The ghosts of Christmas past
READ YOUR CRACKER JOKES AND PLAYED CHARADES? GATHER ROUND FOR ANOTHER, PERHAPS SURPRISING, CHRISTMAS TRADITION – THE SHARING OF SPOOKY STORIES
You may consider Halloween the season for ghosts and ghouls, but look beyond the sparkles and twinkly lights and you’ll realise that spooky season is still very much upon us. After all, as Andy Williams crooned in the classic It’s the Most Wonderful Time of The Year, “scary ghost stories” are just as vital to Christmas as mulled wine and far too many mince pies. And while we may think of Charles Dickens’ 1843 classic A Christmas Carol as the original festive ghostly tale, this book actually helped bring back a centuriesold tradition that was at risk of being forgotten.
IN THE BLEAK MID- WINTER
Before Christmas was synonymous with Christianity, all over the world celebrations were held around this time. These December festivities hit the period around winter solstice when the nights are at their longest and there’s arguably no better way to cheer things up than with a bit of a party. But the darkness of those long nights also contributed to a sense of foreboding that couldn’t be shaken, no matter how many lights were lit and songs sung. With the feeling that the doors were wide open to the unknown, ghost stories became a staple part of these celebrations.
There are countless examples of these terrifying tales, including the fantastically titled 13th-century Icelandic tale, Thorir Wooden-leg and his Undead Company, in which a group of ghosts terrify Yule feast partygoers. Or the medieval tale of the tailor Snowball, who encounters a ghastly spirit one dark winter’s night. By Shakespeare’s time, the tradition of telling spooky stories during winter festivities like Christmas was a pop culture phenomenon. The Bard gives it a mention in his aptly named A Winter’s Tale, with the line: ‘A sad tale’s best for winter: I have one of sprites and goblins.’
BAH HUMBUG
But, by 1647, the creepy Christmas fun was over when Oliver Cromwell made Christmas illegal in England. Despite a spate of riots over the ban, even when it was lifted 13 years later, Christmas didn’t go back to being the festival it once was. Ghost stories were still told, but they were thought of as part of a winter tradition; no longer directly tied to the holiday itself.
By the early 19th century, Christmas was just another working day, albeit one where you might get drunk and sing carols. But this wasn’t the case for Charles Dickens. He believed Christmas was special and wanted to bring back the festival and its traditions. In 1836, he wrote the not-so-catchily named short story, The Story of the Goblins who Stole a Sexton. It was a kind of test for his next ghostly festive tale, A Christmas Carol.
GHOSTS OF CHRISTMAS PRESENT
The tale of Scrooge and the three ghosts that visit him truly revolutionised Christmas. In fact, many historians credit the novel with not only bringing back the modern tradition of Christmas, but popularising now ubiquitous festive phrases like “Merry Christmas!” It also hailed the return of the Christmas ghost story.
Arguably, there was no better time in history for this spooky comeback to happen. Although we now think of the Victorians as strait-laced and
rigid, they had an undying passion for the macabre. This was an era of séances, spiritualism and belief in real-life hauntings. If ever a society was primed and ready for not only enjoying the reintroduction of Christmas ghost stories but making it a cultural fixture overnight, it was the Victorians.
After A Christmas Carol, Dickens went on to write further festively themed ghost stories, including 1848’s The Haunted Man and the Ghost’s Bargain: A Fancy for Christmas-Time, and 1859’s The Haunted House. Other writers soon followed with their own take on the new genre, including well-known names such as Elizabeth Gaskell and M.R. James, who remains a critic’s favourite for his penmanship of almost 40 ghostly tales. Classic spine-tinglers such as Henry James’ The Turn of the Screw and Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Body Snatcher came out in the subsequent decades.
And just look at the cultural fare on offer this Christmas, you’ll realise it’s a tradition that continues to this day. Along with releases of compendiums of the best Christmas ghost stories, such tales are a prominent feature of Christmas TVs schedules. Whether it’s Downton Abbey featuring a Ouija board in their Christmas episode or BBC and ITV making spooky blockbuster drama’s like last year’s fare of Dracula, Martin’s Close ( based on an M.R. James story) and Susan Hill’s Ghost Story. And that’s not to mention the ubiquitous re-runs of every version of A Christmas Carol ever made. So, switch off the lights and grab a cushion to hide behind: the ghosts of Christmas past, though once forgotten, are back.
• Fancy curling up with a spine-tingling read? Turn l to p130 for Jess Kidd’s creepy tale for Christmas.