Twenty Christmas Tales on the Dark Side, To Read or To Hear for a Pre-Yule Weekend

To celebrate the tradition of Christmas ghost stories, here are 20 ghost and horror stories to sink your teeth into this holiday season.  Some you can read, others you can listen to,[image error] but best of all, they’re available free-of-charge.  So, venture forth, if you dare. . .

So begins “20 Ghost and Horror Stories for Christmas” by Michael David Wilson, via LITREACTOR.COM, a treat that screams to be shared.  But including Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Pit and the Pendulum” (number 9)?  Well, as compiler Wilson explains, the story’s original publication was in THE GIFT:  A CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR’S PRESENT FOR 1843.  Other than that, though, the other offerings have themes or settings more Christmas-like too, and what a selection, again all with links to texts and/or podcasts!  Algernon Blackwood’s “The Kit Bag.”  “Christmas Present” by Ramsey Campbell.  M.R. James, “Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad.”  And sixteen more, contemporary as well as classics, which can be savored by pressing here.

Merry Christmas to all!