Different cultures have their own takes on the supernatural too, and dipping into new-to-you legends can reclaim that feeling of discovery all over again. Ghost books for adults are often even creepier, especially if you're able to suspend disbelief for the time it takes to get to the last page. Many of us probably remember our first childhood ghost story, but we don't have to leave them behind as we grow up.

When I was a kid, my parents introduced me to the excitement of the genre with an audiobook of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, a collection of spooky tales that's since gained a cult following. There's just something about being intentionally scared that's equal parts thrilling and satisfying. They're a reminder that we're all haunted, all the time, by good ghosts and bad, and that they all have something to tell us.Whether told around a campfire, whispered at sleepovers, or devoured with a flashlight under the covers, ghost books and spooky stories have a unique way of getting under our skin. As Dickens wrote, the ghosts of Christmas are really the past, present and future, swirling around us in the dead of the year. Though to modern eyes, Halloween might be a more appropriate holiday for ghosts, Christmas makes sense. The ghost story tradition has even made it some way into modern times, preserved in places like the lyricsВ to Christmas classic вЂњItвЂ™s the Most Wonderful Time of the YearвЂќ which talks about вЂњscary ghost stories.вЂќ Riddell laid the groundwork for twentieth-century tales by the likes of A.M. And with it came the ghost stories that British Christmas is now known for. Medieval people from Britain and elsewhere also had Christmas ghost stories, writes author and ghost story expert Jon Kaneko-James on his blog.Д«ut with A Christmas Carol occurring around the same time as the invention of the commercial Christmas card and nineteenth-century businesses looking to create a new commercial holiday, Christmas saw a resurgence in Britain. вЂњOn the top of the list was Christmas and all its festive trappings.вЂќ Prior to this, he writes, Christmas was celebrated in much the way that a modern Christmas is: lots of food and drink, decorations and singing (Cromwell famously banned Christmas carols). Cromwell, the Lord and Protector of England in the seventeenth century and a Puritan, was вЂњon a mission to cleanse the nation of its most decadent excesses,вЂќ writes Clemency Burton-Hill for The Guardian. The decline of the holiday came courtesy of Oliver Cromwell. вЂњThe Industrial Revolution meant fewer days off for everyone, and Christmas was considered so unimportant that no one complained.вЂќ вЂњIn fact, for most people it was still a work day,вЂќ writes antiquarian bookseller Tavistock Books. As weвЂ™ve discussed before, by the time Charles Dickens came along with his Carol (1863), the tradition of Christmas was fading. This was particularly true in the days before TV. вЂњThese are the short days of the year, and a weird admixture of pagan habits and grand religiosity obtains.вЂќД«etween all that and the rum punch, well, a few tall tales are bound to come out. The darkest day of the year was seen by many as a time when the dead would have particularly good access to the living,вЂќ religious studies professor Justin Daniels told Omnia, a University of Pennsylvania blog.ДЄnd Christmas as a holiday has a cocktail of elements that invite ghosts, writesВ Colin Fleming for The Paris Review. was originally connected to the 'pagan'В Winter Solstice celebration and the festival known as Yule. вЂњChristmas as celebrated in Europe and the U.S. But theyвЂ™re packaged in the cozy trappings of the holiday.

TheyвЂ™re about darker, older, more fundamental things: winter, death, rebirth, and the rapt connection between a teller and his or her audience. Its origins have little to do with the kind of commercial Christmas we've celebrated since the Victorian age. At the edge of the year, it also makes sense to think about people and places that are no longer with us. When the night grows long and the year is growing to a close, itвЂ™s only natural that people feel an instinct to gather together. The tradition of holiday ghost stories goes much, much farther back-farther, perhaps, than Christmas itself. Here, Marley's ghost surprises Ebenezer Scrooge in an illustration from the first edition of the classic tale.Д®benezer Scrooge wasnвЂ™t the first fictional character to see ghosts around Christmas time. Boo! Telling ghost stories on Christmas was a tradition for hundreds of years.

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