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A Home for the Holidays by Taylor Hahn

Contemporary fiction

A Home for the Holidays

by Taylor Hahn

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Quick take

A warm holiday story about love, addiction, and found family as one woman processes her mother’s complicated legacy.

Good to know

  • Illustrated icon, Emotional

    Emotional

  • Illustrated icon, Family_Drama

    Family drama

  • Illustrated icon, Drugs_and_Alcohol

    Drug & alcohol use

  • Illustrated icon, Winter_themes

    Holiday

Synopsis

For wedding singer Mel Hart, the holidays have always retained a certain magic. Her mother, Connie, always managed to pull off spectacular Santa hijinks that convinced Mel to keep believing in Santa way longer than other kids. Those moments meant everything to Mel because the rest of the year, life was unpredictable because of her mother’s alcohol use.

But two weeks before Christmas, Mel gets a call from the hospital: her mother has died.

Then a woman shows up on Mel’s doorstep, claiming to be Connie’s estranged best friend, promising to tell Mel a different narrative—one in which Connie was almost a famous country music star, if only a man hadn’t gotten in the way. Instead of spending Christmas alone in her dead mother’s house, Mel agrees to stay with Barb for the holidays, finding herself in the middle of Barb’s complicated family and uncovering secrets while fighting an attraction to Barb’s in-the-middle-of-a-divorce son. As Christmas approaches, Mel reckons with how little she knew about her mother’s past while reexamining her own future.

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Get an early look from the first pages of A Home for the Holidays.

A Home for the Holidays

Chapter 1

When I was eight years old, Santa crashed in my backyard.

I was asleep, having a scary dream about a bear in my school cafeteria. Bears, fires, and my mom dying. Those were my recurring nightmares.

My mom jostled me awake. “Darling girl, something’s happened.” I could tell she hadn’t gone to bed yet because she was still in her party clothes. Her sparkly bracelets clinked against each other as she shook me. I looked at my Minnie Mouse clock—it was almost two a.m.

Christmas already.

Christmas was my favorite day of the year. Santa always came, though I always missed him by seconds. My mom and I were united in our commitment to catching him. The year before, she’d set up a video camera on a tripod in the living room, facing the tree. It caught him scattering presents before running out the front door. We didn’t have a fireplace, so my mom said he used the VIP entrance. I’d heard the door slam, but by the time I jumped out of bed to investigate, falling snow had erased his footsteps from the yard. I watched and rewatched that tape, marveling at the evidence that magic was real.

One year Santa arrived while my mom and I were watching Miracle on 34th Street and eating Campbell’s tomato soup on TV trays. Reindeer hooves thumped on the roof, and when I looked out our front window to the street, I saw Santa running away from our house like he knew he’d given himself away. It was only ten degrees in Chicago that year and I still chased him for three blocks.

This was going to be the year I caught him. I wasted no time sitting up and throwing my covers back. I’d worn my purple LA Lights sneakers to bed so I’d be prepared for exactly this scenario. “Where is he?” I demanded, like I was a hardened detective about to squeeze a confession from a perp.

“The backyard,” she said, and I sprinted downstairs, through the kitchen, and out the back door.

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Why I love it

When the wind gets brisk and the days grow short, cozying up with a holiday read is one of my favorite indulgences. And let’s face it: I’m usually looking for the same key elements. Fireside hangs and fuzzy feels? Check. Scrumptious cookies and twinkling snowflakes? Check. Spending time with a stranger who spills the tea about Mom’s almost-famous country music career? …Er, now that might be a new one.

Christmas this year won’t be the same for Mel, a Chicago-based singer who’s just learned of her mother Connie’s death. Though Mel clings to recollections of her mom’s iconic Yuletide shenanigans, more recent memories are tainted by Connie’s alcohol dependence. Maybe that’s why Mel feels reluctant to accept a Christmas invitation from Connie’s former BFF Barb (and Barb’s handsome son, Henry). Little does Mel know, a different story about her mother awaits—if she can find the courage to face Connie’s turbulent yet sparkling past.

In this cozy yet complicated, relatable, and utterly real story, Taylor Hahn offers a new perspective on letting go and letting love in. It’s a charming tale full of festive cheer that invites reflection on the past and celebrates the future—and if that’s not a reason for the season, I’m not sure what is.

Member ratings (42)

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New and recent add-ons
View all
I Might Be in Trouble
Most Wonderful
Rental House
A Home for the Holidays
Where the Library Hides
Bloodguard
Pictures of You
Is She Really Going Out With Him?
The Courting of Bristol Keats
The Last One at the Wedding
The Stone Witch of Florence
What Does It Feel Like?
We Solve Murders
The Bog Wife
Here One Moment
The Night We Lost Him
Someone in the Attic
The Life Impossible