In the Spirit of Christmas -
The Chilling Ghost Stories of Victorian Yuletide
En el espíritu navideño - Las escalofriantes historias
de fantasmas de la Navidad victoriana
with Beth Anz
Have you Heard this one?
(sung)
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
It's the most wonderful time of the year
Did you catch that? “Scary Ghost Stories”, yes at Christmas time.
Picture yourself in Victorian England (mid 19th century),
gathered around an evergreen tree, covered in sweets,
nuts, fruits, rippons and twinkling candles.
“Tell us another story Father” - the children might say.
And Father would take out his Christmas Annual,
and proceed to share a ghostly tale of a haunting spirit,
as the yule log blazes. Looks very different from
our modern Christmas gathering, but it is a
Christmas Tradition all the same.
Ghosts are usually thought of more at Halloween,
but scary tales of the supernatural are actually
a long time Winter Solstice and later Christmas Tradition.
So why was this tradition so popular, and why particularly
in Victorian England, and perhaps why, should we bring it back.
Well let’s start with where it began.
Much of what we associate with Christmas has ties
to ancient pagan and folk traditions. The concept of
bringing in greenery into the home and gathering
to tell tales around the fire are long held traditions
during the dark times of the year.
Think of a time before electricity, before heat,
before grocery stores. The time when communities
gathered around the fire during the long winters for survival.
The Winter Solstice was also thought of by
some as a liminal time, when the veil between the
living and the dead was thinned and ghosts walked the earth.
Now we love to say that Christmas has lots of pagan roots,
and it’s true, but while the hanging of greenery at
midwinter was a long held tradition, the Christmas Tree
itself is a much more modern practice. The practice began
in the Middle Ages with “Paradise Plays” for the feast
of Adam and Eve (on December 24th).
They reenacted the Genesis story, and were decorated
with treats like apples and nuts.
Reformist German Preacher Martin Luther is widely
credited with being the first to add lighted candles to a
Christmas tree. While walking home he saw the stars
twinkling among the evergreens and was so moved,
he recreated it with candles to symbolize the star of
Bethlehem that led the wise men to Christ.
But it was English Queen Victoria and her German
Husband Prince Albert who popularized the German
tradition of decorating a tree in the home, through a
famous 1848 Illustrated London News engraving
showing them with their family around a candle-lit,
gift-laden fir tree. And it grew in popularity among
the middle class across Europe.
Queen Victoria and Prince Albert were Christmas
trendsetters, and helped popularize many Christmas
elements we see today, like Christmas trees,
Christmas Cards, as well as the focus on family,
gifts and feasting. They helped transform Christmas
from a formal observance, to a family celebration.
And it is around this same time, in 1843 that
Charles Dickens published “A Christmas Carol”.
His was not the only Christmas Ghost story,
but it endures today because of its universal
and redemptive themes, as well as its social
commentary on wealth, inequality, and generosity.
His famous story has its roots in a Unitarian
worldview which connects with us today.
Throughout the story, Ebeneezer Scrooge changes,
grows in compassion, and ultimately chooses a new path.
Through characters like the Cratchit’s, It shows
the economic inequality of this era, and that even
little Tiny Tim has inherent worth and dignity,
which Scrooge eventually takes to heart.
It also emphasizes the value of community and
our moral responsibility to one another.
While it is a ghost story, His redemption is
not supernatural—it’s moral, relational, and deeply human.
His writing reflected the world at the time
of the Industrial Revolution, seeing the large
disparities between great wealth and poverty.
One of his goals in this famous story was to shame
the wealthy to give generously, and to highlight
the plight of the poor, among them Children working
over 15 hour days in dangerous factories.
It is no wonder the world craved a holiday of goodwill,
charity and family.
And it was this industrial revolution powered
by steam and new technology, as well as
increased consumer wealth, that allowed for
the faster and cheaper mass production of these
ghostly periodicals to a larger audience.
The technology of this more efficient printing press
and the modern railroad, allowed these stories
to be distributed faster, and cheaper.
And the rise of this printing technology, brought these
stories to the masses. Dickens and others published
serial fiction magazines, in monthly or weekly installments,
allowing for these sensational stories with a
moral message to reach a larger readership.
The era’s Christmas Annuals were considered
a status symbol as the “coffee table book” and
often given as gifts. With industrialization,
we saw a rise in the middle class and a significant
rise in literacy rates. A captive audience,
cheaper printing and better distribution created
a new fan base eager to read.
Among this fanbase were women, and Dickens
didn’t just write about them, he employed them as well.
The Victorian appetite for moral ghost stories opened
the door for many writers — including women —
to shape the genre.
Over 90 women wrote for Dicken’s serial Household Words,
including Unitarian Elizabeth Gaskell who famously wrote
“The Old Nurse Story” in 1852 about a haunting
at Furnivall Manor. The main themes of this story
are patriarchal power, aristocratic pride, jealousy,
revenge and the repression of women, all with
the dressing of the supernatural.
While not the heartwarming story of Scrooge
and his three ghosts of conscience, it echoes
many of themes found in these tales, of the power
of truth and redemption.
In the story, two sisters, Miss Grace and Miss Maude,
are torn apart when Maude falls in love with a man
far below her family’s status, making her sister jealous.
As the dark truth of a secret child is revealed,
a young mother and her little girl are cast out
into the winter cold, where both perish.
Their tragedy echoes through the years in the
haunting melodies of a phantom organ that fills
the old manor. At the story’s climax—much like
in Dickens’s “A Christmas Carol”—the surviving
sister must face the literal ghosts of her past,
crying out in remorse, “Alas! alas! what is done
in youth can never be undone in age!”
In this age of rapid transformation, of the
seeming magic of new technology, the telegraph,
electricity, photography, anything seemed possible.
Imagine seeing a photograph for the first time —
a ghostly image captured on glass. It felt like magic.
And that magic, that idea of literal ghosts and the
supernatural were captivating the Victorian age.
They looked to these stories not out of fear, but out of
a deep cultural longing to understand the unseen forces
shaping their lives, their morality, and their hope
for the soul’s continued journey.
During this time of change, upheaval, war, disease,
loss and grief, many were drawn to the Spiritualist
movement of the 19th Century; centered on the
belief that the living could communicate with the
dead through seances, mediums or
other divination techniques.
It’s no coincidence that many early Universalists
were drawn to spiritualist circles. Our Universalist
ancestors shared many commonalities with the
Spiritualist movement. Both emphasized the
immortality of the soul, and the divine love
that transcends death.
Both are open to revelation, seeking truth
beyond the scriptures, and rejecting the rigid
patriarchal hierarchy of traditional churches.
It also creates more equality in revelation,
through the mostly feminine practice of mediumship.
Much like the transcendental movements,
it emphasized inner experience, creating space for
both the reasoning of Unitarianism and the Universalist
space for the mystery of the divine.
Our own Unitarian Universalist Chalice, reflects
this space for mystery. The Universalist symbol was
an offset cross in a circle, allowing us to create space
to discover revelation in the mystery of the divine.
This is why our official UU symbol is a double circle
(representing the merging of two traditions, the Unitarians
and the Universalists), with the offset chalice.
Offset for the Universalist mystery and the Chalice for
the Unitarian symbol of their service committee,
lighting the way for refugees during WW2.
A true merging of our traditions.
The Ghost stories of the Victorian age seek to find
morality within, beyond the hierarchy of society and religion.
In a world of upheaval, they create a moral path, a place
of consequence and redemption. While sensationalized
stories of murder and scandal sold papers, it is their
underlying themes of redemption, of morality and
our social responsibility that still resonate with us today.
And as we moved into the 20th century, people
longed for comfort rather than confrontation with the past.
World wars moved the public sentiment more
towards realism and heartwarming tales of
Santa and his reindeer.
But may we remember that the past is evergreen.
Victorian ghost stories remind us that spiritual growth
often begins with truth‑telling — something our
Unitarian Universalist tradition has always held sacred.
And in the words of Scrooge himself -
“I will honour Christmas in my heart, and try to keep
it all the year. I will live in the Past, the Present,
and the Future. The Spirits of all Three shall strive
within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach.”
What ghosts of memory, of regret, of longing,
might be asking us to listen this season?
What truths are waiting to be acknowledged
so that compassion can do its healing work?
May we be transformed by the Victorian Christmas Spirits,
may we listen for the truths we have avoided,
may we face the shadows with courage, and may we choose,
again and again, the path of compassion and renewal.
“God bless us, everyone”!
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