December is finally here! Christmas is just weeks away, and it’s the perfect time to sit back and immerse yourself in all things related to this festive holiday. Readers everywhere are preparing to indulge in hopeful romances, heartwarming dramas, and sentimental family stories. 

This blog will explore four titles published by Sunbury Press Inc. that deal with notions of the highly-anticipated holiday. Between ruminations on Christmas’s ties to religion, musings on holiday traditions, moving tales about Christmas through the eyes of a child, and the cost of greed, this list includes themes bound to pull you in. Grab a mug of hot cocoa, plug in those Christmas lights, and prepare to greet this season’s wonderful lineup of books.

1. (Scriptoria Press) Bramblemas by Bob Ford: A collection of writings focused on Advent, Christmas, Christmastide, and Epiphany, Bramblemas aims to create a larger discourse about the holiday season. The book can be read as a devotional, and whether readers are secular or religious, they will read about numerous issues surrounding Christmas, including the fact that no one knows for sure when Jesus was born. It will grapple with the idea that an annual holiday symbolizing the celebration of eternity is so often associated with toys, gifts, cookies, and sweaters.
2. (Brown Posey Press) My Christmas Attic by Dennis M. Clausen: Growing up, all most children want for the holidays is for Christmas to last forever, and that’s exactly what the main character, Jake Jennings, wants to create in this brilliant novel. Jake must navigate dyslexia and the loss of his father, a soldier missing in action during the Korean War. In the family’s attic, Jake develops an imaginary world where his dream of an ever-lasting Christmas can be his reality. However, his mother grows worried that he will lose touch with the real world, and she takes Jake to Dr. Elway, a child reading specialist. Dr. Elway encourages Jake to see his dyslexia as a blessing, and the result might give way to unseen truths. Readers have declared My Christmas Attic “an enchanting book” and a “classical seasonal saga.”
3. (Sunbury Press) Beagle Tales Christmas by Bob Ford: Everyone has their own Christmas traditions, and Bob Ford’s collection of holiday stories covers a plethora of well-known holiday practices. He provides humorous interpretations of the traditions of making Christmas cookies, shopping for gifts, and exchanging holiday cards. There’s even mention of Santa’s fear of flying over Pennsylvania on a sleigh pulled by a deer with massive antlers and a figure from German holiday folklore. This is a gem you won’t want to miss out on.
4. (Milford House Press) The Devil’s Palm by Bob Knapp: This isn’t your run-of-the-mill happy holiday novel; instead, The Devil’s Palm uses the holiday season as a backdrop for this crime/thriller. Terrance Fowlkes is a power-hungry West Virginia sheriff who seeks to build an illegal casino on a section of the countryside owned by old-timer Andy Mehrhaus. Fowlkes and his deputy goons resort to violence to achieve their goal, running Mehrhaus over in the middle of the night. After overtaking the property, Fowlkes battles locals who block the construction of the so-called family resort. Just when Fowlkes thinks the path is clear, community leader Michael Hanover stands in his way, that is, until Hanover is presumably fatally wounded. The selfish sheriff then builds the casino, only to fall victim to the curse of the Devil’s Palm on Christmas Eve, the day of the resort’s grand opening.

As we descend deeper into the last month of the year, allow these engaging and thought-provoking reads to enrich your holiday season. Let yourself consider perspectives you might not have otherwise discovered, enjoy the story of a young boy’s love for Christmas, or find out how an evil protagonist meets his demise on Christmas Eve.  

Thank you for checking out our list of “Heavy-Hitting Holiday Books.” Stay tuned for more blog posts like this one coming soon!