Ghost Stories for Christmas

 “His ghost stories transformed the genre like a galvanic shock. His universe — the one which made him famous as a first-rate writer of ghost stories — is not one of clear boundaries between good and evil, but one in which the two merge and blend, trespass and encroach. He was deeply concerned about human corruption — both more broadly in society and individually within the spirit — and this plays out chillingly in his best tales.” — M. Grant Kellermeyer, from his introduction to A Warning to the Curious, Count Magnus, and Other Horrors: The Best Ghost Stories and Weird Fiction of M. R. James 

For my last blog post of the year, I thought that I would write about Christmas and ghosts. I never realized how connected they are until recently. 

Most people who celebrate Christmas are probably familiar with the song “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” as sung by Andy Williams. I listened to it growing up and I heard it recently in Hawkeye, the latest series from Marvel. I wonder how many people are familiar with one particular line though:

There’ll be parties for hosting

Marshmallows for toasting

And caroling out in the snow

There’ll be scary ghost stories

And tales of the glories of 

Christmases of long ago

Huh. I’ve lost count how many times I’ve listened to the song, but I don’t remember the line about scary ghost stories. Although telling ghost stories in December isn’t a thing in present day America, I learned that it was quite popular in Victorian England. While that tradition made it over to America it never really caught on. The writers of the lyrics seem to remember though.

Telling spooky stories at the end of year began as an oral tradition, stories told around a fire during long dark evenings. This tradition became even more popular in Victorian England with the invention of the printing press. I was familiar with A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, but I had no idea that he also wrote other ghost stories and that he included lots of ghost stories at the end of the year in the magazines that he edited.

Last month I learned about a reading challenge where participants were to read the ghost stories of M. R. James. M. R. James was a medievalist scholar, and he was provost of King’s College, Cambridge and of Eaton College. Many of the stories were written to be read out loud to his friends at the end of the year. 

The creator of the challenge made a list of twenty-six stories with the idea being to read one story a day from November 30th to December 25th. I decided to join in since I already had his first collection, Ghost Stories of an Antiquary, but hadn't read it yet. The Kindle version also includes his second collection More Ghost Stories of an Antiquary. That still didn’t cover all the stories on the list, so I also downloaded a complete collection, and I was all set.

I enjoyed the stories a lot and decided to learn more about the author. This led me down a rabbit hole. I eventually learned about the lyrics above as well as other connections between ghost stories and Christmas, like the annual A Ghost Story for Christmas specials from the BBC. 

A Ghost Story for Christmas is a series of television specials from the 1970s. Most of them were adaptations of M. R. James stories and directed by Lawrence Gordon Clark. The BBC has revived the series recently in specials directed by Mark Gatiss. The latest one was just released, an adaptation of “The Mezzotint” by M. R. James. I’ve watched most of them and enjoyed them. One thing that added to my enjoyment was spotting actors who have played Time Lords on Doctor Who. So far, I’ve spotted four. 

While that was fun, I’ve been thinking about why I’ve been drawn to horror fiction recently. It’s much more than just the thrill that these kinds of stories can provide. I think it’s because I’ve become more concerned about the things mentioned in the quote above.  

Here's hoping for a better 2022.