40+ December Book Club Ideas
Recently, someone asked for a Christmas book recommendation for their book club (I shared this list of favorite adult holiday reads!) and it made me think about December book club ideas.
I knew some book clubs skip December altogether because it is such a busy month and others have a blow-out event to end the year!
I asked my Instagram community how they handle December book club and suggestions came flying in. If you’re looking for December book club ideas, this post is for you!
December Book Club Book Swap / White Elephant / Gift Exchange
This was the most popular suggestion for a December Book Club. Here are some of the ways different book clubs do it!
- Have a white elephant style book exchange. Everyone brings a wrapped book and you choose one on your turn to unwrap and books can be stolen. One woman said, “Oh I love ours! We all bring a wrapped book and a snack/treat to share. After eating we draw numbers to see who goes first and take turns unwrapping a book and whoever brought the book you open gives a little synopsis. You can choose to steal or unwrap another. It’s so fun and so many of the books people bring end up being ones we read as a club the next year because we all wanted it so badly.”
- Have a bookmark exchange. This is such a fun, low cost activity and perfect for December book club gatherings! (P.S. Some of my favorite bookmarks here)
- Everyone brings a themed basket with a favorite book and corresponding goodies. Well THIS is delightful! The person who shared this said they did it Secret Santa style, so you draw names and prepare your book basket with a specific recipient in mind!
- Everyone brings a book to donate instead of swapping. I love this suggestion.
- Combine a cookie exchange + book swap. Everyone brings cookies and a book and everyone goes home with a plate of assorted cookies plus a new book!
- Have a wrapped mystery book swap in Christmas pajamas. Everyone coming in Christmas pjs is a special touch – I love this! One reader shared, “White elephant book exchange with treats. No book to read, and everyone can bring a friend, the more the merrier.”
- Host a favorite things gift exchange. I love a favorite things party and doing it as a book club is a delight (details about how to host a favorite things party here!)
- Bring a wrapped book with a cryptic description. This is a fun challenge – write a few words about your book here
- Have a gently used book exchange. I love this to keep costs down – everyone brings a book they’ve already read and loved (or picked up secondhand!) to exchange.
- Host an ornament exchange. If everyone’s bookshelves are bursting, an ornament exchange is a fun way to do a small, inexpensive exchange. One friend told me “One of my book clubs did an ornament exchange in December. I still use the ornaments and it reminds me of them every year, even though most have moved and I don’t see them.”
- Have a holiday book gift exchange. This is a festive spin on a traditional book exchange where everyone brings a holiday book.
- Have an earring swap. This is another fun alternative to a book swap or more traditional gift exchange!
Skip December and Move the Event to November or January
This was another popular holiday book club idea – keeping December a little more free is great for busy people! Here’s how various book clubs manage that.
- Do a January post-Christmas-blues party + book-themed swap. Why should all the fun stay in December? This makes January, which can be kind of dreary, a little more fun and special! One reader said, “We skip it and do a book exchange in January. Gives us something to look forward to without adding stress to the holiday season.”
- Skip December but have Friendsgiving in November. I love this suggestion!
- Meet in January at restaurant. After the hustle of the holidays, meeting somewhere that no one in your group had to prep for is really nice!
- Try meeting in early December then take January off. This means you’re not trying to squeeze in a book in December in time for January’s book club!
- Assign a long read for January. If you skip December, this gives you extra time for a long read in January!
Go Out to Dinner / Brunch / Restaurant Gathering
A fancy meal is a favorite December book club tradition for many book clubs – here are some ideas!
- Everyone dresses up in festive attire and goes out to dinner together. Many groups said they also did their book swaps at their dinner. One woman shared “We always have a holiday book club! Our tradition is to meet at a fun, fancy restaurant (we’ve also done takeout before too). And then we have a book exchange. We all bring a wrapped book with a cryptic description of the book attached. And then we do the traditional white elephant game where you pick a book or steal one that’s already been opened. It’s my favorite book club of the year!”
- Brunch + white elephant book exchange. Whether it was a brunch hosted by a club member or at a local restaurant, this is a fun way to celebrate!
- A potluck lunch or brunch gathering. Having everyone bring something means less work for any single person, plus doing it mid-day can be easier in December!
- Host a cookbook review meal. This was a fun suggestion! One woman said, “For a couple of years, we picked a cookbook as our December book and everyone brought something they made from the cookbook to share.”
- December book club includes husbands and a catered dinner. This is a delight! My long ago book club in Texas did this where we had an annual event where husbands came along (this was a group where most of us didn’t know each other prior to book club, so it was extra fun to meet these spouses that were new to us).
Using December book club for planning the next year’s books
This is a wildly popular suggestion and means you have a dedicated time to plan for the year ahead!
- Use December to plan entire next year (genre assignment + vote). One reader told me, “We use December to plan the entire next year of book club. Each month is assigned a genre (March: memoir; July: fantasy, etc.) Each person claims a month and then brings three recommendations for that genre. She gives a brief synopsis of each book and then we take a vote. We follow this planning session with a lively book exchange (each book can be stolen twice before it is locked). It is such a fun night and it feels good to get the next year thoroughly planned out so that our book club can continue to thrive.”
- Have a book swap followed by scheduling hosts for the next year. Combining a book swap with planning was a VERY popular suggestion for December book club meetings.
- Discuss favorite reads of the year + plan next reads. I love this – one woman said “Our book club didn’t assign a book for December, instead it’ll be a year-end-review where we’ll all share about our favorite books that we read during the year!”
- Everyone takes home a book to read for January. Instead of having an assigned book for January, everyone reads the book they got from the holiday book swap!
- Vote on next year’s books during big holiday meeting. The perfect mix of business and pleasure. One reader said, “December is our book choosing month. Instead of the host choosing the book every month, we collectively choose books. Everyone can submit 3 books for consideration and then we go through several rounds until we narrow it down to 11 books. Then people volunteer for a month and a title so we have the schedule for the year. After that process, we do a book exchange (white elephant style, but with newly purchased books), and also a book swap where you can bring physical books to get of your shelves and take home some new reads to fill the open space.”
- Combine November/December meetings and plan for the year ahead! This frees up the holidays and gets the whole book club prepped for the upcoming year.
Read a holiday book for December book club
If you want some holiday reading, here is how some book clubs handle a Christmas read.
- Read Christmas short stories for first 2 weeks + meet to discuss. Short stories make it way more manageable
- Read a novella in December. Something about 80-100 pages long is much easier to squeeze in during a busy season!
- Read a holiday romance + party. Absolutely sign me up for this (favorite holiday romances here!),
- Read different Christmas book individually + share reviews. This is fun and gives you more ideas for what to read!
- Read a Christmas book. A seasonal book club is always so festive!
- Read A Christmas Carol and then see a live production of it (or watch a movie version). One reader said “Last year we did a Christmas Carol dinner at one of our houses then went dressed up to the play at Hale theater & it was so good!”
- Read aloud a children’s Christmas book. I loved the reader who said one of the women in her book club reads aloud a few favorite Christmas picture books each December for their meeting!
- Email short Christmas stories. I love this – a reader shared “Someone in our bookclub emails a short Christmas story every day for the first two weeks, and then we meet and talk about them.”
Activity-Based and Extra-Fun Traditions for December Book Clubs
I love seeing the clever things people do with their book clubs and December book club meetings really bring that out!
- Make bookmarks at the meeting. This is such a fun activity for a book club!
- Bunco book-club style. I . . . have no idea what this means, but it sounds fun!
- Hallmark movie night + movie bingo + cookie swap. Sign me up for this event!
- Year-end stats presentation w/ awards + games. Award season comes early! One reader told me “Last year we did a recap of the year! Someone sent out a questionnaire for all of us to fill out and then she made a presentation of like the stats with like pie charts and everything(favorites, least favorites, etc), there was a portion on the book club members (who is most likely to give 5 stars, who is mostly likely to remember the all characters names, etc) and we played some games like guessing the book based on the emojis. It was hilarious and we all loved it!!”
- Movie watch party of book-adaptation in January. Oh this is delightful. Even more festive, a reader shared “We do a book but we each pick a weekly Christmas movie watch and then meet on zoom to talk about it. Helps that there is only 4 of us.”
- Cookie decorating class. My girls would love this book club meeting!
- Long Distance Book Club. One reader said “My sister and I are long distance, so we just choose a winter/Christmas themed book. Two year ago I went to England and got her a copy of the first Harry Potter, but with the original British title and made her a HP themed book-basket with treats and games.”
- Fill each other’s stockings party. Oh, how I love this, especially since many women end up filling their own stocking!
One year we did an ornament exchange where the ornament had to relate to one of the books we read that year. When the gift is opened they have to guess which book it was from and then we reminisced about the book.
We also did an ornament exchange of their favorite book/author and made a guessing gamed out of that. It was a lot of fun.