15 Best Lesbian Christmas Books for a Sapphic Holiday
Cosy Christmas romances, snowy second chances, festive flings and sapphic love stories to curl up with this holiday season
There is something about Christmas that makes romance novels even better.
Maybe it's the fairy lights. Maybe it's the snow. Maybe it's the fact that fictional women who have successfully avoided discussing their feelings for eleven months suddenly find themselves trapped in a cottage with their ex while a blizzard conveniently removes every possible escape route.
Personally, I blame mistletoe.
Lesbian Christmas books have become some of my favourite seasonal reads because Christmas gives romance writers an almost ridiculous number of opportunities to force two women together.
Go home for Christmas and discover your first love never left town? Of course.
Fake date someone because facing your family single is apparently worse than spending a week pretending to be in love with a woman you definitely aren't attracted to?
Excellent decision.
Book a peaceful Christmas getaway only to discover you're snowed in with the colleague you can't stand?
Nothing could possibly go wrong.
And then there's the ultimate festive romance emergency: only one bed.
Christmas romance takes all the tropes I already love and covers them in fairy lights.
So I've put together 15 of the best lesbian Christmas books for anyone looking for a sapphic festive read this year. There are romcoms and second chances, fake relationships and workplace romances, Christmas tree farms and snowy inns, baking competitions, old flames and women discovering that the person ruining their carefully planned Christmas might actually be the best thing that happens to them.
Some are wonderfully cosy.
Some bring considerably more heat to Christmas.
And because apparently I couldn't resist causing trouble even during the festive season, one of mine has made the list too.
Put the kettle on. Your Christmas TBR is about to get longer.
Why Lesbian Christmas Romance Books Make Such Good Festive Reads
Christmas comes with its own built-in romantic pressure cooker.
People go home.
Families descend.
Old traditions resurface.
Everyone starts thinking about the people they used to know, the choices they've made and whether their life looks anything like the one they once imagined they'd have.
For a romance writer, that's almost unfairly useful.
Send a woman back to her hometown and there's every chance the woman who broke her heart ten years ago is still there. Put two exes at the same Christmas gathering and suddenly they have to work out whether that old spark really disappeared. Give someone a fake girlfriend for the holidays and we all know exactly how well that arrangement is going to remain fake.
Then Christmas itself creates intimacy.
There are late nights beside fires, decorating trees together, shopping for gifts, cooking meals, Christmas parties, snowy walks and those quieter moments when everyone else has gone to bed and two people are left alone.
A good sapphic Christmas romance uses all of that atmosphere without forgetting that the relationship is what we're really there for.
The snow is lovely.
I'm still waiting for them to kiss.
The Best Christmas Romance Tropes Are Even Better When They're Sapphic
There are certain tropes I will apparently read indefinitely, and Christmas makes several of them almost impossible for me to resist.
Going home for Christmas is one of the best.
You get the contrast between the woman someone was when she left and the woman she's become. Add the girl she once loved, the friend she never quite stopped thinking about or the irritating woman who remembers exactly what she was like at seventeen, and I'm interested.
Then there's second-chance romance.
Christmas is already drenched in nostalgia, so bringing two women back together during the holidays feels particularly effective. They have history before page one. The chemistry doesn't need to begin from nothing because somewhere underneath all the resentment, awkwardness or years apart is the memory of what they once meant to each other.
Naturally, fake dating belongs here too.
There is something wonderfully ridiculous about two women agreeing to pretend they're together, setting sensible rules to make sure nobody catches feelings, and then spending Christmas holding hands, sharing bedrooms and meeting each other's families.
Ladies.
You have made an error.
Throw in enemies-to-lovers, grumpy/sunshine, forced proximity, friends-to-lovers, Christmas weddings and the occasional strategically timed snowstorm and you begin to understand why there are so many brilliant lesbian Christmas romance books to choose from.
Which brings us to the important part.
15 Best Lesbian Christmas Books to Read This Holiday Season
1. Surrender to Desire by Ruby Scott
2. Kiss Her Once for Me by Alison Cochrun
3. Make the Season Bright by Ashley Herring Blake
4. All I Want for Christmas by Clare Lydon
5. Season of Love by Helena Greer
6.She Gets The Girl by Rachael Lippincott and Alyson Derrick
If you're going to spend Christmas with Alex and Molly, you really should meet them properly first.
She Gets the Girl is where their story begins, bringing together two college girls who initially seem far more likely to irritate each other than fall in love. Alex is confident, flirtatious and convinced she knows exactly how attraction works. Molly is awkward around the girl she's crushing on and could desperately use some help.
So Alex comes up with a plan: she'll teach Molly how to get the girl.
Obviously, this being a sapphic romance, the identity of "the girl" becomes rather more complicated.
What earns She Gets the Girl a place on this festive list is its Christmas companion story, which takes us back to Alex and Molly three years into their relationship. They're heading away for a romantic winter break filled with ice skating, snowball fights and a little matchmaking for their friends, but both are keeping secrets about their plans after college that could change their relationship completely.
I'd start with She Gets the Girl and then head straight into the festive companion. You get to watch Alex and Molly fall in love first, then discover what happens when the happily-ever-after has to survive real life, growing up and Christmas.
Two love stories for the price of one emotional investment. I'll take it.
Perfect for readers who love: opposites attract, college romance, matchmaking, established couples, festive companion stories, ice skating, sapphic romcoms.
7. Yours for the Season by Kate Cochrane
There's something about returning to a small town at Christmas that should immediately make any romance heroine suspicious.
Nothing good ever comes from it.
Well, nothing good for her carefully protected emotional boundaries, anyway.
Yours for the Season takes us to Hart's Landing, where a return home puts two women in one another's orbit against a wonderfully festive backdrop. And because this is sapphic Christmas romance, proximity has a habit of turning old assumptions into something rather more interesting.
This is also one for readers who like a little more heat with their holiday reading. You still get the ice rink, Christmas atmosphere and small-town setting, but the romance isn't afraid to turn up the temperature once the attraction starts winning.
Exactly the sort of book for anyone who likes their festive reading cosy on the outside and decidedly less cosy once the door closes.
Perfect for readers who love: small-town romance, returning home, spicy sapphic romance, ice skating, Christmas chemistry, holiday romance
8. Any Girl But You by Dana Hawkins
Few things make a romance reader happier than two women who are absolutely convinced they are incompatible.
Because we know.
They don't.
And that's half the fun.
Any Girl But You brings that opposites-attract energy into a festive setting, complete with Christmas traditions and two women discovering that being completely wrong for one another can start to feel suspiciously like being exactly right.
This is the sort of Christmas romance I'd reach for when I wanted something playful rather than emotionally devastating. The pleasure is in watching resistance crumble while all that festive cheer keeps nudging the women closer together.
Christmas trees, gingerbread and inconvenient attraction?
I'm listening.
Perfect for readers who love: opposites attract, Christmas romcoms, festive banter, holiday chemistry, feel-good romance, sapphic love stories
9. I'll Be Gone for Christmas by Georgia K. Boone
If you've ever watched The Holiday and thought it would be significantly improved by making it sapphic, I'll Be Gone for Christmas deserves a place on your December reading list.
The setup takes that irresistible Christmas idea of escaping your normal life and turning it into an opportunity for something completely unexpected.
There's something wonderfully romantic about changing places during the holidays. Christmas is usually built around routine and tradition, so removing someone from everything familiar creates space for them to reconsider what they actually want.
And, naturally, there is romance.
This is also a particularly nice addition to the list because it offers something different from the endless snowy-small-town setup. We get contrasting worlds, a change of scenery and women discovering that sometimes leaving home is exactly what you need to understand where you belong.
Perfect for readers who love:The Holiday, house swaps, Christmas escapes, fresh starts, Black sapphic romance, festive romcoms
10. Make You Mine This Christmas by Lizzie Huxley-Jones
Fake dating at Christmas is already dangerous.
Fake dating a man and then falling for his sister?
That's the sort of poor decision-making I want from my festive fiction.
Make You Mine This Christmas takes one of my favourite romance setups and gives it exactly the complication it deserves. Haf has agreed to pretend to be Christopher's girlfriend for Christmas, only to meet his sister, Kit.
And suddenly the fake relationship isn't the biggest problem.
There's something especially good about fake dating when the person you're actually falling for is standing right there watching you pretend to be in love with somebody else. Add Christmas, family proximity and the increasing difficulty of hiding an attraction that wasn't part of anybody's plan, and you have the ingredients for a very entertaining festive romcom.
Also, the golden rule of fake dating really should be: check whether your fake boyfriend has a hot sister first.
Basic preparation.
Perfect for readers who love: fake dating, falling for the sister, British romcoms, forced proximity, family Christmases, sapphic festive romance
11. The Christmas Swap by Talia Samuels
Margot is newly single, focused on work and absolutely not looking for a holiday romance.
You already know how that's going to go.
The Christmas Swap takes fake dating and drops it straight into the middle of Christmas, giving us two women who have perfectly sensible reasons for keeping things pretend and increasingly less sensible reasons for wanting something real.
I love fake dating at Christmas because the season makes maintaining the lie so much harder. You're not simply going for dinner together. You're being pulled into festive traditions, meeting people who expect you to behave like a couple and spending enough time together for all those carefully established boundaries to become increasingly useless.
And when the chemistry is already there?
Good luck with that.
Perfect for readers who love: fake dating, Christmas chemistry, opposites attract, festive romcoms, holiday flings, sapphic romance
12. In the Event of Love by Courtney Kae
There are Christmas romances, and then there are Christmas romances that give you a struggling family business, a snowy hometown and the woman you left behind.
In the Event of Love sends event planner Morgan Ross back to Fern Falls, where she's reunited with Rachel Reed, her former best friend and first love.
Rachel's family tree farm is in trouble, and Morgan may be able to help save it.
Which means spending time together.
Obviously.
This one ticks so many of my festive-romance boxes. There's the return to a small town, the history between the women, the Christmas tree farm and that delicious second-chance tension where both characters know far more about each other than two people supposedly starting afresh really should.
If your ideal lesbian Christmas romance involves unresolved feelings resurfacing somewhere among the pine trees, this belongs on your list.
Perfect for readers who love: second chances, childhood friends, first loves, Christmas tree farms, small-town romance, forced proximity
13. Christmas Inn Maine by Chelsea M. Cameron
Colden Hayes wants one thing from Christmas.
To be left alone.
Instead, the cottage she's rented doesn't exist, she's stranded by the weather and she ends up at an inn owned by the family of Laura Sterling, the coworker she can't stand.
Christmas romance authors really do treat carefully made holiday plans as a personal challenge.
What follows has everything I want from this particular flavour of festive romance: snow, an inn, two women who would rather not admit they're attracted to one another and circumstances that keep making avoidance impossible.
And then, thanks to further Christmas chaos, they're forced to share a bed.
There it is.
If you want one of the cosiest-looking setups on this list combined with enemies-to-lovers tension, Christmas Inn Maine understands the assignment perfectly.
Perfect for readers who love: enemies-to-lovers, only one bed, snowed-in romance, Christmas inns, forced proximity, workplace rivals
14. Mangos and Mistletoe by Adriana Herrera
Who says a Christmas romance needs snow?
Well, Mangos and Mistletoe does actually take us to Scotland, but instead of centring the story around tree farms and cosy inns, this one gives us something else entirely: a holiday baking competition.
Kiskeya Burgos arrives from the Dominican Republic determined to prove herself as a pastry chef. Sully Morales has her own reasons for entering the competition. Put them together as teammates and you have two very different women trying to keep their attention on the prize rather than each other.
That goes about as well as you'd expect.
Grumpy/sunshine is already one of those tropes that works beautifully in sapphic romance. Add competitive baking, Christmas and attraction neither woman particularly needs distracting her, and suddenly the kitchen isn't the only thing getting hot.
This is a great choice if you've had enough fictional Christmas tree farms to last until January and want a festive setting with a very different flavour.
Perfect for readers who love: grumpy/sunshine, baking competitions, opposites attract, Latina sapphic romance, Scotland, spicy holiday romance
15. The Holiday Treatment by Elle Spencer
We couldn't finish a list of lesbian Christmas books without a romance that takes aim at the Christmas movie itself.
Holly Hudson works for a television network producing exactly the sort of heterosexual festive romances we've all seen a hundred times. What she really wants is the chance to make a Christmas movie with two women at its centre.
Then Meredith Drake enters the picture.
Holly and Meredith have already had a fling, but with the two of them now working together and workplace relationships firmly off the table, they agree to remain professional.
Which is always an encouraging thing for characters in a romance novel to announce.
What I particularly like about the premise is that it gets to play with the conventions of Christmas romance while simultaneously giving those conventions to two women. It's festive, self-aware and wonderfully suited to anyone who's ever watched a Christmas movie and wondered why the woman running the bakery couldn't fall for the woman saving the tree farm instead.
Frankly, we've waited long enough.
Perfect for readers who love: workplace romance, Christmas movies, forbidden attraction, second chances, festive romcoms, sapphic romance
Cosy Lesbian Christmas Books vs Spicy Sapphic Christmas Romance
One of the nicest things about lesbian Christmas romance books is that "festive" doesn't tell you how hot the book is going to be.
At all.
At one end of the Christmas bookshelf, you've got cosy romances built around snowy towns, baking, Christmas lights, family gatherings and two women slowly discovering that they've fallen in love.
At the other end, somebody has hung mistletoe over the bedroom door and things have escalated considerably.
Both are Christmas romance.
Sometimes I want the literary equivalent of wrapping myself in a blanket while two women fall gently in love beside a Christmas tree.
Sometimes I want spice.
Sometimes I want both.
Books such as Mangos and Mistletoe and Yours for the Season are worth investigating if you like more heat with your festive romance, while Surrender to Desire sits much more deliberately at the spicy end of the Christmas table.
If that's your preferred part of the romance shelf, my guide to 20 Must-Read Spicy Lesbian Romance Books will give you plenty more to add to your TBR.
But Christmas books don't need explicit sex to create chemistry. A good slow burn can make the act of brushing snow from another woman's coat feel indecent.
It's all in the anticipation.
Why Going Home for Christmas Is Such a Brilliant Sapphic Romance Trope
If there's one thing romance novels have taught me, it's that going home for Christmas is extremely dangerous.
Not physically.
Emotionally.
You can spend years building a perfectly respectable life somewhere else, convince yourself you've completely moved on and then return home for Christmas to discover that the woman you once loved is standing behind the counter of the local café looking annoyingly good.
Suddenly, you're seventeen again.
The going home for Christmas trope works particularly well in sapphic romance because returning home can mean returning to an earlier version of yourself too.
Maybe she wasn't out when she left.
Maybe she knew exactly who she was but didn't feel she could be that person there.
Maybe the woman she loved was the only person who really knew her.
Or perhaps she simply left because she wanted something bigger and has spent years telling herself that leaving was the right decision.
Then Christmas brings her back.
Books such as In the Event of Love make wonderful use of that history because the romance doesn't begin when the characters meet on page one. There are years sitting between them. Memories. Things they didn't say. Decisions they might make differently now.
And Christmas has a habit of making us look backwards.
That's why second-chance lesbian Christmas romances can hit surprisingly hard underneath all the snow and fairy lights. They're not simply asking whether two women still love each other.
They're asking whether the women they've become might finally be ready for the relationship they couldn't have before.
Sapphic Christmas Books Are Really About Finding Home
For all the fake dating, snowstorms, mistletoe and suspiciously convenient accommodation problems, I think many of the best sapphic Christmas books are really about belonging.
Christmas stories talk endlessly about home.
Going home.
Coming home.
Making it home in time for Christmas.
But "home" doesn't necessarily mean the house where you grew up or the people you're related to.
Sometimes it's a Christmas tree farm full of people who make room for you.
Sometimes it's a small town you were desperate to escape.
Sometimes it's an inn you never intended to stay in.
And sometimes it's another woman.
That's why found family works so beautifully in festive sapphic fiction. For LGBTQ+ readers especially, the idea that family can also be something we create rather than simply something we're born into gives these stories another emotional layer.
A Christmas romance can still be funny, sexy and gloriously predictable while saying something meaningful about where we belong and who gets to decide what family looks like.
Perhaps that's why we return to them every year.
We know there will probably be a kiss.
We know the Christmas disaster will somehow be resolved.
We strongly suspect the woman insisting she's leaving town on 27 December is not, in fact, going anywhere.
And for a few hours, we get to spend Christmas somewhere that feels like home.
Lesbian Christmas Books FAQ
What are the best lesbian Christmas books?
There are some brilliant choices depending on the type of festive romance you're looking for.
Kiss Her Once for Me by Alison Cochrun is a great place to start if you love fake relationships, second chances and snowed-in family Christmases. Make the Season Bright by Ashley Herring Blake brings exes back together over the holidays, while In the Event of Love by Courtney Kae combines a first-love reunion with a Christmas tree farm.
For something more playful, try Make You Mine This Christmas by Lizzie Huxley-Jones or The Christmas Swap by Talia Samuels.
And if you want your Christmas romance considerably spicier, Mangos and Mistletoe, Yours for the Season and my own Surrender to Desire move further towards the hotter end of the festive bookshelf.
Are there sapphic Christmas romance books?
Lots of them, and the selection is getting better.
You'll find sapphic Christmas romances covering everything from fake dating and enemies-to-lovers to second chances, workplace romance, friends-to-lovers and forced proximity.
There are also festive romances set everywhere from London and Scotland to Christmas tree farms, small American towns and snow-covered inns.
So no, you don't have to spend December reading another Christmas romance where the overworked city woman goes home and falls for a man who owns a Christmas tree farm.
We have options now.
What are the best cosy lesbian Christmas romances?
If cosy is the priority, look for books with small-town settings, snow, Christmas traditions and plenty of forced proximity.
Christmas Inn Maine is particularly good for that classic festive atmosphere, with a snowed-in inn, enemies-to-lovers tension and an only-one-bed situation.
Season of Love offers a family Christmas tree farm and found family, while Christmas Mouse by Rachel Spangler is another festive sapphic read worth exploring if you want women who are genuinely enthusiastic about Christmas.
Just remember that "cosy setting" doesn't necessarily mean "no spice", so check the individual book if you prefer your romance open-door or closed-door.
Are there spicy lesbian Christmas books?
Absolutely.
Christmas romance does not have to stop at a kiss beneath the mistletoe.
Mangos and Mistletoe by Adriana Herrera combines a festive baking competition with grumpy/sunshine chemistry, while Yours for the Season by Kate Cochrane offers a spicier sapphic take on seasonal romance.
And Surrender to Desire is there for readers who would like considerably more than mistletoe involved.
If that's the end of the romance spectrum you prefer, you can also head to my20 Must-Read Spicy Lesbian Romance Booksonce you've exhausted the Christmas selection.
What are the best lesbian holiday romance books?
If you want a broad mix rather than purely cosy Christmas stories, start with Kiss Her Once for Me, Make the Season Bright, Season of Love, The Christmas Swap and In the Event of Love.
Together they cover many of the tropes that make holiday romance so much fun: fake relationships, second chances, family complications, small towns, Christmas businesses and old feelings resurfacing at exactly the wrong time.
For a shorter festive read, Joy to the Girls is a novella, while Mangos and Mistletoe offers something different with its competitive baking setting.
Where can I find WLW Christmas books?
Searching for lesbian Christmas books, sapphic Christmas romance, WLW Christmas books and lesbian holiday romance will bring up slightly different selections, so it's worth trying more than one term.
Author websites and sapphic book communities are also useful because plenty of independently published festive romances don't receive the same visibility as traditionally published Christmas books.
And once you find a festive romance author you enjoy, check their backlist. Christmas novellas have a habit of hiding in series.
Dangerous for the TBR.
Which sapphic Christmas book should I read first?
If you've never read a lesbian Christmas romance before, I'd start with the trope you already know you love.
Want fake dating and romantic chaos? Try Kiss Her Once for Me.
Love second chances? Go for Make the Season Bright or In the Event of Love.
Want cosy forced proximity? Christmas Inn Maine.
Prefer baking and grumpy/sunshine? Mangos and Mistletoe.
Want spice?
You know where I am.
More Lesbian Romance Books to Add to Your TBR
Christmas may only last a few weeks, but fortunately sapphic romance doesn't have a season.
If the hotter books on this list caught your attention, try my 20 Must-Read Spicy Lesbian Romance Books or Top Lesbian Erotic Romance Booksnext.
For more reunions, old flames and women discovering that they are absolutely not over their ex, head to 15 Best Lesbian Second Chance Romance Books.
You can also browse 10 Best Lesbian Books You Need to Readfor a wider selection, or find your next favourite writer in Best Lesbian Romance Authors: Sapphic Writers to Read in 2026.
And if you want something you can finish between Christmas dinner and the inevitable argument over what to watch on television, my guide to the 15 Best Lesbian Short Storieshas plenty of shorter sapphic reads.
Because there is no correct way to build a Christmas TBR.
You can have cosy.
You can have funny.
You can have emotional.
You can have spicy.
Or you can spend December reading all four and emerge sometime around New Year's Day wondering what month it is.
That seems entirely reasonable to me.
A Little Christmas Wish From Me
And finally, wherever you're reading this from, I hope there's something lovely waiting for you this Christmas.
Maybe that's a house full of people you love. Maybe it's a quieter Christmas with your favourite person, your pets and absolutely no intention of changing out of your pyjamas. Maybe you're celebrating with the family you were born into, the family you found along the way, or a wonderful mixture of both.
And if Christmas isn't always the easiest time of year for you, I hope you find a little corner of it that feels like yours.
A good book. A warm drink. A few hours of peace. Someone who makes you laugh. Something delicious that you don't have to share.
Most of all, I hope you get to spend it exactly as yourself, surrounded by people who love you for exactly who you are.
Thank you for reading my books, my blogs, recommending sapphic stories, talking about the characters as though they're real people, and continuing to make this little corner of the book world such a lovely place to be.
However you're spending the festive season, I hope it's filled with love, laughter and, naturally, a very good lesbian romance or two.
Merry Christmas from me to you. ❤️
Ruby x
