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25 Christmas Ghost Stories for December (and a 12-Night Version)
The Victorians told ghost stories at Christmas, and the habit is coming back. Every December, readers taking part in the #25SpookyStories challenge, run by Notebook of Ghosts, read one ghost story a day from the first of the month to Christmas, or twelve if they’re short on time. Here are 25 classic Christmas and winter ghost stories to do it with, all free to read on Daily Creepypasta. Each one was written for a Christmas issue, is set in winter or at Christmas, or comes from M. R. James, who read his stories aloud to friends at Christmas. They start short and mostly grow longer as the nights do, with a long one for the solstice, Gaskell’s snowbound classic for Christmas Eve and a story set on Christmas Day for the 25th.
For where the tradition came from, and longer notes on fifteen of these stories, see our guide to Christmas ghost stories and the Victorian tradition.
The 25: one a day, December 1 to 25
Each entry gives the author, length and reading time. Altogether they come to about 13 and a half hours of reading, a little longer out loud.
Dec 1 · Yuki-Onna
The snow woman: a snowstorm, a ferryman’s hut and a promise.
Dec 2 · Jerry Bundler
Ghost stories by the inn fire a few nights before Christmas.
Dec 3 · The Festival
A Yuletide festival far older than Christmas.
Dec 4 · Lost Hearts
Published in December 1895: a winter tale of an orphan and his scholar cousin.
Dec 5 · Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book
M. R. James’s first published ghost story.
Dec 6 · The Trial for Murder
From Dickens’s Christmas number of 1865.
Dec 7 · The Mezzotint
The picture that changes.
Dec 8 · The Signal-Man
From Mugby Junction, the Christmas number of 1866.
Dec 9 · The Horror-Horn
A Swiss ski resort in the snowy weeks around Christmas.
Dec 10 · Madam Crowl's Ghost
Published in All the Year Round in December 1870, and it happens “in winter time”.
Dec 11 · The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral
The story behind the first of the BBC’s A Ghost Story for Christmas films (1971).
Dec 12 · The Treasure of Abbot Thomas
M. R. James’s treasure hunt, filmed for the BBC’s A Ghost Story for Christmas in 1974.
Dec 13 · The Body Snatcher
From the Pall Mall Christmas “Extra” of 1884.
Dec 14 · A Warning to the Curious
James’s late masterpiece: something on the Suffolk coast that must stay buried.
Dec 15 · The Glamour of the Snow
A ghost story of the Alps in deep snow.
Dec 16 · “Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad”
Probably the most famous M. R. James story.
Dec 17 · The Four-Fifteen Express
A December train journey to a country house, with Christmas coming.
Dec 18 · Strange Disturbances in Aungier Street
Published in the Dublin University Magazine in December 1853, and meant to be told by a winter fire.
Dec 19 · The Upper Berth
First published in a Christmas annual, Unwin’s Annual for 1886, which came out in 1885.
Dec 20 · Afterward
A Dorset manor in the December dusk.
Dec 21 · Amour Dure
A diary that runs to Christmas Eve, and a long story for the longest night.
Dec 22 · Olalla
From the Christmas 1885 issue of The Court and Society Review.
Dec 23 · The Open Door
The visitation comes only in November and December.
Dec 24 · The Old Nurse's Story
For Christmas Eve: written for Dickens’s Christmas number of 1852, with snow at the window.
Dec 25 · Markheim
Set on Christmas Day.
The 12-night version
Twelve from the list above, for the twelve days of Christmas (December 25 to January 5) or the last twelve nights before Christmas. All twelve run under 45 minutes, so each one works for a single sitting read aloud. Together they come to just under five hours.
- The Signal-Man
- Jerry Bundler
- The Trial for Murder
- Lost Hearts
- Canon Alberic's Scrap-Book
- The Mezzotint
- The Horror-Horn
- Madam Crowl's Ghost
- The Stalls of Barchester Cathedral
- “Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad”
- A Warning to the Curious
- The Old Nurse's Story
For more, every ghost story on the site is on the Ghost Stories page, and our guide to M. R. James and his circle has more from the master of the Christmas ghost story.
AI was involved in writing this article.