Christmas Reading List: Ghost Stories for Christmas

So today I'm changing it up just a little. There is this cool Victorian tradition of telling ghost stories on Christmas Eve, something I learned about and adopted a few years ago after the fabulous Laura Benedict released Haunted Holidays: 3 Short Tales of Terror. The little collection features a tale by Benedict herself as well as one by Carolyn Haines and one by Lisa Morton. All three are Christmas themed and all three are fantastic!

For tonight's reading, I'm diving into Michael McDowell's The Elementals. This is one I've had in my TBR for a while and tonight seems like the perfect night to read it. Plus, it's on the short side so I'll be able to read around our family Christmas Eve festivities.

If you're looking for some ghost stories of your own to read, the folks a Biblioasis have released a selection of classic shorts for just this purpose. Each is available in an illustrated paperback (about the size of your wallet) or eshort and includes Charles Dickens's "The Signalman", Edith Wharton's "Afterward", W. W. Jacobs's "The Toll House", E. F. Benson's "How Fear Departed the Long Gallery", A. M. Burrage's "One Who Saw", Marjorie Bowen's "The Crown Derby Plate", and M. R. James's "The Diary of Mr. Poynter".

I should note that all of these are in the public domain. I've no doubt you can find some if not all of them through Project Gutenberg if you so desire.