One of my favourite Victorian Christmas traditions is the telling of ghost stories on Christmas Eve, and M. R. James is the undisputed master of it. A prolific author of short horror stories, much of his work was written for the specific purpose of reading aloud at his annual Christmas Eve party, where select staff…
Santa has some scary friends. We all know about Krampus by now, the hairy goat-demon from the Alps, but it turns out he’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to Father Christmas’ European enforcers. Meet Hans Trapp, the undead cannibal scarecrow who terrorises children in Alsace, France. Surprisingly, of all Santa’s terrifying…
I was inspired to write this post at the beginning of November, watching the post Halloween despair sweep it’s way across my social media feeds. Christmas creep has come for us, and now everything is covered in twinkly lights, unsettling nutcracker statues, and exhortations to shop your way to happiness the moment the ghosts and…
Gothic Auntie 