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Like Samhain before it the Christmas season -- the pagan Yule -- is another time when the veil between this world and the next becomes thin; as the Wheel of the Year groans slowly in the Winter darkness, beings from the supernatural plane often take the opportunity to enter the world of the living.
Among the Victorians of Dickens’ day, the telling of ghost stories was a favorite Christmas tradition and these stories, though often imbued with more hope than the horror of their Halloween counterparts, harked back to an ancient, wilder time when mankind shivered in the bleak dearth of Winter around the light of a feeble fire, little protection from the ghosts, ghouls and other supernatural beings that prowled the frosty night. At once envious and hateful of the light, these creatures nevertheless would crowd around the households of the innocent and righteous to warm themselves in the glowing memories of home and loved ones and Christmases long past – of life itself.
But as most students of the paranormal know, visitations by the dead at Christmas time and intrusions by malevolent spirits from the dark heart of winter are not simply the stuff of history. In fact, a large portion of ghostly encounters occur at holidays such as Christmas or at other times when families gather to celebrate their own unique traditions, a fact that lends some credence to the theory that many dead relatives and friends take advantage of the holiday welcome mat time and time again.
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