For the last couple of years I have done a presentation on Christmas mysteries, but no one asked me to do it this year, so I figured this was a good space for it. I happen to love Christmas mysteries myself. I figure part of the appeal is that when families get together for long periods of time, and eat and drink too much, murderous thoughts are common. Better to get rid of them vicariously through reading than to actually carry them out.

There are several new ones out each year, but nothing beats re-reading the classics. Give me a cold, snowy evening and a cup of tea or hot chocolate, a few Christmas cookies, my blankie and my cat on my lap, and a good Christmas mystery and I’m in heaven. So what if the presents aren’t wrapped (or even bought, for that matter); the cards are waiting to be addressed and stamped; and the only reason there are cookies to be eaten is that someone gave me some. All that can be ignored for one more evening, while I get Tied Up in Tinsel with Ngaio Marsh, or find The Corpse in the Snowman by Nicholas Blake. Or Dead Run, by Richard Lockridge; Envious Casca by Georgette Heyer, Murder at the Old Vicarage by Jill McGown, An English Murder by Cyril Hare, or Patricia Moyes’ Season of Snows and Sins.

If you want one of the funniest Christmas mysteries ever written, curl up with Charlotte Macleod’s Rest You Merry. Whether you are a Scrooge or a Christmas fan, I can almost guarantee you’ll laugh at this one. Anne George’s Murder on a Bad Hair Day is another humorous one, as is Joan Hess’ O Little Town of Maggody .

You can find recipes to try in Kathryn Hall Page’s Body in the Bouillon and Body in the Big Apple, and in Joanna Fluke’s Sugar Cookie Murder and Candy Cane Murder, which she did with Leslie Meier and Laura Levine. This is in case you want to bake instead of continuing to read, of course.

Leslie Meier’s first book, Mail Order Murder, is a Christmas book, where her protagonist works at an L.L. Bean-like business to earn money for the holiday. Leslie has several other Christmas books in her series.

Several authors have more than one Christmas book: Rita Mae Brown has Rest in Pieces and Santa Claws; Emily Brightwell has a couple set at Christmas, including this year’s new one; Mrs. Jeffries and the Yuletide Weddings. There is also Mrs. Jeffries and the Feast of St. Stephens. And Kate Kingsbury seems to have one a year; most recently Decked With Folly and Ringing in Murder. (O.K., that last one is a New Year’s one, but close)

New this year we have Fleece Navidad (new in paperback, came out last year in hardcover) by Maggie Sefton; Holiday Grind by Cleo Coyle; The Christmass Cookie Killer by Livia J. Washburn and Murder She Wrote: Murder Never Takes a Holiday , by Jessica Fletcher/Donald Bain.

So you can see there is a plethora of good choices to brighten up your holiday with a little murder and mayhem. Something for just about every taste; even Sherlock Holmes in The Adventure of the Blue Carbuncle, by Doyle, and A Monstrous Regiment of Women, by Laurie King, gets involved in the season. I hope you do too. Have a great holiday, filled with cheer and good books!