An Invitation

Written By Nicole Levine

Let’s resurrect the ghost story tradition for Christmas 2024.

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I'm not a natural horror fan. As a child, I cowered in the hallway during Sesame Street when the Count came on the screen. My mother once used our family's old recipe for Christmas sugar cookies, tinged with a bit of tartness and a bite of nutmeg, to make Sesame Street cutout cookies.

I was afraid of the Count cookie.

So it went, clinging to friends when we visited the wax museums in Salem, Massachusetts to learn about the witch trials. Closing my eyes at the scary parts in movies. Reading spoilers to horror movies with fascination rather than taking a seat in the theater to see for myself.

In the last few years, I cultivated an appreciation for a good atmospheric scare. The quickening in the pulse, the flutter in the belly, and a moment of my mind fixing on a story unfolding, completely immersed in the experience. Mindfulness with a kick.

Maybe that's why Halloween is catching up to Christmas as our culture's favorite holiday, if it hasn't surpassed it already.

Bring Back Winter Chills

Halloween didn't always get to have all the fun. Ghost stories told by firelight on a cold night were a Christmas tradition long before Christmas cards. During Christmastime, the veil thinned between the worlds, and we felt closer to beloved we lost. A Christmas Carol is only one yuletide ghost story penned by Charles Dickens, and probably the best-known tale set against a Christmas backdrop.

We keep flirting with the idea of reuniting the spooky with our winter holidays. The Nightmare Before Christmas is a favorite that bridges Halloween and Christmas. Krampus has had a moment the last few years.

Let's breathe life into the ghost story tradition with a brand new collection of stories in the tradition of Dickens, E. Nesbit, and M.R. James. Heavy with atmosphere and meaning. Cobwebs tangled with tinsel. Stories set during the winter holidays or framed by them. Winter chills of the spectral kind.

The Plan

I'm asking for submissions of new ghost stories suitable for telling around a fire with a cup of hot cider. Here's what I'd like to do with them:

  • Publish them in a suitably bound booklet.

  • Match as many as we can with an original illustration.

  • This would live in print and online. Ideally, we’d reveal a story a day leading up to Christmas.

  • Share a full story or excerpt daily from Dec. 1 to Christmas, 2025.

  • Celebrate around a nice bonfire with spiced cider and readings from our publication.

  • Make this anthology an annual tradition.

You’re Invited

Please consider joining me. Write a Christmas ghost story. Leave your bats and skulls up beyond October and give them a place among your twinkle lights, cookies, trees, and wrapping paper.

If you're a visual artist, consider partnering with us to bring these stories to life.

Nicole Levine