Ghost stories during the holidays?

[_zeezrom]

Do you think the holidays are a good time for ghost stories?

Yes or no and why?

I think yes because it is dark and a time full of fantasy.

[_Blixa]

Oh Yes! This is such a tradition in England. Oh, I will have to look up the Christmas ghost story television specials from the 70's on the BBC. They are so wonderful.

Also The Turn of the Screw opens with a house party holiday ghost story telling frame narrative.

[_Quasimodo]

Do you think the holidays are a good time for ghost stories?

Yes or no and why?

I think yes because it is dark and a time full of fantasy.

It was a dark and stormy night...

I have one or two of my very own. Let me know if you would like to hear them.

[_Blixa]

You can find a lot of them here. It seems they were doing an all M. R. James series for a while. M. R. James is the Master.

http://www.youtube.com/results?search_q ... 3s9BH7DJGk

[_EAllusion]

The idea of ghost stories during Christmas time to me is utterly foreign. The only reference to it I had for the longest time was the line "There'll be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago" from It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year and Dickens' a Christmas carol. The song alone told me that this is something people used to do, but it wasn't until later on I learned that this a Victorian tradition largely dead in the US that still goes on in pockets.

[_zeezrom]

Let me know if you would like to hear them.

yes!

Hopefully reading them won't keep me up.

[_honorentheos]

Do you think the holidays are a good time for ghost stories?

Yes or no and why?

I think yes because it is dark and a time full of fantasy.

Yes.

When we were kids, on Christmas Eve we'd all gather our blankets and sleeping bags into the family room and camp out. (Tree and presents were in the Living Room and I come from a big family, more than the Mormon 5.)

I'm not sure why, but probably when I was in 3rd or 4th grade I decided to borrow a book of scary stories from the elementary school library to read over the holiday break. And, being kids, we had a hard time falling asleep on Christmas Eve. I ended up reading the book that night and it became a sort of tradition for years afterward. Even to this day I get an urge to read something like that around Christmas time.

It's weird to think there are traditional roots for this type of association. Scary.