Yuletide Cheer and... Scary Stories?
The Victorians loved a good ghost story, even on Christmas Eve. On the Victorian practice of yuletide ghost stories, and how the period transformed Christmas celebrations for generations.
A family gathers around the fireplace on a stormy night. The wind rattles the shutters and howls through the chimney as cascading rain pelts the windows. The children huddle closely; their hearts race in anticipation. Grandfather takes center stage, and in his rumbling baritone, he begins the story. The children squeal with fright as he spins a yarn about a governess who goes to work in a dark and gloomy castle… only to discover that the attic is haunted by the spirits of children who had mysteriously died on the property years ago…
You’d be forgiven for assuming that the above scene took place on Halloween. But for past generations, the telling of ghost stories was also a Christmas Eve tradition.
It’s unclear when this custom began. Shakespeare’s The Winter’s Tale references the practice of telli…