The following is a list of literary works which are set at Christmastime, or contain Christmas amongst the central themes.
Novels and novellas
- Cecelia Ahern, The Gift
- Kingsley Amis, Ending Up
- Howard Bahr, Pelican Road
- Max Brand, The Boy Who Found Christmas
- Max Brand, Fortune's Christmas
- Max Brand, The Man Who Forgot Christmas
- Agatha Christie, Hercule Poirot's Christmas
- Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol
- Charles Dickens, The Chimes
- Charles Dickens, The Cricket on the Hearth
- Charles Dickens, The Battle of Life
- Charles Dickens, The Haunted Man and The Ghost's Bargain
- Lloyd C. Douglas, Home for Christmas
- Alexandre Dumas, Histoire d’un casse-noisette
- Janet Evanovich, Visions of Sugar Plums
- Frederick Forsyth, The Shepherd
- Jostein Gaarder, The Christmas Mystery
- John Grisham, Skipping Christmas
- Anne Holt, Fear Not
- Maureen Johnson, John Green and Lauren Myracle, Let It Snow
- C. S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe
- Christopher Moore, The Stupidest Angel: A Heartwarming Tale of Christmas Terror
- Sarah Morgan, Moonlight over Manhattan
- Sarah Morgan, Christmas ever after
- Sarah Morgan, Maybe this Christmas
- Angela Thirkell, High Rising
- Anthony Trollope, Harry Heathcote of Gangoil
Short stories
- Hans Christian Andersen, "The Fir-Tree"
- Wolfgang Borchert, The three dark kings (Die drei dunklen Könige)
- Truman Capote, "A Christmas Memory" (published in Mademoiselle)
- Truman Capote, "One Christmas"
- John Cheever, "Christmas is a Sad Season for the Poor"
- Peter Cheyney, Christmas With a Punch
- Agatha Christie, The Adventure of the Christmas Pudding
- Agatha Christie, A Christmas Tragedy
- Wayne Curtis, Sleigh Tracks in the Snow: Maritime Christmas Stories
- Fyodor Dostoevsky, "A Christmas Tree and a Wedding"
- Fyodor Dostoevsky, The Christmas Tree of Christ
- Fyodor Dostoevsky, "The Beggar Boy at Christ's Christmas Tree" (Mal'chik u Khrista na yolke) (from A Writer's Diary)
- Arthur Conan Doyle, "The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle"
- Neil Gaiman, Nicholas Was
- Nikolai Gogol, "Christmas Eve" (from Evenings on a Farm Near Dikanka)
- O. Henry, The Gift of the Magi
- E. T. A. Hoffmann, "Nussknacker und Mausekönig" (The Nutcracker and the Mouse King)
- Robert E. Howard, "Golden Hope" Christmas
- Arthur Machen, A New Christmas Carol
- Ruben Saillens, "Le Père Martin"
- Frank R. Stockton, The Great Staircase at Landover Hall
- Frank R. Stockton, Old Applejoy's Ghost
- Leo Tolstoy, "Papa Panov's Special Christmas" (translation of Saillens)
- Dylan Thomas, A Child's Christmas in Wales
- Philip Van Doren Stern, The Greatest Gift
- Kurt Vonnegut, While Mortals Sleep (book of short stories)
- Edgar Wallace, Christmas Eve at the China Dog
- Stanley Waterloo, Christmas 200,000 BC
Children's
- L. Frank Baum, The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus
- Cornelia Funke, When Santa Fell to Earth
- Dr. Seuss, How the Grinch Stole Christmas
- Astrid Lindgren, Brenda Brave Helps Grandmother (Kajsa Kavat hjälper mormor)
- Astrid Lindgren, A Calf for Christmas (När Bäckhultarn for till stan)
- Astrid Lindgren, Christmas in Noisy Village (Jul i Bullerbyn)
- Astrid Lindgren, Christmas in the Stable (Jul i stallet)
- Astrid Lindgren, Lotta’s Christmas Surprise (Visst är Lotta en glad unge)
- Astrid Lindgren, Pippi’s After-Christmas Party (Pippi Långstrump har julgransplundring)
- Astrid Lindgren, The Runaway Sleigh Ride (Titta Madicken, det snöar!)
- Astrid Lindgren, The Tomten (Tomte är vaken)
- Astrid Lindgren, The Tomten and the Fox (Räven och Tomten)
- Ogden Nash, The Christmas that Almost Wasn't
Poetry
- "Old Santeclaus with Much Delight"
- Clement Clarke Moore, "Twas the Night Before Christmas" (originally published as "A Visit from St. Nick")
- Anne Sexton, Christmas Eve
- George Robert Sims, Christmas Day in the Workhouse
- T. S. Eliot, "The Cultivation of Christmas Trees"
- T. S. Eliot, "Journey of the Magi"
- Viktor Rydberg, Tomten
Collections
- Sabine Campbell (ed.), Home for Christmas: Stories from the Maritimes and Newfoundland
- Walter Learning (ed.), Gifts to Last: Christmas Stories from the Maritimes and Newfoundland
- J. R. R. Tolkien, Letters from Father Christmas
- Charles Dickens, A Christmas Tree
- Anthony Trollope, Christmas at Thompson Hall
Nonfiction
- Francis Pharcellus Church, "Yes, Virginia, there is a Santa Claus" (newspaper editorial)