Macabre! My husband asked me how I was enjoying the book while we were lifting weights today, and I said, "It is so weird. The story I am listening to now is about dead people!" This led my youngest son to comment that the Andy William's song, "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year" does have that weird line about "telling scary ghost stories." This led me to this REALLY interesting article:
"Telling Ghost Stories is a Lost Tradition on Christmas Eve"
Apparently, ghost stories were really common during the Victorian Era, and the quintessential ghost story is Dickens' A Christmas Carol! So, it would follow that his short stories would also have that flavor.
Fascinating! This was not my favorite read especially compared to the Favorite Stories of Christmas Past I just read. I realized that that audiobook was by all but one American author. I don't know if the "ghost stories" of England were as popular here!“Whenever five or six English-speaking people meet round a fire on Christmas Eve, they start telling each other ghost stories,” wrote British humorist Jerome K. Jerome as part of his introduction to an anthology of Christmas ghost stories titled “Told After Supper“ in 1891. “Nothing satisfies us on Christmas Eve but to hear each other tell authentic anecdotes about specters.”
It was good to get a dose of Dickens Shorts though. Here is a list of the stories:
"A Christmas Tree" - This is the macabre one that analyzes the Christmas tree, and then it just gets rambling and weird about death and ghosts. I did not really care for it, but here is a review of it:"What Christmas is as We Grow Older" - Not bad, but not anything earth-shattering"The Poor Relation's Story" - This one is more likeable. I liked this one."The Child's Story" - I liked this second best, but what strange stories to tell for Christmas!"The Schoolboy's Story" - This one was the most interesting
"Nobody's Story" - Is this where we get our term "bigwig"?
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