I know! I know! I’m very late saying this, but – Merry Christmas! It’s my sincerest wish that all of you had a wonderful holiday. You know, there’s a lot that comes to mind whenever I think about Christmas. A giant plastic tree, dressed to the nines in ornaments, with presents hidden underneath. You can’t escape Ol’ Saint Nick as he’s pretty much everywhere. My generation grew up with Linus teaching Charlie Brown the true meaning of Christmas – spoiler alert: it’s about Jesus. And of course, you can find Baby Jesus surrounded by the Three Wise Men, along with Mary and Joseph, on countless front lawns.
I also think about ghost stories.
Wait! What?
Ghost stories on Christmas? Believe it or not, it’s a thing over in Great Britain. Centuries ago, people believed the barrier that separated us from the spirit world was at its thinnest during long winter nights. That’s the perfect atmosphere for telling ghost stories. The process became commercialized and mainstreamed during the Victorian Era. One of the greatest ghost stories came from that time – A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. Even today, the BBC continues the tradition with A Ghost Story for Christmas series.
That seems sacrilegious, doesn’t it? I mean, Christmas is about Jesus, Family, and good will towards men. Ghost stories seem like the opposite, don’t they? Well, let’s think about it for a moment. There’s Dickens’ A Christmas Carol and it’s a story about redemption and second chances. In 1975, Frederick Forsyth wrote The Shepherd which tells the story of an RAF pilot who gets saved by a ghost on Christmas – a tale that highlights second chances and gratitude.
Okay, not all ghost stories are like that, but when you boil away the fluff, you’ll find some themes that can connect with Christmas. The best ghost stories deal with themes of loss and the emotional weight that carries. We don’t often equate Christmas to times of loss and grief. Christmas is a time of celebration. It’s thanking the Big Guy Upstairs for the blessings we have. Sadly we often take such things for granted. It’s only when we lose our blessings that we truly realize what we had, and that understanding brings about grief, regret, and anger – you know, things a ghost often feels.
Telling ghost stories on Christmas isn’t about the scares. It’s teaching us to do the impossible and appreciate what we have now because we will feel its loss when it’s gone, and that grief will stay with us for a time.
