Ghosts For Christmas

When the trailer for Nosferatu first dropped promising a Christmas release, I scoffed at the release date. Nosferatu belongs to October. Vampires in general are a Halloween theme. As are the rest of the ghoulish monsters that populare the lovely season. Ghosts however, are different. When I think of ghosts I think of the chilled winds of winter. The draft coming in the creek of the door that makes the hairs on the back of your neck stand up. The flame of a candle being whisped out, rendering a shuddering darkness in the room. British scribes MR James and Henry James have mastered the ghost story.

Telling ghost stories around Christmas time was a popular tradition in Victorian Britain. Before the advent of electricity, long midwinter nights meant folks had to stop working early, and they spent their leisure hours huddled close to the fire. The oral tradition of telling ghost stories during this time of year became a timely trend. The Industrial Revolution allowed these stories to be printed. Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol becoming the most famous. 

Thanks to Shudder, I have been going through the BBC Christmas Ghost Stories, a strand of short television films made for the BBC between 1971 and 1978. The first five are adaptations of MR James tales while the sixth, The Signalman, is from Charles Dickens. The final two stories are original tales. 

So throw another log in the fireplace and sit in a semi circle as your favorite uncle opens his tome of stories to tell.