HALLOWEEN HAUNTS: “October in Christmas
by Evan Baughfman
It’s already here. Christmas in October.
Halloween hasn’t even come and gone, yet North Pole elves, Santa Claus, and his reindeer have invaded store aisles nationwide. Thankfully, Horror is bigger/more mainstream than ever—witches, bats, and ghosts haunt a growing number of businesses and storefronts each year—but that overbearing winter holiday is also present, always attempting to steal jack-o’-lanterns’ shine.
Shoo, December! Return to the garage, attic, or basement, where your decorations belong!
Now, do I hate Christmas? Am I “Evanezer” Scrooge?
Not really, no. I absolutely enjoy time well-spent with family and friends. I love giving (and receiving) gifts. But, come on—Christmas can be all-consuming. Expensive! And brrrr, it can be rather cold and uncomfortable, too.
All I’m saying is, December 25th needn’t arrive so soon. It should stay in its Candy Cane Lane. Why must my house have an ornament-riddled tree up by mid-November? My wife and kids have never given me a satisfying-enough answer.
[Enter a sigh as heavy as Santa’s sleigh here]
If Christmas is to be crammed down my throat, I have no choice but to engage with it. So, I do, in my own twisted way, in order to make it more palatable for me.
I put the October in Christmas.
Which means, I write horror stories set during the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.
I’ve had great success with Christmas-horror. My tales of winter terror have been published in various anthologies, have taken the stage in theaters across the United States, and have even been recognized in well-regarded screenplay competitions.
When writing, I often approach a spooky story from a particular angle: how can I take something innocent and/or innocuous and make it unsettling and/or scary?
That’s what I often do with the Christmas holiday. I morph a bright and merry occasion into a shadowy or eerie situation, much more home to fear than it is a place for cheer.
My Christmas-horror stories have shown the dark sides of ugly sweaters, snowmen, and gingerbread houses.
My tales have also answered the following questions:
“Which shocking ingredient does Mom use in her holiday cookie recipe?”
“What happens when Rudolph and friends contract a rabies-like virus?”
“Why might someone be haunted by Christmas carols all year long?”
I am, however, far from the first person to ever mix mistletoe and “Oh, no!” Scary stories and Christmas have gone hand-in-hand (mitten-in-mitten) for centuries.
For example, in Europe, spooky storytelling has long been a winter tradition. During the frigid months of yore, when nights were their lengthiest, folks gathered around crackling fires for warmth—and for entertainment. In firelight, gifted narrators shared tales of phantoms and mysterious beasts, engaging audiences with stories of supernatural suspense. It was their belief that the veil between the living and the dead is thinnest in the freezing dark of winter.
Later, Charles Dickens famously crafted his wintry, ghostly novella, A Christmas Carol. After that came Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Raven,” which can arguably be interpreted as a December ghost story itself: “Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December; And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor...”
European cultures associate many strange and frightening figures with the Christmas season. Well-known is Krampus, but how familiar are you with Iceland’s ogre-crone, Grýla, or the nation’s mischievous band of troll-brothers, the Yule Lads? What about the Greek Kallikantzaroi, goblins who emerge in December for pranks and other bits of mayhem?
Italy’s La Befana has a more positive connotation. She’s a benevolent witch who brings gifts and candy to children shortly after Christmas. The Welsh have the Mari Lwyd: a tradition where folks affix a horse’s skull atop a pole, drape the equine cranium in flowing fabric, and go door-to-door in hopes of entering a home with their eerie-looking prop. If allowed inside, the attention-grabbing hobby horse is said to bring good luck and prosperity to homeowners the following year.
Okay, okay, enough with that jolly nonsense. Let’s return to Iceland, where they also have Jólakötturinn, the Yule Cat, a vicious monster-feline who prowls the snowy countryside. This huge creature preys on anyone who hasn’t received new clothes by Christmas morning. It’s unknown if the Yule Cat can be appeased with giant balls of yarn.
Where I live in Southern California, Disneyland annually transforms its Haunted Mansion into a The Nightmare Before Christmas-themed dark ride. A beloved, must-see attraction for fans of the genre-bending film.
As a child of the ’80s/’90s, I remember seeing Christmas-horror stories on television. One that sticks out to me in particular is Tales from the Crypt’s second-ever episode, “And All Through the House,” which is about an escaped psych ward patient who dresses up as Santa Claus… and swings a very unmerry ax. A sixth-season X-Mas episode of The X-Files (“How the Ghosts Stole Christmas”) has Mulder and Scully investigating a haunted house and encountering grumpy specters.
There are a multitude of Christmas-horror movies, too. My personal favorites include Gremlins, Better Watch Out, Anna and the Apocalypse, Krampus, and—one of the most influential slashers ever—1974’s Black Christmas. Home Alone is a horror movie, also, if we put ourselves inside Joe Pesci’s and Daniel Stern’s thieving shoes.
In conclusion, Christmas and horror pair well together, like peppermint and hot cocoa. Fans of the spooky can still find plenty of scares post-Samhain.
Even after all the Spirit Halloweens have shuttered, one can find something chilly/chilling to help mold the Christmas Spirit to their liking. It’s not difficult to bring a little October to December.
Before I part, here is a tiny gift, a dark drabble (100-word horror story) set on Christmas Eve. It’s called “Coal for You,” and answers the question, “How do naughty children use all the coal they’ve received from Santa Claus”?
Enjoy! Merry Hallowhistmas!
COAL FOR YOU
The Stephenson twins had been on Santa’s naughty list for a decade now. Malicious Bryan and cruel Brianna deserved every single lump of coal they’d found in their stockings throughout the years.
But the kids would never receive Christmas coal again.
Because, tonight, they had drug-addled Santa dangling above a pit they’d dug in their backyard.
“Shouldn’t have trusted our cookies,” Bryan taunted.
“Laced with Mom’s sleeping pills!” Brianna cackled.
The pit: full of anthracite they’d saved from holidays past, as well as whatever they’d just stolen from St. Nick’s sooty bag.
Soon, Santa roasted—shrieked!—over an open fire.
Author bio:
Evan Baughfman is a playwright, author, and educator. He is a playwriting
member of PlayGround-L.A., and is a company member with Force of Nature Productions. A number of Evan’s plays are published through Heuer Publishing, YouthPLAYS, Next Stage Press, and Drama Notebook. Evan has also found success writing dark fiction, his work found recently in anthologies by Radical Books and WonderBird Press. Evan’s own books include: The Emaciated Man and Other Terrifying Tales from Poe Middle School, Vanishing of the 7th Grade, Bad for Your Teeth, Try Not to Die in a Dark Fairy Tale, Try Not to Die on Friday the 13th, and the short story collection, Mauls of the Wild. More info about Evan and his writing is available at amazon.com/author/evanbaughfman