The December holidays are full of traditions: Music. Decor. Food. Family. And if you're like me, books.

Santa brought me a new Christmas book every December 24 when I was growing up, and every year, I'd pull out the old books in the weeks leading up to the big day,even when I'd advanced beyond the reading level. They took on an almost mythical quality of holiday reverence. There was The Story of Holly and Ivy, about an orphan looking for a home (naturally — it's a Christmas book, after all).  My favorite short story in The Christmas Book follows a bear who's afraid he ruined Christmas when he drops and shatters a rainbow. (He didn't, of course, as Santa makes clear.) The Best Christmas Pageant Ever is a long-time family fave.

And then I got old for my first Regency Christmas book, and that's when I started reading historical romance. Heck, that's when I started reading romance, period. The Signet-published short-story collection featured five gleaming jewels by authors I'd never heard of before, authors like Mary Balogh and Mary Jo Putney. Those lords and ladies fell in love over the holiday season, and so did I. Ever year brought a new Regency Christmas collection, and at first, I only read (and re-read) them in December. Eventually, I dipped my toe into non-holiday romance novels, becoming a voracious reader of first Regencies and then contemporaries, which nudged me onto the road to becoming a writer.

How about you, friends? Do you have holiday reading traditions for yourself, your kids, or your family?