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Quiz: Pick Your Favorite Holiday Movies & Get a Holiday Romance Novel Recommendation

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Alison Doherty

Senior Contributor

Alison Doherty is a writing teacher and part time assistant professor living in Brooklyn, New York. She has an MFA from The New School in writing for children and teenagers. She loves writing about books on the Internet, listening to audiobooks on the subway, and reading anything with a twisty plot or a happily ever after.

Are you ready to pick your favorite films in this holiday movie quiz? Choose between beloved Christmas classics like It’s a Wonderful Life and White Christmas, along with newer holiday films like A Castle for Christmas and The Christmas Prince. At the end of rating your favorite festive movies, you will get a matching holiday romance novel recommendation. Then, you can find some time this December to curl up by a fire with a seasonal beverage of your choice (mine would be eggnog or hot apple cider!) and enjoy a holiday happily ever after. Or, if you feel ambitious, you can scroll down to the results section and attempt to read all six of the holiday romances on this list.

All your favorite holiday movie tropes are somewhere within the romance novel results. We’ve got big-city romances and quirky small towns that seem a little too obsessed with winter holidays. Characters get snowed in, have vacation flings, do holiday baking, and more. And while the movie choices on the quiz aren’t as diverse as I would like, the books below feature characters of different sizes, races, religions, sexual orientations, and disabilities. So start choosing between your favorite holiday movies and end up with a book that will get you in the holiday spirit this year!

The Results

Book Cover for Three Holidays and a Wedding

Three Holidays and a Wedding by Uzma Jalaluddin and Marissa Stapley

You should read Three Holidays and a Wedding by Uzma Jalaluddin and Marissa Stapley. This double romance features two heroines, Maryam and Anna, who, by chance, sit next to each other on a plane. During an emergency landing, the two confess all their secrets and romantic hopes to each other. When they become stranded in a quirky small town, they discover that Maryam’s first love was also on the plane (and happened to hear everything she said). And Anna meets her biggest celebrity crush, who’s in town filming a holiday movie. Over their snowed-in holiday, Maryam gets a second chance at true love, and Anna thinks she might be falling in love for the first time — which would be extra great if she wasn’t engaged to someone else.

cover of The Matzah Ball by Jean Meltzer

The Matzah Ball by Jean Meltzer

You should read The Matzah Ball by Jean Meltzer. Rachel is a nice Jewish girl with a secret love for Christmas. In fact, she writes best-selling Christmas romance novels under a pen name. And her family has no idea. But now her publishers want a Hanukkah romance, and Rachel experiences total writer’s block. She hopes seeing her summer camp crush/nemesis Jacob and volunteering for his company’s Matzah Ball on the last night of Hanukkah will give her some ideas. But between their grudge-filled history and Rachel’s life with chronic fatigue syndrome, she never expected the love story she found to be anything but fictional.

You're a Mean One Matthew Prince Book Cover

You’re a Mean One, Matthew Prince by Timothy Janovsky

You should read You’re a Mean One, Matthew Prince by Timothy Janovsky. I know we all love a grumpy sunshine trope…but hear me out: what about a grumpy grumpy romance? This New Adult holiday romance has not one but two grinches. The spoiled 21-year-old Matthew Prince, whose parents sent him away from NYC to his grandparents’ small town for the holidays. And Hector, a boarder of his grandparents, will be Matthew’s roommate for the visit. They will be brought together by the need to plan a holiday gala to help the town’s small businesses. But will it be enough to help their two-sizes-too-small hearts grow enough to really love each other?

Book Cover for a Holly Jolly Ever After

A Holly Jolly Ever After by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone 

You should read A Holly Jolly Ever After by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone. This very steamy (for lack of a better word) holiday romance brings together an ex-boyband singer and a former child star who’s recently fallen from grace as they star in a sexy Hope Channel Christmas movie. Kallum and Winnie have more than a decade of history between them, but they never expected to be in a sexy Santa biopic together. When Winnie admits she’s never had an orgasm in real life (despite being married…and now divorced), Kallum agrees to help her explore sexually so she’ll be able to fake it more convincingly in their on-screen sex scenes. Holiday movie tropes? Sex lessons? Opposites attract? Check, check, and check!

Book cover of Royal Holiday by Jasmine Guillory

Royal Holiday by Jasmine Guillory

You should read Royal Holiday by Jasmine Guillory. Vivian has barely been out of the country, a side effect of being a workaholic. So when her daughter gets the chance to spend the holidays in London styling a member of the royal family, Vivian decides to tag along. She doesn’t expect to meet and fall for the Queen’s private secretary, Malcolm. Will there be a holiday fling that ends on New Year’s? Or is their love something built to last longer than the 12 days of Christmas?

Mangos and Mistletoe book cover

Mangos and Mistletoe by Adriana Herrera

You should read Mangos and Mistletoe by Adriana Herrera. This queer holiday novella is perfect for fans of holiday baking and baking shows. The only thing that could get Kiskeya to leave her home in the Dominican Republic for the holidays is the chance to prove herself in Scotland at the annual Holiday Baking Challenge. She never expects to have instant chemistry with her challenge partner, Sully, a Scottish baker returning to her love of cooking after years of being her family’s main caregiver. Sawoon!


Thanks for taking this holiday movie quiz! I hope you find one (or more) amazing holiday romance novels to cozy up with this cuffing season. If you are looking for more holiday season romances to read, try taking this holiday romance quiz from a few years ago or take a gander at this list of diverse holiday romance books.