Christmas Horror

It's the most wonderful time of year...or is it? Christmas Eve is a night of mystery and magic, but not always in ways we expect. Things lurk in the shadows, and they're not the least bit jolly or merry. Let's just say some presents are better left unopened. 'Tis the season to be screaming along with our 13 tales of holiday horrors. Ghosts. Monsters. Demons. And more! This Christmas, be careful what you wish for....

Though she's the vampire queen, Betsy Taylor is much more like a princess. In MaryJanice Davidson's novels, this high-maintenance monarch is finally coming to terms with her new status.

Chilling tales told in midwinter around a warm fire date back to antiquity. It is the time of year when days are short, darkness lingers, and the barrier separating the living from the dead is thin. Stories of the stark cold and the visits from the dead remind us of the warm blessings of hearth and home.

A compilation of five chilling stories from M.R. James, including four previously unreleased stories and originally recorded for the Radio 4 Woman's Hour in Christmas 2007. MR James is an important part of the nation's celebration of Christmas. In the oral tradition, many of his 30 or so tales were penned as Christmas Eve entertainments and read aloud to gatherings of friends.

Orphans Clara and Jacob Marley live by their wits, scavenging for scraps in the poorest alleyways of London, in the shadow of the workhouse. Every night, Jake promises his little sister ‘tomorrow will be better’, and when the chance to escape poverty comes their way, he seizes it despite the terrible price. And so Jacob Marley is set on a path that leads to his infamous partnership with Ebenezer Scrooge. As Jacob builds a fortress of wealth to keep the world out, only Clara can warn him of the hideous fate that awaits him if he refuses to let love and kindness into his heart....

Nine ghost stories that capture the spirit of Christmas. The Christmas tree lights, the carol singers, and the shadows that wait out in the snow. Traditional ghost stories written in the true spirit of Christmas. Chilling tales with a twist that will kindle the true spirit of Christmas in your hearts. Ghosts that emerge from the snow, doors that eat you, spirits that beg you to do them a service. Perfect to listen to on a dark winter's night. This book will convince you that the dead do return, and they do so on Christmas Eve!

"Marley was dead, to begin with...." And yet, he manages to visit his old partner, the miser Ebenezer Scrooge, and send him on a transformative journey, led by three ghosts. First to his own past, where he sees again the love he spurned. Then to the present, where he sees those around him going about their holiday preparations. And then into his own future, to see his just reward. A Christmas favorite, it will warm your heart with favorite memories, and remind you how the true Christmas spirit comes from giving with love.

Award-winning author Claudette Melanson offers 11 new and original stories to make your skin crawl at any time of the year. This horror anthology also includes an original short by Amazon international best-selling author Lynn Lamb, titled "Bring Me Flesh and Bring Me Wine". A special bonus story is also included by Melanson, "Mislead", previously published only on the Halloweenpalooza blog. Grab a cup of cocoa and make sure the windows and doors are locked tight as you settle in by the fire to enjoy these tales of terror.

It starts with the Christmas bell, scratched and worn in one of Grandma Anne's boxes in the attic. Once they put it on the tree, Anne starts to say terrifying things and act strangely. Candace and her mother assume it's her dementia talking - until they start to have dangerous encounters with a fiendish being. As the secrets of Anne's past involving her twin sister rise to the surface, the women face sinister horrors from a dark force looking for revenge. Will any of them be able to survive, or will they fall prey to the malevolent secret Grandma Anne is harboring from her past?

Gabrielle Greene has just been crowned the worst girl who ever lived, and she doesn’t know it yet but she’s leaped to the top of Krampus’ naughty list. Krampus, the mysterious sinister Winter King. Krampus the warden of Christmas who comes calling once a year seeking wicked children to haul back to his snowy lands.

As harsh weather descends on the Texas Hill Country, it’s looking nothing like Christmas at the fort in Ashley Oaks. That is, until Jenni decides the children survivors deserve gifts and a holiday celebration. Christmas during a zombie apocalypse. What can go wrong?

It's Christmas Eve - a time of wonder, magic, anticipation....And terror. A father who will go to any lengths to feed his hungry children. An unsuspecting woman who inherits a house with a deadly secret. A murderous widow who shares a train carriage with Jack the Ripper. Two burglars who bite off more than they can chew, during a late-night raid. These, and many more bedtime stories, come hideously to life, in Mark L'Estrange's 19 tales of terror - each set on the most festive night of the year.

Christmas is a time for family and giving, and a wealthy woman in Adelaide, Oklahoma, is about to embrace both. Discovering that she has a young grandson, the dowager decides to change her will to leave the bulk of her fortune to the young boy, an alteration that stuns the rest of her family. But a scrooge of a determined heir makes sure she never signs the new document. When she is found dead, it's up to that irrepressible spirit Bailey Ruth to save Christmas.

Curl up by the fire with these 10 terror tales ready to give you more than your share of holiday chills! Stories of monsters, demons, ghosts, madmen, and killer santas all lurk in these scary tales for you to enjoy.

Christmas may come but once a year but human emotions, the driving force of our characters, are with us every day. Yet, somehow these same emotions when they happen at Christmas seem amplified; we seem more tender to their touch, their words. Whether it’s a long-lost returning soldier wondering how best to return to the arms of his family without too great a risk of shock... Or a prodigal son whose taken path has driven pain into his own and others hearts… These stories reveal much about the human condition.

A pair of sisters travel to Waddonscombe in Cornwall where they enjoy their hosts’ ghost stories around the manor house fire. A cliché, perhaps? Yet events may not play out entirely as expected.

This is an omnibus that features all three volumes of Twelve Days of Christmas Horror in one box set. Including such stories as "'Twas the Night Before Murder", "The Nativity of the Living Dead", "Secret Santa for the Sadistic", "Elf on a Shelf", and "A Christmas Carol: The Aftermath". It's time for your festivities to get frightening.

The third Christmas horror anthology from horror master Rick Wood.

Christmas: a time for family and festivity. Unless you’re in Adder’s Fork, home of the Essex Witch Museum, where it’s a time for ghostly spirits and demonic visits. In these 12 short stories, menacing ghosts and supernatural terrors haunt Rosie Strange and Sam Stone, as well as characters past and present from beyond the Essex Witch Museum. Featuring stories from The Strange Casebook as well as original short stories.

Jessica Lockhart is in need of a live-in carer over the Christmas period; Isla Barrow is the woman who takes the job. After a fraught journey to reach her along remote country lanes, Isla arrives to find the old woman in distress, and the house strangely unnerving. With the weather hostile, no phone line or mobile signal, and her charge growing increasingly frail, Isla realizes death is waiting. And something else besides: vengeance.