# Something I just realized about "The Most Wonderful Time of the Year" **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [December 18, 2008, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-i-just-realized-about-the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year/477681 "2008-12-18T02:21:04Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 18\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Leaper](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/4bbf92/32.png) [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 2:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-i-just-realized-about-the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year/477681/1 "2008-12-18T02:21:04Z")
“There’ll be scary ghost stories…” Huh? Why? What are we doing with “scary ghost stories” at Christmas? Is this a sign of “A Christmas Carol”'s long influence on the season? Did the darkness and cold just naturally get people huddled around a fire telling ghost stories? Some kind of knock on the “reason for the season”? (Unlikely, but it came to mind. :)) ---
**Author:** ![CWN](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/bc79bd/32.png) [@CWN](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CWN)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 2:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-i-just-realized-about-the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year/477681/2 "2008-12-18T02:34:12Z")
> [@Leaper](#): > > “There’ll be scary ghost stories…” > > Huh? Why? What are we doing with “scary ghost stories” at Christmas? Is this a sign of “A Christmas Carol”'s long influence on the season? Did the darkness and cold just naturally get people huddled around a fire telling ghost stories? Some kind of knock on the “reason for the season”? (Unlikely, but it came to mind. :)) I was wondering the same thing myself just today! I never heard of telling ghost stories at Christmas ---
**Author:** ![Cagey\_Drifter](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b2d939/32.png) [@Cagey\_Drifter](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cagey_Drifter)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-i-just-realized-about-the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year/477681/3 "2008-12-18T02:37:14Z")
the ghost of christmas past. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-i-just-realized-about-the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year/477681/4 "2008-12-18T02:37:28Z")
Old British tradition. Never seemed to catch on this side of the pond. About the only remnant seen nowadays is in Dickens. ---
**Author:** ![Ferd\_Burfel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/ecccb3/32.png) [@Ferd\_Burfel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ferd_Burfel)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-i-just-realized-about-the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year/477681/5 "2008-12-18T02:37:28Z")
Count me as wondering about that as well. I suspect it’s a reference to **A Christmas Carol** ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 2:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-i-just-realized-about-the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year/477681/6 "2008-12-18T02:47:04Z")
> [@Ferd\_Burfel](#): > > I suspect it’s a reference to **A Christmas Carol** [Among others by Dickens.](http://www.amazon.com/Charles-Dickens-Christmas-Ghost-Stories/dp/070904867X) It’s a big tradition in the UK. Love your username, BTW. And how is Fred these days? ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 3:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-i-just-realized-about-the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year/477681/7 "2008-12-18T03:00:23Z")
This is one weird case of simultaneous realization. I just heard that song again on the radio today, and that line jumped out at me as well. I cannot imagine anyone ever telling scary ghost stories during December! ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 6:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-i-just-realized-about-the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year/477681/8 "2008-12-18T06:19:25Z")
M.R. James was another one who IIRC apparently wrote ghost stories just for release at Christmas. ---
**Author:** ![FriarTed](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/friarted/32/1052_2.png) [@FriarTed](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/FriarTed)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 6:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-i-just-realized-about-the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year/477681/9 "2008-12-18T06:20:25Z")
Incidentally, both the creation of Frankenstein’s monster and the knifing of Dracula occur in November. ---
**Author:** ![dangermom](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e274bd/32.png) [@dangermom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dangermom)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 6:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-i-just-realized-about-the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year/477681/10 "2008-12-18T06:22:07Z")
Yeah, there are a lot of Christmas ghost stories, it’s just that they’re all British. And over 100 years old, usually. All that cold and dark and lamplight, I guess. ---
**Author:** ![TWDuke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/e495f1/32.png) [@TWDuke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TWDuke)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 8:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-i-just-realized-about-the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year/477681/11 "2008-12-18T08:00:22Z")
The BBC kept the tradition alive in the 1970s, at least: [phantomframe.co.uk](http://www.phantomframe.co.uk/ghosts.htm). It seems that most of the stories lacked the seasonal cheer of “A Christmas Carol.” > [@](#): > > A splendid sense of gloom and foreboding hangs over this story, despite much of it being filmed in bright sunshine in the picturesque English countryside. There is more than a little of Michael Reeves’ highly regarded film, Witchfinder General in the play’s style. Certainly it marks a new level of explicitness in the series, especially the torture of a naked woman suspected of witchcraft. The climatic bedroom scene where the witch’s ‘children’ come to claim Sir Richard could have highly risible but a combination of John Friedlander’s gruesome modelwork and a distorted sound of babies mewling and crying make it a skin crawling moment. David Rudkin’s adaptation stays fairly faithful to the story although he removes the narrator of the story to emphasise the loneliness of its protagonist. He also shifts the action between past and present to great effect. The Radio Times’ write-up suggested his script had “a hallucinatory intensity…psychological unease, moral dread, real fear.” I’ve noticed that British TV series sometimes have “Christmas specials” which also have little or nothing to do with the holiday. ---
**Author:** ![panache45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/panache45/32/64_2.png) [@panache45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/panache45)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 1:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-i-just-realized-about-the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year/477681/12 "2008-12-18T13:13:52Z")
My chorus just performed that song, and in an early rehearsal someone raised the same question. It’s definitely a reference to “A Christmas Carol.” ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-i-just-realized-about-the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year/477681/13 "2008-12-18T18:35:27Z")
Yes, when I first read Dickens’s _The Pickwick Papers_, I was a little puzzled why folks were telling ghost stories around the fire at Christmastime. But I liked the story that was told; it’s not very long, and here’s a link to [_The Goblins Who Stole A Sexton_](http://www.bibliomania.com/0/5/19/843/8706/1/frameset.html) from TPP. Well, maybe it’s a goblin story, not really a ghost story, but it’s Dickens’s creation and very good it is. Think I’ll go read it now. ---
**Author:** ![Labrador\_Deceiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Labrador\_Deceiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Labrador_Deceiver)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 6:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-i-just-realized-about-the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year/477681/14 "2008-12-18T18:41:29Z")
> [@panache45](#): > > My chorus just performed that song, and in an early rehearsal someone raised the same question. It’s definitely a reference to “A Christmas Carol.” Definitely? Based on the responses indicating that Christmas ghost stories are an English tradition, I’d say you’re speaking too soon. ---
**Author:** ![MovieMogul](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/f08c70/32.png) [@MovieMogul](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MovieMogul)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-i-just-realized-about-the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year/477681/15 "2008-12-18T18:44:38Z")
“…and they call him SANTEE **CLAWSSSSS!!!** ” (booga-booga-booga :eek:) ---
**Author:** ![teela\_brown](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d9b06d/32.png) [@teela\_brown](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/teela_brown)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 6:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-i-just-realized-about-the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year/477681/16 "2008-12-18T18:49:10Z")
Never mind. ---
**Author:** ![bonzer](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/45deac/32.png) [@bonzer](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bonzer)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 8:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-i-just-realized-about-the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year/477681/17 "2008-12-18T20:55:38Z")
> [@TWDuke](#): > > The BBC kept the tradition alive in the 1970s, at least They still do. Versions of classic ghost stories, or repeats of their older TV adaptations, are one of these things the BBC slips into their Xmas schedules most years. This year they’ve commissioned [_Crooked House_](http://www.bbc.co.uk/pressoffice/proginfo/tv/wk52/feature_crookedhouse.shtml) as a “spooky festive treat”: a new three-part drama from Mark Gatiss, best known as part of [The League of Gentlemen](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_League_of_Gentlemen), but also an occasional writer on Doctor Who. Starts on BBC4 next Monday night. ---
**Author:** ![DrFidelius](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/drfidelius/32/3447_2.png) [@DrFidelius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrFidelius)\ **Post date:** [December 18, 2008, 9:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/something-i-just-realized-about-the-most-wonderful-time-of-the-year/477681/18 "2008-12-18T21:20:27Z")
For further clarification, Dicken’s “A Christmas Carol” is a fine example of the type of ghost stories that were told in England. It just happens to be the only one with any impact on American holiday traditions. Which is why so many folks seem certain that it is the \*only \*ghost story for the season. Americans tend to tell their ghost stories at Halloween.