Posted: Jan 01, 2021 8:00 AM NT | Last Updated: January 1
In Charles Dickens s A Christmas Carol, Scrooge is visited by a series of ghosts on Christmas Eve. This scene of the Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre s 2017 adaptation shows Scrooge with the Ghost of Christmas Present. (Dylan Hewlett/Royal MTC)
Have you ever listened closely to the lyrics of
It s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year? One line in particular might surprise you:
There ll be scary ghost stories And tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago.
Written in 1962, the seasonal standard refers to what was by then already a fading custom: spending Christmas evenings regaling friends and relations with the most spine-chilling stories you could muster.