Halloween is Over...Time to Tell Ghost Stories!

Christmas is the time to tell ghost stories!  At least, it was in Victorian England.  It makes sense.  There was no Halloween, it was dark earlier, it was very cold, so people weren't out and about.  There was no television, or radio, and as the family gathered around the fire in the evenings after dinner, it makes sense that it was the time to tell ghost stories.

Charles Dickens gets much of the credit for continuing the Christmas ghost story tradition.  He managed to tell a ghost story, and bring in the warm spirit of Christmas both at once with A Christmas Carol.  That wasn't his only ghost story, and it was only one example of his love of ghost stories.  Every year he would release a periodical at Christmastime featuring ghost stories contributed by several writers.

There was a bittersweet moment at the end of the evening on Halloween, where I didn't want to say goodbye to the spooky holiday.  As I look to the upcoming Thanksgiving and Christmas traditions, I think it's time to resurrect the Victorian tradition of telling ghost stories!  It's a tradition that should never be allowed to go out of style.