![\"vincentprice\"](\"http:\/\/verityholloway.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/vincentprice.jpg\")
<\/a>Vincent Price decks his tree.\u00a0Just ignore the feet sticking out at the bottom…<\/p><\/div>\n
2016 has been nightmare upon nightmare, but it was last year that\u00a0we lost the incomparable Christopher Lee. Mr Lee’s baritone M.R. James readings have become a Christmas tradition in my household, and thank all the sunken crowns of East Anglia, you can buy a DVD of the lot. Forget carols at Kings’. Don your mortar board and enter James’ study for an evening of room-temperature madeira and dread.<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=bc095E5DwEE<\/a><\/p>\n For reading matter, cosy won’t cut it. You want something cold. Lauren Owen’s\u00a0The Quick<\/em>\u00a0is a fresh look at the vampire myth, and it stayed with me for its sense of the physicality<\/em> of being undead as much as\u00a0Owen’s clever wordplay when it came to the child blood-drinkers of Victorian London.<\/p>\n In The Malleus Maleficarum<\/em>, Kramer and Sprenger wrote that Christmas was\u00a0a good time for witches to work their magic, as all the revelry made bad Christians easy to bring over to the Devil. In that spirit, please enjoy Jeanette Winterson’s The Daylight Gate.<\/em><\/p>\n And for your filthy sinful face…<\/p>\n I’m going to close\u00a0this year’s guide on an unusually festive note with Mediaeval Baebes, because if there’s one thing December is good for, it’s putting a big blanket around your shoulders, drinking red wine and pretending to be a weatherbeaten medieval king. Mediaeval Baebes are especially good at taking traditional carols and imbuing them with that sense of midwinter darkness you just don’t get with Slade. Salva nos, stella maris…<\/em><\/p>\n And remember, at Christmas, Christopher Lee always wore Vincent Price’s special Christmas fez. Make spookiness a part of your festive traditions, for the sake of our dear departed Goth Granddads.<\/p>\n This is me doing my annual Goth National Service.\u00a0Here’s my list of dark little treats and recommendations to help you traverse\u00a0the purgatory\u00a0of December. How To Survive The Most Wonderful Time of The Year When You Find This Time of The … Continue reading <\/a>…then wear this:<\/p>\n<\/a>Incense Avignon by Comme des Gar\u00e7ons is bottled ritual. Morrissey used to have it sprayed into concert halls before he came onstage to foster a feeling of holiness and dread. I always think it smells like Rasputin might if someone forced him to have a bath. Holy smoke and hard drink.<\/p>\n<\/a>I’ve been a fan of Aromaleigh<\/a>\u00a0cosmetics for years and years, and they keep getting better. I never end up in the MAC shop, because Aromaleigh not only beat them on pigment, price, and quality, but their ranges are inspired by\u00a0arse-kicking historical women, Dante’s Inferno, and deep space, which are really the only topics worth\u00a0focusing on when browsing eyeshadows.\u00a0The Hannibal-themed collection, This Is My Design, is particularly delightful for having a copper duochrome shade called Abattoir. “Ooh, you’re so glittery. What is that?” “ABATTOIR<\/em>.”<\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"