Ghost stories remind us to be leery of what lurks in the dark.
What is it about ghost stories that stirs our imaginations, causes our flesh to raise and pimple and our hair to stand on end?
Even those that hate that feeling of terror, still seem to be fascinated with tales of otherworldly happenings or the idea of something is just ‘not right’. 
What could possibly be the cause of those mysterious thumps in the middle of the night? Unseen footsteps creaking down the staircase, shadows that flicker so quickly, we can’t really be sure we saw something, and yet, what if?
Oddly enough, the tradition of ghost stories was generally told around a cozy fire on Christmas Eve. Nowadays, one wouldn’t think of ‘ghosts’ and Christmas coinciding with each other, but in Victorian times it was an integral part of celebrating the holiday.
Who among us has not heard of Dicken’s popular story from “A Christmas Carol” when the crotchety Ebeneezer Scrooge was visited by a trio of ghosts. His tale remains popular today as a reminder that we can always change our ways and most importantly, listen to the ghost of ‘Yet to come’.
As in most ghost stories of this era, there always appeared to include some sort of moral
ending. Don’t be greedy, be kind to strangers….that sort of thing. Of course, the fact that Christmas happens to fall in the dead of winter, when homes were often snowed in, didn’t hurt the appeal.
Where nights were long and days short, no wonder stories would be a rather appropriate way to while away the time. Many owners of old English taverns still boast of ‘ghostly’ knocks on the door come Christmas Eve and of course, no one is there to be greeted when the door is opened. Perhaps a visitor from a time in the distant past has come to revive the tradition of ghost stories.
Though this tradition has been replaced by Christmas carols, parties and frantic parents attempting to assemble a hundred pieces of metal and screws in some form of a bicycle come early morning, the art of telling stories hasn’t been lost forever. Although these days, we’ve added the touch of having our storytellers sometimes dress up in a creepy ghost costume.
For those of us who still enjoy the night air and a good campfire, why it seems a good ghost story is bound to come out. Thank goodness we are still easily scared, or this historical pastime might become as elusive as spirits themselves.
Emma Rae Curtis is a costume/dressing up/makeup & accessories expert. She mainly writes about Halloween but also about all things costume and dress-up related.
