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You probably don’t realize this classic tale is one of the gateways linking the holiday season to something a bit more like Halloween.

Well, okay – it may not be a direct link, but at its heart Halloween is a time of year to celebrate the end of the harvest season, welcome in winter and connect with the spirit realm when the veil is at its thinnest.

Through the Victorian era, Christmas wasn’t terribly different from this: the days were long and cold, and it was a time of year for families to gather around the fire and, inevitably, tell stories. Ghost stories.

While the time of year (i.e. the abundance darkness and season of death in the natural world) certainly speaks to telling ghost stories, historians also cite the celebrations of Yule and the Winter Solstice as reasons English society, in particular, took on the tradition of telling ghost stories on Christmas Eve. You can read more about this here and here.

Not many of us may tell ghost stories on Christmas Eve these days, but it’s a fun tradition to resurrect and celebrate with your friends and family! (And a way to add a bit of that Halloween feel into the holiday season.)

Of course, you could tell your own ghost stories…but if you’re looking for stories to enjoy and read aloud, here are 11 books you can pick up to make your holidays more ghostly.

 

11 Christmas Ghost Stories to Read this Holiday Season

Book descriptions from amazon.com and bn.com

 

1. “The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories”

During the Victorian era, it became traditional for publishers of newspapers and magazines to print ghost stories during the Christmas season for chilling winter reading by the fireside or candlelight. Now for the first time thirteen of these tales are collected here, including a wide range of stories from a diverse group of authors, some well-known, others anonymous or forgotten. Readers whose only previous experience with Victorian Christmas ghost stories has been Charles Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol” will be surprised and delighted at the astonishing variety of ghostly tales in this volume. Get a copy

 

 

2. “The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories, Volume Two”

Following the popularity of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol (1843), Victorian newspapers and magazines frequently featured ghost stories at Christmas time, and reading them by candlelight or the fireside became an annual tradition. This second volume of Victorian Christmas ghost stories contains fifteen tales, most of which have never been reprinted. They represent a mix of the diverse styles and themes common to Victorian ghost fiction and include works by once-popular authors like Grant Allen and Eliza Lynn Linton as well as contributions from anonymous or wholly forgotten writers. This volume also features a new introduction by Prof. Allen Grove. Get a copy

 

 

3. “The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories, Volume Three”

Seeking to capitalize on the success of Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol (1843), Victorian newspapers and magazines frequently featured ghost stories at Christmas time, and reading them by candlelight or the fireside became an annual tradition, a tradition Valancourt Books is pleased to continue with our series of Victorian Christmas ghost stories. This third volume contains twenty tales, most of them never before reprinted. They represent a mix of the diverse styles and themes common to Victorian ghost fiction and include works by once-popular authors like Ellen Wood and Charlotte Riddell as well as contributions from anonymous or wholly forgotten writers. This volume also features a new introduction by Prof. Simon Stern. Get a copy

 

 

4. “Ghosts of Christmas Past”

A present contains a monstrous secret. An uninvited guest haunts a Christmas party. A shadow slips across the floor by firelight. A festive entertainment ends in darkness and screams.

Who knows what haunts the night at the dark point of the year? This collection of seasonal chillers looks beneath Christmas cheer to a world of ghosts and horrors, mixing terrifying modern fiction with classic stories by masters of the macabre. From Neil Gaiman and M. R. James to Muriel Spark and E. Nesbit, there are stories here to make the hardiest soul quail – so find a comfy chair, lock the door, ignore the cold breath on your neck and get ready to welcome in the real spirits of Christmas. Get a copy

 

 

5. “Winter Night Classics: Literature’s Best Christmas Ghost Stories”

Enclosed in this volume are tales of dark winter nights and harrowing encounters between the worlds of Man and the Hereafter. There are tales of cursed antiquities, otherworldly toy stores, possessed dolls, deals with the devil, and murderous cabin fever. I hope your Christmas is – as M. R. James put it “may be the cheerfuller for a story-book” which takes you back to a different world – one not mapped out, trending, or tweeted about, one dark, forbidding, and evocative. Perhaps I may be a Luddite for saying it, but I find something strangely comforting in that. Something consoling and hushing and chilling. Perhaps you will, too. Get a copy

 

 

6. “Classic Ghost Stories: Spooky Tales to Read at Christmas”

Do you believe in ghosts? Not monsters, not floating objects or unexplained coincidences, but an actual presence – a flicker in the corner of the eye, a shadow in a darkened hallway, a hand pressed against the window, or a figure at the end of the bed. Sometimes they are a malevolent warning, or they come seeking revenge, or as a horrible reminder of past misdeeds. But ghosts could visit on the brightest summer’s day, on a lonely stretch of beach, making their presence felt just when you least expect it.

The great writers of the nineteenth and early twentieth century, from Elizabeth Gaskell to Rudyard Kipling, also produced some of the most influential ghost stories ever written, shaping the conventions of the form for generations of writers to follow. Collected here are some of the most iconic of these Victorian ghost stories, from Charles Dickens’ “The Signalman” to M.R. James’ “A Warning to the Curious”, alongside more unexpected contributions from masters of the form such as J.S. Le Fanu and Algernon Blackwood.

You may think you don’t believe in ghosts, but these stories will haunt you nonetheless. Get a copy

 

7. “The Ghost of Christmas Secrets” by Bobbi Holmes

It’s hard to know who to trust when you’re worth billions. Christmas brings uninvited family members to Marlow House, vying for Chris Glandon’s favor. One of them may have already killed for it. In the midst of the mystery, Lily is distracted with one question—what isn’t Danielle telling her?  Get a copy

 

 

 

 

 

8. “The Christmas Eve Haunting” by Riley Amitrani

It may seem like any other home in the Wharton State Forest of New Jersey, but come Christmas each year strange happenings occur in a remote cabin at the center of this tale. From a 1950s businessman to a family in the 70s to a present-day family looking for a holiday getaway, none seem to be able to escape the evil lurking in the woods. Get a copy

 

 

 

 

9. “The Signalman: A Ghost Story for Christmas” by Charles Dickens

Halloween might seem like the spookiest time of year, but Charles Dickens felt otherwise. He was among the many authors who set their scariest stories during the dim and shivering days of—yes, Christmas.

First published in 1866 for a special yuletide issue of All the Year Round, Dickens’ “The Signalman” has since fallen into obscurity. An eerie story of isolation, dread, and supernatural visitation, this book is a small treasure, meant to be read aloud on a cold, dark winter night. Get a copy

 

 

10. “Christmas Eve on a Haunted Hulk” by Frank Cowper

When he finds an abandoned duck punt on Christmas Eve, a hunter rows out into the marsh and comes across a shipwreck. He climbs aboard to explore—and finds himself trapped when a surge snaps the mooring line and his punt floats away. Sleep eludes him, and soon he discovers that he’s not the only one trapped on the derelict ship. Get a copy

 

 

 

 

 

11. “Supernatural Christmas Ghost Stories” by Barbara Smith

Bestselling author and trusted storyteller Barbara Smith delves into the heartwarming but sometimes sinister stories at that time of year when people may encounter the specters of those who have passed on to the other side:

• A distraught young man’s encounter with the spirit of his grandfather just before Christmas leads him to the career of his dreams
• Two sailors take refuge in an abandoned house in London’s affluent Berkeley Square on Christmas Eve; by the next morning, one has committed suicide and the other has been driven mad by the house’s ghostly inhabitants
• On the day before Christmas Eve in 1998, security cameras in Leicester’s Belgrave Hall capture the image of an elegant woman in Victorian dress; the Grey Lady is only one of several ghosts inhabiting this stately home
• Two travelers stranded in the Australian Outback are saved by the specter of a teenage boy who gives them a lift into town
• A young man disembarks a train in April 1998 and is taken to a sumptuous hotel where it’s Christmas 1946; he narrowly escapes death and awakes to find himself in the ruins of the burned-out hotel
• A young woman stranded with her baby in a snowbound cabin receives a visit from a kindly spirit who brings food, firewood and money.

And so many more… Get a copy

 

Which Christmas ghost stories will you read?

Let me know in the comments – or share your own favorite collection of Christmas ghost stories!

 

Happy haunting,

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