6 Witchy Christmas Books for a Magical and Enchanting Holiday

If you like your Christmas romance with spells, ghosts, and a little supernatural trouble, The Wedding Witch is an entertaining place to start.

Erin Sterling, the pen name of author Rachel Hawkins, returns to the magical world of Graves Glen with the third book in the series. This time, the story follows Bowen Penhallow, a powerful but rather solitary witch who prefers studying ancient magic to socialising.

His ghostly friend Colin persuades him to attend a Yuletide wedding at Tywyll House in the Welsh countryside. There, Bowen encounters Tamsyn Bligh, a human woman who makes her living finding and selling magical objects. Tamsyn has her own reasons for attending the wedding: she’s hoping to acquire a valuable magical artefact that could change her financial future.

But a powerful spell and a wedding mishap send Bowen and Tamsyn more than fifty years into the past, to the estate’s Yuletide celebration in 1958. As they try to return to their own time, they uncover secrets surrounding the house and its haunting. Their growing attraction only makes the situation more complicated.

The book combines paranormal romance with time travel, witchcraft, a haunted estate, and a festive wedding setting. It also brings the Graves Glen trilogy to a close, following The Ex Hex and The Kiss Curse.

Why it stands out: The combination of Yuletide celebrations, magical objects, a ghostly companion, and a time-travelling romance makes this a particularly festive choice for readers who prefer their Christmas stories with a little witchcraft.

What did Christmas look like before the season became so closely associated with shopping, decorated trees, and modern holiday entertainment?

Linda Raedisch explores that question in The Old Magic of Christmas, a book filled with folklore, strange seasonal customs, and supernatural figures from different parts of Europe.

The book travels through the traditions and stories surrounding elves, household spirits, witches, ghosts, winter creatures, and other mysterious figures associated with the darkest days of the year. It looks at characters such as Frau Holle and Perchta, along with Scandinavian household spirits and other beings that appear in European winter folklore.

One particularly interesting section explores the idea of a Christmas witch’s herbal, bringing together the seasonal use of plants and the magical traditions associated with the holiday period.

Raedisch also includes practical seasonal material, such as recipes and craft ideas, so the book isn’t simply an account of old legends. It gives readers ways to explore some of those traditions at home.

What makes this book especially relevant to a witchy Christmas reading list is its attention to the less familiar characters of Yuletide. The season has its share of frightening visitors and mischievous spirits, not just cheerful gift-bringers.

Why it stands out: This is probably the strongest choice if you want to understand the folklore behind a magical Christmas. It connects witches, spirits, winter customs, and the older stories that continue to influence seasonal celebrations.

For anyone who wants to bring more seasonal meaning into their December celebrations, Dorothy Morrison’s Yule: A Celebration of Light and Warmth offers a broad introduction to holiday traditions.

Morrison is a Wiccan High Priestess, and her book explores the customs, folklore, and celebrations associated with the Yuletide season. Rather than focusing on one particular ritual tradition, it brings together seasonal material from different cultures and historical periods.

Readers will find information about the origins of familiar holiday customs, along with recipes, craft projects, and a calendar of celebrations for each day in December. The book also explores the stories and beliefs behind traditions involving bells, candles, evergreen decorations, and the Yule log.

One interesting aspect is its wider approach to seasonal celebration. It isn’t written only for people following a particular religious path. Morrison presents Yule as an opportunity to appreciate light, warmth, family, and the return of brighter days.

This makes it a useful companion for readers who want to explore the cultural and magical background of the season while creating their own holiday traditions.

Why it stands out: It offers a practical and approachable introduction to Yule. If you enjoy seasonal crafts, traditional recipes, folklore, and learning the stories behind holiday customs, this is a lovely addition to your December bookshelf.

While Dorothy Morrison’s book offers a broad look at holiday traditions, Susan Pesznecker’s Yule: Rituals, Recipes & Lore for the Winter Solstice takes a more focused approach to celebrating the winter solstice.

Published as part of Llewellyn’s Sabbat Essentials series, this guide explores Yule as a seasonal celebration of rebirth, renewal, and the returning light. It combines background information about the festival with practical ideas for observing it.

The contents include rituals, spells, divination, recipes, crafts, correspondences, invocations, prayers, and meditations. This gives readers several ways to make the winter solstice part of their seasonal routine, whether they prefer quiet reflection, creative activities, or more structured spiritual practices.

The book also provides useful context for understanding why the winter solstice matters in the witch’s seasonal calendar. The longest night of the year marks a turning point, with the days gradually becoming longer afterward.

If you’re new to Yule, the book can serve as an introduction to its customs and symbolism. More experienced practitioners may also appreciate having recipes, ritual ideas, and seasonal references collected in one place.

Why it stands out: This is the most directly practical witchcraft guide on the list. Choose it if you’re interested in learning about Yule celebrations and exploring rituals, seasonal spells, and winter-solstice traditions.

Not every witchy Christmas story needs to be gentle or romantic. Yuletide: Curse of the Winter Witch takes readers into a much darker version of Christmas, where ancient seasonal monsters are not simply stories told to children.

The graphic novel follows three teenagers, Jake, Abe, and Wyn, living in Christmas, Pennsylvania. While the town goes all out with its elaborate holiday displays, the teens are more interested in the darker origins of Christmas traditions and the creatures connected with old winter folklore.

Their investigation leads them into an abandoned part of the local Christmas museum, where they discover an ancient relic. When they activate it, they unleash a terrifying procession of Yuletide horrors that have been kept away from the human world for centuries.

Among the supernatural figures is Perchta, a witch-queen associated with Alpine winter folklore. The story also draws on other European seasonal creatures, including Iceland’s Yule Cat and the Welsh Mari Lwyd.

Illustrated by Rachele Aragno, the book combines fast-paced fantasy, monster mythology, and a distinctly unusual Christmas setting.

One thing to know before picking it up: this is a young adult graphic novel, aimed at readers around 13 to 17. It isn’t a traditional adult witch novel, but its combination of Perchta, ancient monsters, and forgotten winter traditions makes it a particularly interesting choice for this list.

Why it stands out: It brings several European winter legends into a modern Christmas adventure. If you enjoy graphic novels, supernatural creatures, and a less conventional holiday story, this is one to look out for.

Most Christmas stories portray Santa Claus as a cheerful visitor who rewards good behaviour. Brom takes that familiar mythology and turns it into something considerably darker in Krampus: The Yule Lord.

The story begins on Christmas Eve in the mountains of West Virginia. Jesse Walker, a struggling songwriter, witnesses an extraordinary event involving a mysterious group of devilish figures, a man in a red suit, and a flying sleigh. Soon afterward, a magical sack draws him into the world of Krampus, the ancient Yule Lord.

As Jesse becomes involved in the conflict, he learns that the familiar story of Santa Claus may not be quite what it seems. Krampus claims that Santa stole his power and took control of Yuletide centuries earlier. Now he wants to reclaim what he believes belongs to him.

The novel reimagines the relationship between Santa and Krampus as an ancient supernatural rivalry. It draws on European winter folklore but places its characters in a modern Appalachian setting, creating an unusual mixture of folk horror, dark fantasy, and Christmas mythology.

Brom also illustrates the book himself, adding atmospheric artwork that complements the story’s darker world.

Although this isn’t a conventional witch novel, it belongs naturally in a witchy Christmas collection because of its connection to Yule folklore, ancient magic, and supernatural winter traditions.

Why it stands out: If you prefer your Christmas fantasy dark, strange, and a little unsettling, this is the strongest fiction choice on the list. It turns familiar holiday mythology upside down and gives Krampus a much larger role in the story.