I do like to read wintery books and Christmas books around this time of year. There are certain stories that I am particularly drawn to and have read many times to get me in the mood for the holiday, though I don't read them every year. The Dark is Rising, by Susan Cooper. The Box of Delights, by John Masefield. The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, by C. S. Lewis. Charles Dicken's Christmas novellas, particularly "A Christmas Carol" and "The Haunted Man. "A Christmas Carol" is my very favorite for reading at this time of year,but sometimes I will watch one of the movies instead (although, really, even the best of them don't quite measure up to the original story).
Also other wintery or Christmas ghost stories, like "The Old Nurse's Story," by Elizabeth Gaskell. And though it's not a ghost story, just a memory of how Christmas used to be celebrated, I do enjoy "Old Christmas" by Washington Irving. (You can sometimes find it published as "Christmas at Bracebridge Hall.")
When my children were small I used to read The Tailor of Gloucester to them on Christmas Eve.
At the present moment, my seasonal reading is The Children of Green Knowe. I last read that one about fifty years ago, which means I remember so little about it, it's almost like reading it for the first time.
