The Christmas ghost story tradition is one of England’s finest gifts to the world. Imagine the family gathered in Dickensian fashion, with plum pudding and roasted goose, sitting around the fireplace for a good winter’s night entertainment. Tales of spectres and pixies, of apparitions and revenants abound as the night goes on. The power of Christmas is a goodly pagan one that transcends mere Christianity (to steal a phrase from C. S. Lewis). The tale of creeping vengeance is at least 2000 years, just ask Pliny the Younger.
In North America, this tradition has landed on Halloween, reserving the Yuletide for Macy’s parades and imagery from Coca-Cola or Clement Moore. It is a tinselly, wholesome and completely ghost-free time. Santa Claus has some magic but there is no Krampus in the wings. Crooners and cookies, shopping and swag. The wonder of Santa isn’t even the other side of the Christian coin. His modern mythology was composed by singers like Gene Autry .
What’s a poor fan of holiday horrors to do? Well, firstly, there is an entire library full of fun old books for you here. The Quintessential Ghost Story Library has story collections from all the masters: J. Sheridan Le Fanu, Mrs. Riddell, Rhoda Broughton, Arthur Quiller-Couch, Elliott O’Donnell and so many more.
But there is one name that stands above all the others: Montague Rhodes James, an Eton don who wrote Christmas ghost stories to read to his friends. These thirty-plus stories have stood the test of time as the pinnacle of all that is English and supernatural. So sit back, pretend you are sitting in a circle of chums with egg nog and listen to the master tell his tale….
Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
“Oh Whistle and I’ll Come to You, My Lad”
“The Treasure of Abbot Thomas”
More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary
“Casting the Runes” by M. R. James
“The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral”
“Mr. Humphreys and His Inheritance”
A Thin Ghost and Others
“An Episode in Cathedral History”
“The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance”
A Warning to the Curious
Some Others
“There Was a Man Dwelt by a Churchyard”
“Stories I Have Tried to Write”
THIS IS WONDERFULL!