Christmas, which we’ll get to in a minute). It is 243 pages long. That’s a full novel! But as romance novels have gotten longer and longer over the past few years, has our definition of a novella changed? The second “novella” I picked up was also 250 pages and didn’t complete the main couple’s story, so I’m guessing yes.
Interestingly enough, even at 243 pages, My December Darling felt like a novella to me. The plot and characters were fairly thin, and it was lacking in some of the atmospheric scene setting that I think people are looking for in a holiday romance. I appreciated that Lauren Asher highlighted Puerto Rican Christmas traditions that I was less familiar with, but I wanted more - more description, more depth, more vibes. I kind of assumed this one was an extension of an existing series, which might’ve been why I didn’t connect with the characters quite as much, but it seems like a standalone.
For a different perspective, we can turn to BookToker Yana:
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I think it’s worth noting that none of what she likes about this novella is Christmas related? Maybe I would have enjoyed this more if my expectations hadn’t been set for something it didn’t deliver on. Which leads me to…
Small Town Romance, Holly Jolly Series Starters, and Brand Extensions
We’re living through another small town romance boom, which is also mostly a cowboy romance boom, which is secretly a single dad romance boom. And guess what? There are a lot of holiday romances set in cozy, idyllic small towns about single dads this year. So why isn’t there an Elsie Silver Christmas romance? It’s because she doesn’t need one.
Let me explain. The phenomenon of the Christmas novella can be a good way to remind readers of your existing series and characters with an epilogue style novella about beloved characters, it can be a way to ease readers into a new series with a Christmas-y hook, or it can just be an easy way to market a standalone and try to grab new readers. It’s savvy marketing.
So while Elsie Silver readers might like a Rose Hills Christmas book, she’s doing pretty well already. But here are just a few of the small town romances I’m seeing on my FYP.
The Christmas Fix by Lucy Score is set in Merry, Connecticut in the aftermath of a hurricane and features a grumpy single dad who is also the city manager.
The aforementioned Big Nick Energy features a single mom.
There aren’t any single dads in How My Neighbor Stole Christmas, Amazon’s #1 best seller this week, but it is set in a small, Christmas-themed town. And who knew people loved the Grinch so much? This is the new Christmas romance I’ve seen the most across BookTok.
I’m currently reading (and so far, enjoying) Once Upon a Christmas Tree, a series starter novella (220 pages) set in the “small Christmas town” of Aspen. It’s about 4 British brothers, the sons of a wealthy duke, who escape to Aspen after the eldest calls off his wedding. It ends on a cliffhanger and the books that really start the series aren’t being released until September 2025. Annoying! Also, guess what? One of the brothers is a single dad and (SPOILERS) this book appears to end in an accidental pregnancy cliffhanger.
Finally, as always, every sub genre has a dark romance offshoot:
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A Few of My Favorite Things
All of that said, here are a few of my personal favorite holiday romances of the past few years, well worth an annual re-read or a trip to a fireplace just so you can read in front of it. And please let me know what yours are in the comments! I’m already stockpiling for my week at home for Christmas.
-In a Holidaze: This Christina Lauren classic is a friends to lovers time loop romance that also has a dose of found family feelings. I don’t even like time loops that much (although I’ve recommended two here I guess) but I LOVE this book. The characters are so warm and the setting is so cozy.
-Holiday Romance by Catherine Walsh: Despite the SEO-bait title, this is an extremely charming romance about friends who have always sat next to each other on the plane home to Ireland for Christmas. But when a snowstorm threatens their ability to get home, they fall in love as they desperately try to make it back for the holidays. Lots of banter, very sweet.
-Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone’s Christmas Notch Series: This year I finally started reading this series, which is basically about porn stars and ex-boy band members making Hallmark Christmas movies in a small Vermont town. Hilarious, sexy, fun, and cozy. And there’s 3 novels and a novella!
Next up on my TBR: Let Your Hearts Be Light by Fae Quinn, a small town romance about TWO single dads who fall in love. And Ally Carter’s The Most Wonderful Crime of the Year.
Imaginary Celebrity Book Club
This isn’t an idea for a celebrity book club, but rather a plea to one of the many streamers and production companies out there: please adapt some spicy Christmas romances. Please! I want to see a holiday movie where the protagonists kiss more than once in the last thirty seconds. Is that too much to ask? Look at all of the incredible material you have available to you already!
And it can’t be one where the FMC is secretly a ghost. I don’t want to learn a sad lesson about the meaning of Christmas, I want to watch a rom com with a festive backdrop. I will watch While You Were Sleeping a million times, but I’d love another movie to add to the rotation. I am not alone in this! Ho, ho, ho, call me.
Such a great piece and list of holiday books! I added two to my KU library as I was reading. :D Two single dads? Yes please. A demon for (non-existent) Christmas? Hahah sign me up!
There are actually two novellas in the Christmas Notch series, the second one is Addison Rae and Isaac’s bodyguard and it’s called Seas and Greetings (I think). Also, I LOVE A Wallflower Christmas. I love that you referenced it!