How To Achieve The Best Cozy Vibes With This Book
I curled up on a chilly evening with The Christmas Orphans Club by Becca Freeman, a mug of hot cocoa in hand and my cat dozing at my feet. It didn’t take long for the glow of this book’s cozy holiday atmosphere to wash over me. From the very first chapter, I felt like I’d stepped into a familiar holiday scene – twinkling lights on a New York City street, friends gathered around in ugly Christmas sweaters, and the promise of heartwarming traditions. Reading this novel was like sitting by the fireplace with an old friend, swapping stories about holidays past. It’s warm, personal, and even a little witty – the kind of story that has you smiling into your cocoa one minute and wiping a sentimental tear the next.
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A Warm and Cozy Holiday Atmosphere
One of the first things that struck me about The Christmas Orphans Club was its immersive holiday atmosphere. The author paints New York City in December so vividly that the city practically becomes a character of its own. I could almost hear the jingle of Salvation Army bells on the corner and feel the crunch of fresh snow in Central Park. Freeman’s descriptions of festive bars, twinkling tree lights, and bustling holiday markets left me feeling like I’d taken a Christmastime trip to the Big Apple. In fact, the “holiday glow of a luminously rendered New York City” is one of the book’s shining stars. If you’ve ever spent time in NYC during the holidays (or even just dreamed of it), you’ll appreciate how magically it’s portrayed here.
What I loved is that the book balances cozy, nostalgic vibes with a fun, modern energy. It has all the makings of a classic Christmas movie – I definitely caught those HallmarkChristmas movie vibes in certain moments – yet it never veers into overly cheesy territory. The humor and quick wit keep things lively (there’s plenty of playful banter and laugh-out-loud dialogue between friends), so the warmth always feels earned. For instance, at one point the characters try candy cane martinis (who knew that was a thing?), and the way they react had me genuinely laughing. I found myself grinning at their goofy holiday shenanigans and inside jokes, which made the sentimental moments that much sweeter. It’s clear this novel was written with a love for the season – every page glitters with that special holiday charm.
Nostalgia, Traditions, and an Unconventional Setting
Beyond the twinkle lights and spiked hot chocolates, The Christmas Orphans Club hit me with a wave of nostalgia. The story spans multiple Christmases over the years, following the same group of friends through different stages of their lives. There’s something inherently nostalgic about revisiting Christmas year after year with the people you love. As I read, I found myself reminiscing about my own changing traditions – those early twenties holidays spent with friends in tiny apartments, versus later years when life started pulling us in different directions. This book gets that bittersweet feeling. It’s like an “update to classic holiday tales” for the modern era, told through eleven Christmases’ worth of memories, changes, and growth in its characters’ lives.
The setting itself is unconventional in the best way. Instead of a cozy small-town or a family farmhouse, our holidays unfold in New York City apartments and quirky local haunts – an environment that feels nostalgic in its own right for anyone who’s ever been a young adult carving out their own holiday traditions in a big city. The friends dub themselves the “Christmas Orphans Club” because, at first, none of them have family to spend the holidays with. That premise alone tugged at my heart. It reminded me of the times I couldn’t make it home for Christmas and ended up creating a little celebration with friends – there’s a special kind of nostalgia in those “chosen family” gatherings. The novel perfectly captures that scene of mismatched chairs pulled up around a makeshift dinner table, everyone bringing a random side dish, wearing Santa hats and laughing because hey, we’re all we’ve got. Over time, what starts as a stopgap tradition becomes something these characters cherish more than anything. They choose each other, year after year, and there’s a profound sweetness in that. As one review aptly put it, this story “tracks a group of four young New Yorkers as their friendship solidifies into a chosen family, one with its own traditions, tensions, and drama”.
The nostalgia also comes from how the book reflects on change. We see the characters in flashbacks to earlier Christmases – those scenes gave me warm, fuzzy memories of my own younger days, complete with references to pop culture and past fads that made me chuckle. (I won’t spoil them, but if you remember what was trendy five or ten years ago, you’ll smile at the shout-outs!) Freeman uses these details to transport you to each specific year and memory. It’s a clever way of making the reader feel like part of the gang – you were there, you remember how it was. By the end of the book, I had that pleasant ache that comes from looking back on old times, appreciating how far the characters (and maybe I) have come. It’s nostalgic, but it’s growth too.
Emotional Comfort in Found Family
At its heart, The Christmas Orphans Club is a story about found family and the emotional comfort that comes with it. This was the aspect of the book that moved me the most. The four main characters – Hannah, Finn, Priya, and Theo – are an unlikely crew on paper, each with their own backgrounds and wounds, but they form a tight-knit circle that feels as real as any blood family. From early on, we learn why this tradition matters so deeply: Hannah’s parents passed away when she was young, and Finn’s family rejected him after he came out as gay. These two basically needed each other, and they built a new kind of family from that need. By the time stylish Priya (Hannah’s former roommate) and mysterious Theo join in, the group has created something truly special – “a found family and sense of belonging they’ve always craved”.
Reading about their yearly Christmas get-togethers made my heart swell. There’s such comfort in their ritual: the same four friends, every December, no questions asked, no one left out. They have their in-jokes and annual traditions (some get pretty wild and hilarious as the years go by!), and they’re always there for each other when it counts. Honestly, I started wishing I could be a part of this club myself. The love and loyalty between these friends leaps off the page – it’s the kind of bond that makes you believe friends can truly be family. It also made me reflect on my own circle of friends. By the final chapters, I was very misty-eyed (okay, fine, I full-on sobbed at one point, but in a good way) because I felt so seen and comforted by the story. I’m not alone in that reaction; one reviewer said the book “made me incredibly thankful to the many ‘chosen families’ I have”, and I couldn’t agree more. This novel is a beautiful reminder that family is what you make it.
Importantly, The Christmas Orphans Clubdoesn’t pretend that found family is a perfect bubble – it also delves into the challenges of growing up and growing apart. As the years progress, each friend faces crossroads that threaten their long-held tradition. Careers take off, romance beckons, life happens. The big catalyst comes when one friend announces a move across the country, meaning this year might be their last Christmas all together. That revelation sends our main narrator, Hannah, into a tailspin – she’s the one who clings hardest to Christmas with her friends, and I could feel her panic at the thought of losing this cornerstone of her life. (I have to admit, I saw a bit of myself in Hannah’s fear of change and desperate grip on tradition. It was a shock of recognition to realize, as one blogger did, that I too can be “clueless/annoying” like Hannah in how I hate change and cling to traditions beyond their shelf life. Oops!) The novel asks a tough question: does growing up mean growing apart?. I won’t give away the answer, but I will say the journey to find out is equal parts heartwarming and heartbreaking – in the way that only a truthful story about friendship can be. There were moments I ached for these characters as they confronted the cracks in their lives, but I also found myself cheering softly whenever they chose to show up for each other despite everything. The emotional payoff is like a big, warm hug. As one endearing review noted, this book is “a festive, funny, hug of a novel about love in all its forms.” I felt that hug on every page.
Wit, Love, and Holiday Cheer
Lest you think this is purely a cry-fest (it’s not, I promise!), I have to highlight how witty and joyful the tone is throughout. Becca Freeman’s writing has a sharpness and humor that had me smirking and snorting tea out my nose at times. The dialogue crackles with wit and inside jokes – these friends have the kind of easy banter you get with people you’ve known forever. There’s plenty of sarcasm, playful teasing, and ridiculous holiday puns. (At one point, two characters are in an all-out Christmas decorating war that could rival a sitcom episode – I was cackling imagining the tinsel catastrophe.) This humor is such a
Speaking of characters, I should mention how much I adored the mix of personalities in this story. Each of the four friends brings something unique to the table. Hannah is anxious and sentimental (she’s basically the glue holding the tradition together, even as she faces her own romantic dilemma with a very patient boyfriend). Finn is charming and big-hearted – the fact that he’s the founder of their little club says it all, he’s the spark that first united them. Priya is stylish, successful, and the ever-loyal friend who will roll up with takeout and tough love when you need it. And Theo, oh Theo – he’s the wildcard: a bit enigmatic, coming from a wealthy, distant family, and grappling with feelings he’s not sure he should admit. There’s a thread of unspoken romance in this book that is so tender and well done; it involves an LGBTQ love story that made me want to alternately shake the characters and hug them (the will-they-won’t-they tension is real!). I appreciated that the novel weaves in both straight and gay romance elements seamlessly – love is love here, and it’s all handled with warmth and respect. But crucially, romance isn’t the sole focus of the story. This isn’t your typical boy-meets-girl holiday rom-com; it’s more of an ensemble dramedy about friendship with some romantic subplots sprinkled in. In fact, Freeman herself said technically it’s not a romance novel, but a novel with romantic elements. For me, that was refreshing. Sometimes friendship – true, platonic love – can be just as swoon-worthy, and this book proves it. As the New York Post quipped, it “has a focus on friendship — but really, what’s more romantic than friendship?”. That line has stuck with me. By the end of The Christmas Orphans Club, I was completely in love with the friendship at its core. The way these characters care for each other through thick and thin is something truly special and uplifting.
Closing this book, I felt like I had just finished a long, heart-to-heart conversation with dear friends. The Christmas Orphans Club is the kind of story that wraps itself around you like a soft
If you’re looking for a holiday read that will give you all the warm-and-fuzzy feelings and a few good laughs, I wholeheartedly recommend spending some time with The Christmas Orphans Club. Reading this book felt like joining the friend group for a holiday – I laughed at their jokes, reminisced over their past adventures, and felt their anxieties as if they were my own. By the last page, the characters felt like my friends. This novel is “witty, heartwarming, and hilarious”, truly “the most delightful thing you’ll read all year”. And that’s not just me saying it – early reviewers have been head over heels for it, calling it “a fabulous festive read about found family” and a story that “warmed me from the inside out”. I couldn’t agree more.
So, as one friend to another, I’ll leave you with this: find a comfy spot, maybe grab a peppermint mocha or your beverage of choice, and dive into The Christmas Orphans Club. Let yourself be drawn into the cozy glow of New York Christmases, the gentle nostalgia of time passing, and the big-hearted message that family is more than blood – it’s those who stand by you when it matters. This book truly is, in every sense, a holiday hug in paper form. Happy reading, and may your holidays be as warm and filled with love as the ones in these pages.
