With Halloween over, many people are gearing up for the big winter holiday season. I thought today might be a good day to look at a tradition that surprisingly connects Halloween and Christmas: telling ghost stories out loud.

Think about when or how you’ve heard people tell ghost stories. I usually hear them around Halloween time.( In popular media, people are depicted as telling ghost stories around the campfire during summer camping trips, but since I am *not* a camping person, I can’t confirm this!) For the most part, I associate ghost stories with the so-called “Spooky Season” leading into Halloween.

But in the ninteteenth century, ghost stories were actually associated with Christmas. If you’ve ever read Henry James’ novella The Turn of the Screw, the frame narrative at the beginning is set at Christmas time, and it explicitly refers to the tradition of telling ghost stories around the fire. The very first line of the frame narrative talks about the house guests listening to a story “around the fire” describes the story as “gruesome, as, on Christmas Eve in an old house, a strange tale should essentially be . . .” The story that follows about a governess and two children is presented as another such “gruesome” Christmas story, though guests don’t get to hear it until a few days after Christmas.

Even if you’re not familiar with The Turn of the Screw, you’ve probably enountered references to this old tradition. In the Twentieth Century Christmas song “It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year,” there’s a reference to “scary ghost stories.” I’m guessing that line doesn’t make a lot of sense to many people who hear the song each year! But you can find numerous discussions of this tradition online, such as this article from the History Channel.

People sometimes imply that the tradition of ghost stories at Christmas dates back to Charles Dickens’ 1843 novel A Christmas Carol, but there are indications that the tradition predates Dickens. This article by Book Riot discusses some of the precursers of Dickens’ Christmas ghost stories. It’s true, though, that A Christmas Carol remains the most famous example of ghost stories associated with Christmas Eve.

Because of the long history of telling ghost stories at Christmas, you may find some fiction set in the Regency era referencing the tradition. And that’s why we’re talking about it here!

My forthcoming novel, Secrets at Selwyn Castle, takes place across three weeks, from a week before Christmas to Twelfth Night. On Christmas Day, after having feasted and celebrated all day, the house guests gather in the drawing room to hear ghost stories. Female lead Ivy Burnley listens as other guests tell stories:

Mr. Selwyn related a couple of gruesome tales. So did Lord Crowthorne, who had very good delivery. But, to her surprise, quiet Miss Canning displayed a turn for narrative that outdid all the other storytellers. The story she told was simple and traditional, involving a dying curse, a lady in white, and a family secret. But she delivered it so well, the hairs on the back of Ivy’s neck stood on end at the story’s climax.

Fun fact: the “Miss Canning” who tells the best story is the heroine of one of my current works-in-progress, Discovery at Dogwood Cottage. I’ve enjoyed getting to know this character more as I draft her story. And, before anyone asks: yes, there is a legend of a ghost haunting Dogwood Cottage!