Ghost Stories of Christmas

Ghost Stories of Christmas

When it comes to Christmas, we’re used to things being bright and cheery, and maybe with a hint of Scroogey tales to remind us how lucky we are. However, Ebenezer and his three ghosts aren’t the only spooky tales to come out of Christmas. In fact, at one time, ghost stories were far more relevant to Christmas than red-nosed reindeer. Even so, ghost stories and haunted happenings are part of what made Christmas what it is today.

As the best ghost tour company in San Antonio and Corpus Christi, we’re here to tell you a bit about some of our favorite Christmas ghost stories and the history of the tradition that lives on largely through Dickens’ tale of Scrooge and his ghost guided tour through Christmases past, present, and future. 

Enjoy our haunted tales, and remember us when you’re looking for something fun and unique to do in San Antonio or Corpus Christi, where our guided walking tours take you on a trip through the cities’ historical haunts. 

The History of Christmas Ghost Stories

The tradition of telling ghost stories at Christmas is one so rich that, by some accounts, it helped resurrect the holiday. By the time Dickens came along with “Carol” in 1863, Christmas was fading as a holiday. In the 1700’s, England was under the rule of Oliver Cromwell as the Lord and Protector. Cromwell despised Christmas, sighting its excesses as a decadent blemish on the character of English society at the time.

Up until this point, Christmas was pretty similar to how we celebrate it today. There was lots of food, decorating, singing, and of course, presents. Cromwell even banned the singing of Christmas Carols. However, one tradition that hasn’t carried on as heavily is the sharing of ghost stories. Unfortunately for him, it’s the one tradition that Cromwell might have cared for. Most of the stories were often meant to teach listeners about some of the more important concepts in life, like the significance of life and death and the effect our lives have on others. Scrooge is maybe the last great Christmas story, but here are a few more to haunt your holidays.

Christmas Ghost Stories

Our tales are a mixture of real experiences, potentially embellished truths, and the famous stories that started to gain popularity again in the Victorian period on the strength of Dickens’ work.

A Haunted Christmas at Alcatraz

Alcatraz has long been the subject of haunted tales, and with such a grizzly past, it’s not surprising. Even before the island became the U.S. prison facility that it is so well known for being, Native Americans would exile wrongdoers to the island where they were reported to be plagued by spirits. One Christmas day, the prison’s warden, James Johnston, held a Christmas party for his staff. Despite their surroundings, the atmosphere was bright and cheery until the lights went out.

Reportedly all at once, the hall went quiet, the temperature plummeted, the fire went out, and a man with mutton chops and a gray suit appeared. Apparently seen by the staff for nearly a full minute, the spirit abruptly disappeared, the fire returned, and the room returned to normal. The party, however, stayed extinguished.

“Oh, Whistle, and I’ll come to you, My Lad” 

A tale set in the fictional English town of Burnstow, this story is hailed by some as one of the best ghost stories of all time, Christmas-themed or not. The story is essentially about a man who is visited by terrors that are given power by the snobby professor’s own lack of self-awareness. Professor Parkins, the main character of our story, is stuck in his own world view, haunted by his own tribulations and shortcomings. Parkins takes a snippet of what’s going on around him and conflates it as his entire reality, a concept that is all too relevant to society, especially in our day and age.

One day while inspecting an archeological site for a friend, the professor finds a whistle with Latin engravings. Curious, but unable to read the writing, Parkins blows the whistle. From there, Parkins is followed, by a creature who is always close by but never quite catches him. Readers and viewers, as this story has been adapted for film, are left to wonder what the creature is and what exactly its intentions are.

The Story of Krampus

Maybe the best known scary Christmas story, next to certain adaptations of “A Christmas Carol,” this one is more of a myth than a ghost story, but it has haunted children for centuries. At RJA tours, we aren’t the ones to dismiss any paranormal tales. 

Krampus is a demonic, goat-like creature that punishes naughty children. The ultimate goal of these tales is to encourage kids to be good throughout the year, as Krampus doesn’t leave coal — he takes children. Reaffirming that you’d rather have a ghost in your house than a demon, Krampus doesn’t take children on a brisk walk of “what might be,” but rather pulls them into the underworld and introduces them to the rest of their miserable days. (Or, if they’re lucky, he beats them with a birch branch.)

Bramshill House’s Mistletoe Bride

The details of this story have been disputed, such as the name of the woman who died and whether or not her body was found before or after her tomb was unknowingly brought into the Bramshill house. What remains the same, no matter what version you’re exposed to, is the circumstances in which the mistletoe bride died. A young bride, like so many in her day, our ghost proposed a game before her untimely, Christmas day death. Rather than be carried to her bridal bed after the reception, as was the tradition at the time, the young bride proposed a game of hide-and-seek. Her husband, a lord, and her guests obliged, but at the end of the game, the bride was nowhere to be found. 

People understandably assumed that the bride had made her escape and wandered somewhere far away. Given a five-minute head start, the lord was left searching for his bride until he eventually found her...50 years later. In what could be spun as a tale of the terror of excess, the woman laid years in her husband’s attic for all that time. Enclosed in a wooden chest in the attic of a mansion that sits on nearly 300 acres, the young bride was found still in her wedding dress, holding a sprig of mistletoe, with scratch marks on the ceiling of her spring-locked resting place.

The Figure in the Recliner

Our final story is a bit merrier, but with it comes haunting evidence of the merits of Christmas ghost stories, why they should be told, and whether or not our other ghost stories have some truth to them.

Set much further in the future than our other tales, this relatively pleasant haunting occurred on Christmas Eve in 1971. Living in Ontario at the time, our main character and his expectant wife were enjoying a cozy Christmas fire and wrapping up the last of their gifts. A single strand of lights hadn’t been working on their Christmas tree. However, as the fireplace and the rest of the lights went dark, the broken strand was suddenly lit. As with the happenings at Alcatraz, the temperature plummeted.

Sitting in the couple’s Lay-Z-Boy was the man’s mother, who had passed roughly seven years before. She hadn’t come to bring a mother-in-law’s wrath, but rather just sat and smiled at the couple. Neither the man nor his bride felt they should be scared. At midnight, according to the man, the fireplace and the working lights came back on, while the lights that had been broken never lit again. 

Originally connected to the winter solstice of paganism, there was a belief that the end of the year brought the best chance for souls to cross into the realm of the living. This story, along with Alcatraz’s, gives some circumstantial evidence to that being the truth, and it maybe gives a little merit to the idea that Christmas is about so much more than presents.

Visit RJA Ghost Tours for Ghost Stories Year Round

It doesn’t have to be Christmas to give the gift of a good scare. RJA Ghost Tours provides ghost walk tours year-round to San Antonio and Corpus Christi. We’ll take you all around these historic and cities to visit haunted hotels, downtown, the darker side of popular tourist areas, and all the most haunted places in the area. When you’re looking for fun things to do in San Antonio or Corpus Christi, make us your first call!

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