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The Secret Santa Setup: Count Down to Christmas with 25 Sealed Chapters
Count down to Christmas in 25 romantic, sealed chapters!
Sixteen-year-old Amanda Mathers has big plans for Work at the Matcha-Do About Coffee pop up at Post Christmas tree farm, convince her parents to let her travel abroad this summer, and pull off a Secret Santa with her friends.
What she doesn’t plan on is Luke Post. He looks hot carrying cut trees, but he gives Amanda the cold shoulder. When she pulls his name in Secret Santa she has no idea what to give him. But getting to know each other may turn out to be all they could ever want for Christmas.
Open one sealed chapter each day from December 1 until Christmas!
Enemies to Luke likes things the way they always have been, and that does not include having Amanda at the farm. But Amanda isn’t going to let Luke’s bad attitude distract her from her goals.Forced Simmering tension threatens to bubble over with these two stuck sharing the same small farm stand.Slow Their romance brews slowly, like cocoa on a cold winter’s night...
Sixteen-year-old Amanda Mathers has big plans for Work at the Matcha-Do About Coffee pop up at Post Christmas tree farm, convince her parents to let her travel abroad this summer, and pull off a Secret Santa with her friends.
What she doesn’t plan on is Luke Post. He looks hot carrying cut trees, but he gives Amanda the cold shoulder. When she pulls his name in Secret Santa she has no idea what to give him. But getting to know each other may turn out to be all they could ever want for Christmas.
Open one sealed chapter each day from December 1 until Christmas!
Enemies to Luke likes things the way they always have been, and that does not include having Amanda at the farm. But Amanda isn’t going to let Luke’s bad attitude distract her from her goals.Forced Simmering tension threatens to bubble over with these two stuck sharing the same small farm stand.Slow Their romance brews slowly, like cocoa on a cold winter’s night...
384 pages, Paperback
Published September 29, 2026
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Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
September 28, 2026
This was such a fun young adult Christmas romance! I didn’t read it in the chapter-a-day format since I had the ARC, but I still liked seeing the art for each day.
I found the book packed full of references to Christmas movies and songs — I especially loved the mentions of White Christmas (which is probably my favorite Christmas movie ever). I loved the small town Vermont setting and the festiveness of the Christmas tree farm with popup hot chocolate stand.
The romance was cute, with a slight enemies to more vibe, but nothing really serious. Luke was very sweet and the whole romance was very clean as well.
The relationship that the main character Amanda had with her friend group wasn’t always the greatest and I didn’t love her friends honestly. Amanda herself was kind of a shoot first/ask questions later type and I didn’t like how angry she could get at the drop of a hat. I was glad that people called her out for that. I did like her family, especially her dad.
Overall, this would be such a fun book to read during the advent season to see the story unfold. It reminded me a bit of Stef Ferrari’s Pining for You, so if you liked that one, you’d probably enjoy this book as well.
Thank you to the publisher, HarperCollins Children’s Books, for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
I found the book packed full of references to Christmas movies and songs — I especially loved the mentions of White Christmas (which is probably my favorite Christmas movie ever). I loved the small town Vermont setting and the festiveness of the Christmas tree farm with popup hot chocolate stand.
The romance was cute, with a slight enemies to more vibe, but nothing really serious. Luke was very sweet and the whole romance was very clean as well.
The relationship that the main character Amanda had with her friend group wasn’t always the greatest and I didn’t love her friends honestly. Amanda herself was kind of a shoot first/ask questions later type and I didn’t like how angry she could get at the drop of a hat. I was glad that people called her out for that. I did like her family, especially her dad.
Overall, this would be such a fun book to read during the advent season to see the story unfold. It reminded me a bit of Stef Ferrari’s Pining for You, so if you liked that one, you’d probably enjoy this book as well.
Thank you to the publisher, HarperCollins Children’s Books, for providing this book for review consideration via NetGalley. All opinions are my own.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
Amanda is working at a matcha stand on a Christmas tree farm, gets assigned the hot grumpy farm boy for Secret Santa, and somehow this festive little romance also wanders into séances, sage burning, and spiritual cat territory. I kept waiting for someone to hand me cocoa and instead I was like, wait, are we still doing Christmas?
The setup is honestly catnip. The Secret Santa Setup is built like an advent calendar, with twenty-five sealed chapters meant to be opened one per day in December. That idea is SO cute. I would also fail immediately. There is no universe where I open December 1, calmly close the book, and wait twenty-four hours like a stable person.
Amanda is sixteen, working at Matcha-Do About Coffee at the Post family Christmas tree farm, trying to convince her parents to let her travel abroad, and generally attempting to have a normal December. Then Luke Post enters the chat with his bad attitude and his tree-hauling arms, which feels rude on multiple levels. He does not want Amanda there. Amanda does not care. Great, now everybody has a problem.
Then she pulls Luke for Secret Santa, because apparently the universe enjoys logistics. Now she has to buy a thoughtful gift for a boy who barely seems to tolerate her, while they are stuck around each other constantly at the farm. Luke gradually stops acting like Amanda personally ruined Christmas by existing near the coffee stand, and Amanda starts noticing that maybe there is an actual person under all that frost.
And this is where I wanted to get more feral about them than I did. They are cute. The setup is cute. The forced proximity is doing its job. But I kept waiting for that awful teenage crush feeling where one glance ruins your whole afternoon, and I never fully got there. I was interested. I was not obsessed.
The other thing pulling me out was how often the book drifted away from the holiday romance I thought I was settling into. The séances, the sage, the spiritual stuff, the cat conversations, all of it made me feel like the story kept opening random side doors. None of that is bad on its own. I just wanted more Amanda and Luke and less “how did we get here from Christmas trees?”
I do think the physical advent format probably helps a lot. One chapter a day in December, while actual Christmas is happening around you, sounds charming as hell. As a straight-through read, that whole “tiny daily treat” part of the experience changes a bit, but the concept itself is still ridiculously fun.
The Secret Santa Setup landed at 3 stars for me. I love the concept more than I love the actual romance, which is kind of the whole story. Give me sealed chapters, Christmas trees, Secret Santa, one grumpy boy, and a countdown to Christmas and I am THERE. I just wanted Amanda and Luke to make me care harder than they did.
Merry Mayhem Prize: For Assigning the Hot Grumpy Christmas Tree Boy in Secret Santa and Then Expecting a Sixteen-Year-Old Girl to Behave Normally for Twenty-Five Entire Days
Thank you to HarperCollins Children's Books and NetGalley for the ARC, and for giving me the only advent calendar where the prize behind each door is another teenage emotional complication. I still have questions about how we got from Christmas trees to séance season, but I respect the commitment to keeping December weird.
The setup is honestly catnip. The Secret Santa Setup is built like an advent calendar, with twenty-five sealed chapters meant to be opened one per day in December. That idea is SO cute. I would also fail immediately. There is no universe where I open December 1, calmly close the book, and wait twenty-four hours like a stable person.
Amanda is sixteen, working at Matcha-Do About Coffee at the Post family Christmas tree farm, trying to convince her parents to let her travel abroad, and generally attempting to have a normal December. Then Luke Post enters the chat with his bad attitude and his tree-hauling arms, which feels rude on multiple levels. He does not want Amanda there. Amanda does not care. Great, now everybody has a problem.
Then she pulls Luke for Secret Santa, because apparently the universe enjoys logistics. Now she has to buy a thoughtful gift for a boy who barely seems to tolerate her, while they are stuck around each other constantly at the farm. Luke gradually stops acting like Amanda personally ruined Christmas by existing near the coffee stand, and Amanda starts noticing that maybe there is an actual person under all that frost.
And this is where I wanted to get more feral about them than I did. They are cute. The setup is cute. The forced proximity is doing its job. But I kept waiting for that awful teenage crush feeling where one glance ruins your whole afternoon, and I never fully got there. I was interested. I was not obsessed.
The other thing pulling me out was how often the book drifted away from the holiday romance I thought I was settling into. The séances, the sage, the spiritual stuff, the cat conversations, all of it made me feel like the story kept opening random side doors. None of that is bad on its own. I just wanted more Amanda and Luke and less “how did we get here from Christmas trees?”
I do think the physical advent format probably helps a lot. One chapter a day in December, while actual Christmas is happening around you, sounds charming as hell. As a straight-through read, that whole “tiny daily treat” part of the experience changes a bit, but the concept itself is still ridiculously fun.
The Secret Santa Setup landed at 3 stars for me. I love the concept more than I love the actual romance, which is kind of the whole story. Give me sealed chapters, Christmas trees, Secret Santa, one grumpy boy, and a countdown to Christmas and I am THERE. I just wanted Amanda and Luke to make me care harder than they did.
Merry Mayhem Prize: For Assigning the Hot Grumpy Christmas Tree Boy in Secret Santa and Then Expecting a Sixteen-Year-Old Girl to Behave Normally for Twenty-Five Entire Days
Thank you to HarperCollins Children's Books and NetGalley for the ARC, and for giving me the only advent calendar where the prize behind each door is another teenage emotional complication. I still have questions about how we got from Christmas trees to séance season, but I respect the commitment to keeping December weird.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
This book stuck out to me on NetGalley because I’m a sucker for an advent calendar story. I think if I were to have ripped the pages from December 1 - 25, I would have been pissed. It’s like “A Heart for Christmas” advent-level bad.
It’s supposed to be a young adult romance, but it reads like a grade story. The plot line was sloppy and it definitely did not put me in the Christmas spirit.
I do appreciate the ARC and I hope the author finds the right audience to read this one.
It’s supposed to be a young adult romance, but it reads like a grade story. The plot line was sloppy and it definitely did not put me in the Christmas spirit.
I do appreciate the ARC and I hope the author finds the right audience to read this one.
September 22, 2026
Thank you to NetGalley and HarperCollins Children’s Books for an ARC of this book!
This was such a cute lighthearted advent Christmas book! I love these sweet winter romances that come with sealed chapters to enjoy every day as we get closer to Christmas! Amanda was such a cute FMC. I really did feel for her with so many exciting things on the horizon. She starts a coffee pop up shop to save up money for Europe all while doing a secret Santa with her group of friends.
Incoming… Luke. Grumpy x sunshine energy and he definitely has good reason for his grumpiness. Amanda and Luke both have things to work through but I think Amanda really needed a reset on her selfishness. I didn’t like the way things started to dissolve, but when you’re dealing with selfish high schoolers, the storyline is very believable.
This is a major slow burn & forced proximity with all the fun Christmas traditions you hope for. I loved how slow these two realized the other was worth their time. I hope you enjoy this holiday read as much as I did! 🎄
This was such a cute lighthearted advent Christmas book! I love these sweet winter romances that come with sealed chapters to enjoy every day as we get closer to Christmas! Amanda was such a cute FMC. I really did feel for her with so many exciting things on the horizon. She starts a coffee pop up shop to save up money for Europe all while doing a secret Santa with her group of friends.
Incoming… Luke. Grumpy x sunshine energy and he definitely has good reason for his grumpiness. Amanda and Luke both have things to work through but I think Amanda really needed a reset on her selfishness. I didn’t like the way things started to dissolve, but when you’re dealing with selfish high schoolers, the storyline is very believable.
This is a major slow burn & forced proximity with all the fun Christmas traditions you hope for. I loved how slow these two realized the other was worth their time. I hope you enjoy this holiday read as much as I did! 🎄
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
First, I would just like to thank HarperAudio Children for an ALC of The Secret Santa Setup. I am truly grateful for the opportunity and it is because of their publishing house that I have experienced some incredible ALCs.
I was first initially attracted to this book’s gorgeous cover. It was giving all the Christmas cheer feels and looked like it would be a super sweet YA romance. I also loved the idea of listening to one chapter a day leading up to Christmas. With this being an ARC I was unable to do that but I loved the idea of it for others who will be listening to this in December.
I had really high hopes for this one. The writing itself was good but ultimately the reason I rated this book so low was because it felt like the author’s focus was misplaced throughout the story. I feel like when it comes to Christmas books an author has one job… put the reader in the Christmas spirit. And call me crazy but it seems like the requirements for a good Christmas romance are pretty basic… Christmasy setting with lots of cheery Christmas vibes and some sort of meet-cute that inevitably involves hot chocolate. This book however was going way off into left field talking about séances, burning sage, worshipping cats/spirit guides and other random things that just felt so out of place. There were several moments throughout the story that I remember thinking, “Are we seriously talking about this in a Christmas rom-com?” Anytime it would happen it would throw me out of the story - which was often. Maybe if the author had decided to go with a Halloween themed book I would have been really into it but for Christmas it just didn’t work.
As far as the audio production, Alexandra Hunter did a really great job with her narration. Her voice was young, fresh and was perfect for a YA Christmas romance.
I was first initially attracted to this book’s gorgeous cover. It was giving all the Christmas cheer feels and looked like it would be a super sweet YA romance. I also loved the idea of listening to one chapter a day leading up to Christmas. With this being an ARC I was unable to do that but I loved the idea of it for others who will be listening to this in December.
I had really high hopes for this one. The writing itself was good but ultimately the reason I rated this book so low was because it felt like the author’s focus was misplaced throughout the story. I feel like when it comes to Christmas books an author has one job… put the reader in the Christmas spirit. And call me crazy but it seems like the requirements for a good Christmas romance are pretty basic… Christmasy setting with lots of cheery Christmas vibes and some sort of meet-cute that inevitably involves hot chocolate. This book however was going way off into left field talking about séances, burning sage, worshipping cats/spirit guides and other random things that just felt so out of place. There were several moments throughout the story that I remember thinking, “Are we seriously talking about this in a Christmas rom-com?” Anytime it would happen it would throw me out of the story - which was often. Maybe if the author had decided to go with a Halloween themed book I would have been really into it but for Christmas it just didn’t work.
As far as the audio production, Alexandra Hunter did a really great job with her narration. Her voice was young, fresh and was perfect for a YA Christmas romance.
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
I listened to the audiobook version of this book as an ALC through NetGalley, provided by HarperAudio Children’s.
A truly young adult holiday audiobook. I found the holiday spirit laced throughout the entire novel, constantly reminding the reader/listener of the winter surroundings.
I wouldn’t say this book is best represented in the advent calendar style. Had it been marketed simply as a holiday YA romance, it would be better perceived. There wasn’t anything that stood out to me that made each “day” need to be set up that way.
Overall, I thought it was a cute story that focused a lot on character growth, friendship, and a high school romance. This one is a super slow burn.
Perfect for YA readers who enjoy a little holiday spirit when reading during that time of year (or any time, who am I to judge)!
A truly young adult holiday audiobook. I found the holiday spirit laced throughout the entire novel, constantly reminding the reader/listener of the winter surroundings.
I wouldn’t say this book is best represented in the advent calendar style. Had it been marketed simply as a holiday YA romance, it would be better perceived. There wasn’t anything that stood out to me that made each “day” need to be set up that way.
Overall, I thought it was a cute story that focused a lot on character growth, friendship, and a high school romance. This one is a super slow burn.
Perfect for YA readers who enjoy a little holiday spirit when reading during that time of year (or any time, who am I to judge)!
Review of advance copy received from NetGalley
The Secret Santa Setup by Sarah Hutt is such a fun and festive Christmas read! I really enjoyed the unique concept of 25 sealed chapters, which makes the book feel like a daily holiday surprise. Instead of rushing through the story, you get to open a new chapter each day and discover what happens next, adding an extra layer of excitement to the reading experience. The story had a cozy Christmas atmosphere, enjoyable characters, romance, and plenty of holiday charm. It’s an easy, lighthearted read that captures the anticipation and magic of the season. I especially liked how the countdown format made reading the book feel like part of the Christmas tradition itself. Overall, The Secret Santa Setup was a a sweet, entertaining way to count down to Christmas!
I received an ARC copy from NetGalley. Thank you for giving me the chance to read this novel and share my honest review of the novel
I received an ARC copy from NetGalley. Thank you for giving me the chance to read this novel and share my honest review of the novel
October 6, 2026
This book is an advent style YA romance! It contains 25 sealed chapters! I listened to the audiobook, but love the advent calendar idea! This was a cute holiday story.
I thought the setting was perfect! I loved the tree farm and pop up hot cocoa shop! Forced proximity is one of my favorites to tropes! So, I definitely enjoyed that aspect of this story!
I liked that Amanda had drama with her friends and with Luke. It made the story feel more realistic to me! Teenagers can be very self centered at times and friendships can be challenging.
I did think the ending was a bit hard to believe with Amanda only being 16. I know my parents would have never allowed me to backpack across Europe at that age.
Overall, this was a cute YA holiday romance! I think this would be a fun gift for young adults who have outgrown the traditional advent calendar!
I thought the setting was perfect! I loved the tree farm and pop up hot cocoa shop! Forced proximity is one of my favorites to tropes! So, I definitely enjoyed that aspect of this story!
I liked that Amanda had drama with her friends and with Luke. It made the story feel more realistic to me! Teenagers can be very self centered at times and friendships can be challenging.
I did think the ending was a bit hard to believe with Amanda only being 16. I know my parents would have never allowed me to backpack across Europe at that age.
Overall, this was a cute YA holiday romance! I think this would be a fun gift for young adults who have outgrown the traditional advent calendar!
October 13, 2026
The Secret Santa Setup by Sarah Hutt is an adorable Christmas advent calender consisting of 25 sealed chapters.
Amanda is 16 and not afraid to work hard to get what she wants. She works at the adorably named Matcha-do about coffee, which has a pop up at the Post Christmas Tree farm. She is saving up to travel abroad this summer, but she doesnt plan on falling for Luke Post.
Tropes
- Enemies to Lovers
- Forced Proximity
- Slow Burn
I received an audiobook copy of this book from NetGalley, Harper Audio Children's, and Clarion books.
I was a little hesitant when I saw the main character is 16, but ended up liking this adorable holiday countdown. I loved all the LGTBQ ally moments, and all the small references to different Christmas things throughout the book. Adorable Christmas read (or listen). Alexandra Hunter did a great job as the narrator.
#thesecretsantasetup #NetGalley
Amanda is 16 and not afraid to work hard to get what she wants. She works at the adorably named Matcha-do about coffee, which has a pop up at the Post Christmas Tree farm. She is saving up to travel abroad this summer, but she doesnt plan on falling for Luke Post.
Tropes
- Enemies to Lovers
- Forced Proximity
- Slow Burn
I received an audiobook copy of this book from NetGalley, Harper Audio Children's, and Clarion books.
I was a little hesitant when I saw the main character is 16, but ended up liking this adorable holiday countdown. I loved all the LGTBQ ally moments, and all the small references to different Christmas things throughout the book. Adorable Christmas read (or listen). Alexandra Hunter did a great job as the narrator.
#thesecretsantasetup #NetGalley
September 5, 2026
Thank you to HarperAudio Children’s and NetGalley for this ALC!
Release Date: September 29, 2026
3.5 ⭐️
This is meant to be an advent calendar-style book, but let’s be honest… I would never be patient enough for that
This was festive, fun, and super low angst. Definitely the kind of seasonal read I’d suggest saving for December and reading a chapter a day to make the experience even more fun.
I love a good holiday read, and this one immediately made me want to grab a hot cocoa and curl up in front of the fireplace.
Release Date: September 29, 2026
3.5 ⭐️
This is meant to be an advent calendar-style book, but let’s be honest… I would never be patient enough for that
This was festive, fun, and super low angst. Definitely the kind of seasonal read I’d suggest saving for December and reading a chapter a day to make the experience even more fun.
I love a good holiday read, and this one immediately made me want to grab a hot cocoa and curl up in front of the fireplace.
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews