Openai/694fd27a-9250-8003-baaf-3297643ec833

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User: Now that Christmas has passed, are there any books that are set just after Christmas, just before the new year?

Now that Christmas has passed, are there any books that are set just after Christmas, just before the new year? I know that’s very specific, but it’s appropriate for the time of the year. 

Assistant: Yes — there are books though not a huge catalogue that use the days after Christmas or the week between Christmas and N…

Yes — there are books (though not a huge catalogue) that use the days after Christmas or the week between Christmas and New Year’s Eve as a key part of their setting or structure. That specific liminal time — that “in-between” of the old year and the new — is perfect for reflection, magical realism, or thematic transition, and a few novels lean exactly into that vibe: Wikipedia

📚 Books Set Between Christmas and New Year

1. 📘 The Book of Dead Days by Marcus Sedgwick A beautifully eerie fantasy novel explicitly set in the days between Christmas and New Year’s Eve, which the author frames as “dead days… outside time itself.” The story follows characters trying to unravel magical mysteries and survive in a city where spirits roam before the new year begins. Wikipedia

📘 Other Titles Near the Year-End

1. 📙 The Chimes by Charles Dickens While not entirely set after Christmas, this 1844 novella is themed around “ringing the old year out and the new year in” — capturing that end-of-December temporal transition Dickens loved exploring in his Christmas books. Wikipedia

📌 Near-Year-End but Not Strictly After Christmas

1. 📗 A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks Set in the last full week before Christmas, this novel captures the anxieties and social intersections of the holidays in London — spilling right up to the cusp of the festive period. Wikipedia
2. 📕 Little Women by Louisa May Alcott Not focused solely on post-Christmas, but begins and ends with Christmas scenes, offering that extended holiday through to the New Year feel. The National
3. 📗 Once in December / One Day in December (holiday-linked contemp. romances) Some novels tie the story arc to the holiday season spanning Christmas through New Year (e.g., in romance threads people mention titles that begin around Christmas and carry on into the New Year). These are more loosely linked but fit that year-end mood if you’re after seasonal reading. Reddit

📌 Why This Setting Works in Fiction

That period between Christmas and New Year’s is often used symbolically — a time of endings, beginnings, and reflection — which many writers harness for fantasy, introspective literary fiction, or mystical tales (like The Book of Dead Days). If you like books that feel seasonal but aren’t just “Christmas stories,” that liminal gap is a great niche.

If you want, I can tailor recommendations by genre (e.g., fantasy, literary fiction, romance, mystery) all set in the post-Christmas/New Year period!