Christmas Stories for Friday the 13th

As it is Friday the 13th, we are featuring some dark and spine-chilling Christmas stories for those who find frightful reading to be quite delightful. Be sure to also check out our previous posts in our 25 Days of Christmas Reading.

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Cold Snap by Lindy Ryan

wo weeks ago, Christine Sinclaire's husband slipped off the roof while hanging Christmas lights and fell to his death on the front lawn. Desperate to escape her guilt and her grief, Christine packs up her fifteen-year-old son and the family cat and flees to the cabin they'd reserved deep in the remote Pennsylvania Wilds to wait out the holidays.

It isn't long before Christine begins to hear strange noises coming from the forest. When she spots a horned figure watching from between frozen branches, Christine assumes it's just a forest animal—a moose, maybe, since the property manager warned her about them, said they'd stomp a body so deep into the snow nobody'd find it 'til spring. But moose don't walk upright like the shadowy figure does. They don't call Christine's name with her dead husband's voice. (Goodreads)

"This is a slim novella but packed with creepy feels," writes MK in her review.

Buy Cold Snap at Amazon

A Christmas Ghost Story by Kim Newman

Lynda and her teenage son Rust prepare for Christmas, hanging fairy lights and making decorations. The first door of the advent calendar is opened, but the chocolate inside tastes off. Rust receives his first Christmas card, it's unsigned and the message is aggressive rather than festive.

The cards keep coming, one each day and each more sinister than the last, and a frightened Lynda recalls a seasonal TV show from her childhood that featured similar happenings, and while she remembers it vividly, there is no evidence that it was ever broadcast…

As their Christmas cheer is gradually poisoned, with real dead robins replacing plastic ones, the turkey rotting in the freezer and Rust becoming increasingly unwell, Lynda begins to wonder if her childhood Christmases were in fact as joy filled as she remembers…

A terrifying tale of seasonal dread from a master of horror. (Goodreads)

Check out MK's review of this novella.

Buy A Christmas Ghost Story at Amazon

Christmas and Other Horrors: A Winter Solstice Anthology edited by Ellen Datlow

Hugo Award winning editor, and horror legend, Ellen Datlow presents a terrifying and chilling horror anthology of original short stories exploring the endless terrors of winter solstice traditions across the globe, featuring chillers by Tananarive Due, Stephen Graham Jones, Alma Katsu and many more.

The winter solstice is celebrated as a time of joy around the world—yet the long nights also conjure a darker tradition of ghouls, hauntings, and visitations. This anthology of all-new stories invites you to huddle around the fire and revel in the unholy, the dangerous, the horrific aspects of a time when families and friends come together—for better and for worse.

From the eerie Austrian Schnabelperchten to the skeletal Welsh Mari Lwyd, by way of ravenous golems, uncanny neighbors, and unwelcome visitors, Christmas and Other Horrors captures the heart and horror of the festive season.

Because the weather outside is frightful, but the fire inside is hungry... (Goodreads)

"It's a fun collection for those interested in different kinds of horror and people," states MK in her review of this horror anthology.

Buy Christmas and Other Horrors at Amazon

The Festival by H. P. Lovecraft

Christmas with the family takes a dark turn in this chilling short story by the acclaimed author of “The Call of Cthulhu”.

Beckoned by his family, a man travels to a snowy, seaside Massachusetts town to observe an ancient festival. His family has long celebrated it since the days when it was forbidden. But when he arrives, he notices something is off about this community . . . little details that just don’t add up.

What the man witnesses at his family’s house does little to comfort him. Soon he is drawn into a world unlike any he has known, and its sights will haunt him for the rest of his life. (Goodreads)

Buy The Festival at Amazon

(the ebook was free as of 12/12, please check the price before purchasing)

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