Ghost Stories of Christmas

Susan McKnight is an administrator of the Courts Technology Integrated Justice Project at the Ontario Ministry of the Attorney General.

As Jo-Anne Christensen points out in her introduction, Christmas and
ghost stories have gone hand in hand since the Victorian era. Most of
the Christmas ghost stories spun by writers such as Dickens, Hawthorne,
Lord Dunsany, and Kipling were presented as pure fiction. Christensen
presents a collection of stories based on true experiences. The
contributors remain anonymous and she has used poetic licence to develop
these festive tales for our enjoyment.

The book is divided into four sections—“Gifts,” “Reunions,”
“Miracles,” “Angels”—and each section contains four stories.
In each of these stories a ghostly presence aids the main character in
his or her way through life. There are ghosts that assist in financial
or other material ways and ghosts that help the person see the emotional
or spiritual solution to a problem. In each case, the spirit is
benevolent and the end of the tale leaves the reader with a warm
comfortable feeling and the hope that one of these Christmas spirits
will come to his aid in his hour of need.

Jo-Anne Christensen is the author of Ghost Stories of British Columbia
(1996) and Ghost Stories of Saskatchewan (1995). Ghost Stories of
Christmas is a heartwarming collection of tales fit for the holiday
season.