Christmas-day passed as it generally does in the country, that is to say, in a most jovial, social way; and after fun, frolic, sport, pastime, forfeit, dance, and cards, I stood once more within the haunted chamber with the strange sensation upon me, that though I had met with nothing so far to alarm me – this night, a night when, of all nights in the year, spirits might be expected to break loose, I was to suffer for my temerity.
(“Haunted by Spirits”, by George Manville Fenn, 1867)
It may seem strange to us today, but in the Victorian era, Christmas was a traditional time for ghost stories. A Christmas Carol is really the only one that’s survived, but there were lots more. (Also note the peculiar line in “It’s The Most Wonderful Time of the Year:” “There’ll be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago.”)
If your D&D group isn’t on holiday break, maybe you should continue this Victorian tradition by running a ghost-story one-shot.
Here’s a prompt: Write a ghost story in which one of the characters is named Tiny Tim. Charles Dickens wrote one such story. There are other possibilities. And in many of them, Tiny Tim is terrifying.
