Ghost stories on Christmas Eve?

[Ninco!]

Genuinely curious, does anyone follow this tradition? Would you frighten the kids before the big day!

When I was a kid, the worst thing with Christmas Eve was being sent to bed early!

Nowadays for me, the archive ghost stories are the highlight of Christmas TV! There is usually some classic spooky story (The Signalman etc).

I think the scariest (gruesome) film I was allowed to watch on Christmas Eve as a kid; was Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Have to say that watching the Women in Black or similar, before Santa would have been an experience - I would have been up all night!!

 

[Hades]

There was a big trend in Christmas Eve ghost stories during the Victorian era. It seems to have died out with the rise of Halloween which people now associate ghosts with. In the 1970's through to 1980s there were a lot of ghost films on TV over Christmas. Afterall just look at A Christmas Carol which is at its heart a ghost story. I do miss spooky Christmas stuff.

 

[Nitefly]

There's a line in "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" about this....

There'll be parties for hosting
Marshmallows for toasting
And caroling out in the snow
There'll be scary ghost stories
And tales of the glories of
Christmases long, long ago

It's the most wonderful time of the year

Always makes me go "wtf" but I guess it did used to be more of a thing!

 

[no_sleep_til]

there are 2 on this Xmas eve. BBC4, the first is the one from 2019 'Martin's Close'. it's not too bad, but not as scary as some of the good M.R James ones which the beeb used to show every Xmas: 'A warning to the curious', 'Lost hearts', etc. they adapted a lot of his works for the ghost stories series.

following that at 22:15 is 'The dead room' (2018) that is a good one which at one point did make me jump Mark Gatiss was the writer of that. i think he is trying to emulate M.R James' style

the original beeb series from the 70's is available on DVD/BluRay as well

 

[Malevolence]

What could be more scary than the story of the fat bearded bloke who breaks in and then sneaks into their bedrooms and empties his sack?

 

[Kainz]

What could be more scary than the story of the fat bearded bloke who breaks in and then sneaks into their bedrooms and empties his sack?

 

[Ninco!]

Charles Dickens The Signalman is one of my favourite ghostly stories.

Cheers @no_sleep_til I'm a big fan of Mark Gatiss and his documentaries about horror, they are awesome. Shame the Beeb only shows now and again! You have reminded me of the classic seventies BBC films of M.R. James!

Yet to try Gatiss' rendition of Dracula, I kind of got put off from the short snippets I have seen, a bit too different - I like the ol' Christopher Lee version!

 

[TheMightyTen]

A few years ago now, one Christmas Eve BBC2 ran a set of short dramatizations of various Edgar Allan Poe stories, it was an excellent evening of entertainment and genuinely felt Christmassy since when I was young kid and we used to fly back from Germany to stay at one or others of my grandparents for Christmas as my old man always seemed to get his Northern Ireland stints every other Christmas, my Grandmother in Rugby always used to tell us ghost stories on Christmas Eve

 

[no_sleep_til]

Yet to try Gatiss' rendition of Dracula, I kind of got put off from the short snippets I have seen, a bit too different - I like the ol' Christopher Lee version!

his 'Dracula' is very leftfield, but an interesting take on the story. most of the story which massively moves away from the Bram Stoker version is in episode 3. the first 2 episodes are close to the Stoker version: Harker goes to the castle, is slowly 'consumed', becomes a servant as such. then it moves to a nunnery, in which actress Dolly Wells plays a blindingly good part. that's also away from the original book, but still adds some good context to the story.

pt:2 is set on the 'Demeter'. the boat hired to ship his coffin to Whitby. that also goes into a lot of extra depth about the characters on board and why they are are there. i can't really add more to that because it will spoil the "aha" moment towards the end

pt: 3 - what can i say, but it moves into the Mark Gatiss universe and diverges a great deal, but i didn't mind it. there was a lot of criticism on Twitter, etc. that he had moved too far from the original Bram Stoker version, but that's artistic license isn't it!

i also think Mark Gatiss is superbly talented writer!

 

[no_sleep_til]

just a couple of personal recommendations regarding Xmas ghost stories which were broadcast:

'the Crooked House' - Mark Gatiss wrote & stars in this. it's a 3-parter and quite spooky!
and
'The Tractate Middoth' another one well worth checking out!