Holiday Reading Traditions Around the World

Long, dark winter nights and books belong together. From Iceland's Christmas Eve book giving to Victorian ghost stories by the fire, here are reading traditions worth knowing, and borrowing.

Jólabókaflóð: Iceland's Christmas book flood

Jólabókaflóð, the "Christmas book flood," is Iceland's tradition of giving books for Christmas, especially on Christmas Eve, and spending the evening reading. In Iceland, Christmas Eve (24 December) is the main celebration, when families share a festive meal and open gifts. A book is one of the most common presents.

The term also describes the publishing season: a large share of Iceland's new books are released in the autumn ahead of Christmas. Each year the Icelandic Publishers Association produces a catalogue of new titles, Bókatíðindi, which has traditionally been distributed to households and is now also available online, so families can choose gifts.

The custom is often traced to the World War II era, when strict import restrictions limited many gifts but paper was comparatively available, making books a natural present. Iceland also has a strong literary culture rooted in the medieval sagas.

How to try Jólabókaflóð at home

1. Give each person a book on Christmas Eve, chosen with them in mind.
2. Agree on a reading evening: warm drinks, blankets, phones away.
3. Read silently together, or take turns reading favourite passages aloud.
4. Mix new books with secondhand finds and library loans to keep it affordable.

Christmas ghost stories

Ghost stories at Christmas are a long-standing British tradition. Long winter evenings around the fire were a natural time for spooky tales, and in the 19th century magazines published special Christmas numbers full of them.

• Charles Dickens made a ghost story the centre of Christmas with A Christmas Carol (1843), and his magazines published ghost stories in their Christmas issues.
• M.R. James, a Cambridge scholar, wrote many of his celebrated stories to read aloud to friends at Christmas; the first collection, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, appeared in 1904.
• Jerome K. Jerome poked fun at the custom in Told After Supper (1891), a comic collection framed as Christmas Eve ghost stories.
• The BBC continued the idea on television with its A Ghost Story for Christmas series, beginning in 1971, several of them adapted from M.R. James.

To try it, pick a short story that can be read in 20 to 30 minutes, dim the lights and read it aloud. "The Signal-Man" by Dickens and M.R. James's "Oh, Whistle, and I'll Come to You, My Lad" are popular choices for adults and teens.

Reading A Christmas Carol aloud

Dickens himself started the tradition of reading A Christmas Carol aloud to audiences. His first public reading was in Birmingham in December 1853, for charity, and he went on to perform it many times, using a shortened version he prepared for performance.

Families today often read one stave (chapter) a night over five nights leading to Christmas. Some theatres and libraries host community readings each December.

Christmas Eve poems and letters

• Reading "A Visit from St. Nicholas" ("‘Twas the night before Christmas…") on Christmas Eve is a beloved American family custom.
• Some families read the 1897 "Yes, Virginia" editorial each year.
• Tolkien's Letters from Father Christmas inspires families to write and read letters "from the North Pole."

Solstice and long-night reading

Around the winter solstice, northern places get very little daylight. Fairbanks, near North Pole, Alaska, gets under four hours of daylight at the solstice. That long darkness makes reading by lamplight a natural seasonal ritual.

Susan Cooper's poem "The Shortest Day," written for the Christmas Revels and now a picture book illustrated by Carson Ellis (2019), is a short, beautiful text to read aloud on 21 December. The Dark Is Rising by Cooper, which begins on Midwinter's Eve, is a favourite to read across the twelve days of Christmas.

A related tradition: Norway's Easter crime

Not every seasonal reading tradition is about Christmas. In Norway, påskekrim ("Easter crime") is the custom of reading crime novels and watching detective shows over the Easter holiday. It shows how naturally holidays and books go together.

Starting your own tradition

The best tradition is one your family will actually keep. Ideas:

• A Christmas Eve book exchange inspired by Jólabókaflóð
• An advent book calendar with a story every night in December
• A family read-aloud of one longer classic across the holidays
• A ghost-story night for older kids and adults
• A solstice evening with candles and a winter poem