{"id":5452,"date":"2014-12-11T14:17:21","date_gmt":"2014-12-11T14:17:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/verityholloway.com\/?p=5452"},"modified":"2014-12-11T14:17:21","modified_gmt":"2014-12-11T14:17:21","slug":"christmas-a-survival-guide-for-the-spooky","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/verityholloway.com\/?p=5452","title":{"rendered":"Christmas: A Survival Guide For The Spooky"},"content":{"rendered":"

Every year, around September, the nightmares start. I’ve lost the ability to cook, or forgotten to buy presents, or – and I had this one last night – a completely imaginary cousin is having a breakdown over the sprouts because he can’t afford to move out of his parents’ house and what are you going to do about it, Verity?!<\/em><\/p>\n

Wading through the syrupy supermarket ads, the money-grabbing\u00a0pop songs, and all that infernal fruitcake,\u00a0we’ve forgotten that midwinter\u00a0was once a time for ghost stories, when our ancestors met around the fire to celebrate another year of narrowly avoiding the bloody flux. All that phoney Christmas cheer can be hard when you’re spooky by nature, so I’ve put together a list of things that might just get you through…<\/p>\n

Printer’s Devil Court by Susan Hill<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Misty winter evenings, strong drink, and Victorian medical students with too much time on their hands. It’s a pocket-size ghostly novella that can be read in one sitting, and the punchline is Susan Hill at her effortlessly\u00a0chilling best.<\/p>\n

M.R. James’ ghost stories by Nunkie Theatre<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"nunkie\"<\/a>I’ve seen Robert Lloyd Parry read James’ tales of the uncanny twice, in the flesh – in a candlelit medieval leper chapel, no less. Parry’s softly-spoken delivery casts you back into an antiquarian age of fusty\u00a0academics and sherry sipped alone by the fire.\u00a0He is the next best thing to re-animating the author. You can buy DVDs and audio here.<\/a><\/p>\n

Krampus<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"krampussticks\"<\/a>If you’ve ever worked Christmas in retail, you’ll understand the appeal of a giant Germanic\u00a0goat-man dragging naughty children away in chains.\u00a0Krampus has enjoyed something of a Renaissance in recent years, so it’s no longer hard to source hilariously macabre cards, ornaments, and festive jumpers bearing his grinning hairy visage. My own tree features a glass Krampus nestling amongst bat tinsel.<\/p>\n

Christopher Lee’s heavy metal Christmas singles<\/strong><\/p>\n

Thrashing as we go<\/em>
\nIn a\u00a0hearse that knows the way<\/em>
\nTo hell\u00a0we go!<\/em>
\nCrying all the way.<\/em><\/p>\n