Book of verse received by Christmas (5)
I believe the answer is:
novel
'book' is the definition.
(novel is a kind of book)
'verse received by christmas' is the wordplay.
'verse' becomes 'v'.
'received by' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'christmas' becomes 'noel' ('Noel' can be a synonym of 'christmas').
'v' inserted within 'noel' is 'NOVEL'.
'of' acts as a link.
(Other definitions for novel that I've seen before include "Kim, eg" , "Book of prose fiction" , "Scoop, say" , "New and strange" , "Paperback" .)