Christmas Ghost Stories, Part 3

’Tis the season … for Christmas ghost stories! In recent years, I’ve been all about bringing back the classic tradition of livening up the winter months by sharing tales of terror. After all, encounters with the spirit world are the perfect way to get into the Christmas spirit! You can see some of the seasonally spooky tales I’ve previously recommended here and here. But if those aren’t enough for you, here’s a third round of Christmas ghost stories:

Photo of red berries against a wintery background of snow and bare branches
Photo by freestocks on Unsplash

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Christmas Ghost Stories, Part 2

A couple years ago, I wrote about the tradition of the Christmas ghost story—which became an indispensable part of the festive season after Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carol in 1843. The heyday of the Christmas ghost story overlapped with the Golden Age of the ghost story more generally, and many celebrated spooky authors began incorporating Christmas into their haunting tales. Last time, I highlighted several stories by male authors, but women were equally if not more involved in the festive ghost story game. Check out the stories by women below for a seasonally appropriate scare!

Close-up of golden ornament on a Christmas tree
Photo by Joran Quinten on Unsplash

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Christmas Ghost Stories

It’s the spookiest time of the year. No, not Halloween … Christmas! In centuries past, one of the most popular traditions of this holiday season was the telling of ghost stories. If you think about it, it makes sense—what better way to spend the longest, coldest nights of the year than to get your blood pumping with some tales of terror? It’s unclear how long this custom has been around, but it saw a significant resurgence during the Victorian era, due in large part to Charles Dickens and his famous ghost story, A Christmas Carol (1843). In this British classic, the miserly Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Yet to Come, which scare him into changing his selfish ways. In the wake of Dickens, may other authors picked up their pens to write tales of seasonal ghosts. Below are a few of my favorites:

Illustration from A Christmas Carol Continue reading Christmas Ghost Stories

A Gift Guide for the Goth in Your Life

The holidays are coming up, and it’s time to start thinking about what gifts to get for your friends and family. I’m guessing that most of my readers have at least one person in their circle who might be described as a goth. If you don’t share their dark and spooky proclivities, it can be hard to know what to get for your black-clad friend. Of course, each goth is an individual and I can’t claim to speak for the whole subculture. But I’ve put together a list of a few things that are fairly universally appreciated among the morbidly-inclined. Continue reading A Gift Guide for the Goth in Your Life

“Upon A Ghostly Yule” Review—Another Victorian Christmas Tale!

Upon a Ghostly YuleTalk about a Ghost of Christmas Past! “Upon a Ghostly Yule” is a festive short story by Amanda DeWees, one of my new favorite authors who writes traditional-style Gothic novels, such as the one I reviewed earlier this year, With This Curse. Last year, she published this yuletide tale which continues in a similar vein. Set in the mid-nineteenth century, “Upon a Ghostly Yule” is a sort of companion story to one of Dewees’s other novels, A Sea of Secrets, though it functions as an entirely independent piece. Much like Leanna Renee Hieber’s “A Christmas Carroll,” this story is the perfect blend of ghosts, romance, and holiday cheer.  Continue reading “Upon A Ghostly Yule” Review—Another Victorian Christmas Tale!