Scary ghost stories????

[Barbara Moulton]

While listening to the radio I realized that one line in the song "It's the most wonderful time of the year" talks about telling ghost stories, as if it is some kind of Christmas tradition.

I never noticed this before.

It got me wondering...is this something that other people do to celebrate Christmas???? LOL

[Dana Grant]

While listening to the radio I realized that one line in the song "It's the most wonderful time of the year" talks about telling ghost stories, as if it is some kind of Christmas tradition.

I never noticed this before.

It got me wondering...is this something that other people do to celebrate Christmas???? LOL


I always thought that was a Halloween thing.

Anyway, I never got into ghost stories except for the one about Ivory soap.

[Jon Twitchell]

The complete lyric of that verse is:

There'll be parties for hosting
Marshmallows for toasting
And caroling out in the snow
There'll be scary ghost stories
And tales of the glories of
Christmases long, long ago

Perhaps the reference is to the "Ghost of Christmas Past" from "A Christmas Carol"?

[Brad Mercer]

I was a kid in a poor, urban neighborhood in Arkansas in the 1960's, and then in a poor, rural town in Arkansas. I may have witnessed the very tail end of the age of folklore and storytelling before those arts were finally finished off by radio, TV and finally the internet.

Life in earlier times was, indeed, scary. Nature itself seemed, not fragile but big and strong and scary, and life had to be wrested from it by hard work and luck. Read any of the old fairy tales or nursery rhymes and think about it. Death and danger were a part of life. I walked through an old cemetary in east Texas a few years ago and found a family grave site including two parents and 3 kids. All three kids died in infancy or childhood. That wasn't rare.

That's the context in which you have to put the telling of scary stories. I think they allowed people to contextualize their own fears by exaggerating them, jumping in fearful surprise at the end, and then being able to laugh at themselves and the ghost story when it was over, because it was, in this case, only a story. Confronting and laughing at the horrors of real life was a common and probably cathartic experience.

At any rate, that's all my social history education mixed in together with my poor, Southern childhood experiences. The bottom line is that ghost stories were a very common part of any get-together for us. Any social gathering, whether Thanksgiving or Christmas or camp or just friends and neighbors getting together for dinner, would feature eating, telling jokes, re-telling old incidents from our shared past and, at some point, sitting around together in the dark outside while someone told ghost stories. The best such storytellers could make them up as they went along, and keep you spellbound the whole time. More common was the retelling of certain "classics", several of which I still remember, 40 years since the last time I heard someone tell them. They were always supposed to be true, and really happened to someone only one or two people removed from the teller. Everyone sits on the edge of their seat as the story is being told, almost holding their breaths, they all gasp or scream at the end of the story, and then they all collapse into laughter at their own fearful responses.

Occasionally in more recent years, someone will suggest telling ghost stories, but most of the time the response is that no one really wants to hear them, or it turns out that no one really knows any or can tell them.

I don't know whether it was ultimately good, bad or indifferent, but it seems to pretty much be gone now. It was so common in my childhood though, that, having heard and understood that line in the song all my life, it just never occurred to me to think of it as unusual or noteworthy. It actually pulled on my nostalgic memory strings far more than the snow, because it was more common in my culture.

Brad

[John Kennedy]

In the early 60's I was a student at UT Austin, taking an English lit class in folklore. We studied the role of 'oral tradition' in the development of folk tales and legends - how before the proliferation of printed literature and resonably widespread literacy, stories had been passed down from generation to generation. You know the scenario - the elders sitting around the fire transmitting the culture to the avidly listening young.

I happened to be visiting some people in a somewhat isolated rural community a few miles below Austin. The majority of the people in the community were the great grandchildren of German immigrants who had come to Texas in the 1840's and l850's. That influx is the reason you can go into some Central Texas towns and find more Lutherans than Baptists.

A youngster began telling a story about a werewolf and, as he related it, I could, in my mind's eye, see the little family gathered in the evening and the ancient grandfather or grandmother relaying this cultural gem. I could already anticipate what it would do more my grade when I submitted an anecdotal report reflecting oral tradition.
When he finished, I asked where he had heard the sotry.
"Oh, I saw it on TV," he replied.

[Gina Stevenson]

More common was the retelling of certain "classics", several of which I still remember, 40 years since the last time I heard someone tell them. They were always supposed to be true, and really happened to someone only one or two people removed from the teller. Everyone sits on the edge of their seat as the story is being told, almost holding their breaths, they all gasp or scream at the end of the story, and then they all collapse into laughter at their own fearful responses.

While reading your post, Brad, I recalled some I've heard in my lifetime, too. But you didn't add that--besides the screaming at the end--there might be nightmares after we went to bed! 'Never did like those ghost stories, tho' I've heard my share ... they were too real, once the lights were out, one was alone (hopefully! meaning, hopefully no hobgoblins "widya") under the covers, etc. ;)

[David Cash]

I remember being scared by my early exposure to "A Christmas Carol." In my own western culture, we didn't put much stock in ghost stories; although, as an imaginative kid I believed them at an emotional level while rejecting them intellectually.

Now in the evangelical subculture, we tell demon stories. Those are sometimes true and are enough to keep any kid creepy. In fact, I don't like them as an adult. But they aren't part of Christmas except maybe among those who claim Christmas is an evil pagan tradition.

David Cash

[David Cash]

I always thought that was a Halloween thing.

Anyway, I never got into ghost stories except for the one about Ivory soap.

Is that the one about the voice in the basement saying "It floats. It floats?"

David Cash

[Dana Grant]

Is that the one about the voice in the basement saying "It floats. It floats?"

David Cash


Yep! And why that one sticks in my head I will never know.......LOL

[Barbara Moulton]

I remember being scared by my early exposure to "A Christmas Carol." In my own western culture, we didn't put much stock in ghost stories; although, as an imaginative kid I believed them at an emotional level while rejecting them intellectually.

Now in the evangelical subculture, we tell demon stories. Those are sometimes true and are enough to keep any kid creepy. In fact, I don't like them as an adult. But they aren't part of Christmas except maybe among those who claim Christmas is an evil pagan tradition.

David Cash

I did think of "A Christmas Carol"...wondered if that was what the song was referencing.

Watching it is a family tradition. When I was little we watched the Allistair Simm version. My daughters prefer the George C. Scott.

As for demon stories. I think that the powers of darkness are very happy when Christians start telling stories about demon activity, possession etc. I think they love the attention.

So I don't spend much time talking about them.

[David Cash]

I don't either, Barbara. There are some valid and interesting stories come in from the missionfield, however.

When I was alone housesitting for some missionary friends on an Indian reserve in Alberta a few years ago, I made the mistake of reading a memoir by a veteran missionary who had had to deal with demons. Foolish me. I think I slept with the light on for at least a month.

I agree that we probably shouldn't give the evil forces the honor of dwelling on them. I think it's especially bad when we study them in depth so we can combat them. We can't win by countering their power, only by hiding in Christ's power.

David Cash

[David Cash]

Yep! And why that one sticks in my head I will never know.......LOL

I think it is easy to remember because it has a comic element and ends without leaving a bunch of goosebumps. By the time my Mississippi cousins told it to me, the Ivory Soap had been changed to IV liquid. My parents had to explain that they were talking about soap.

We also got a kick out of the other story my cousins were telling that same summer. In it, a scary voice said "Black eyed peas and bloody bones," until the little sister said something like "I'll black eyed peas and bloody bones you if you don't keep quiet." :basic01

I think that was the summer I turned nine.

David Cash

[Barbara Moulton]

I think it's especially bad when we study them in depth so we can combat them. We can't win by countering their power, only by hiding in Christ's power.

David Cash

Amen! Amen! Amen!