Contents of a Nightmare: The Artwork of Stephen Gammell and Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark

  When I was in elementary school during the mid 1980's to the early 90's, there was one book fought over more than any other book in the library. Especially during October. Kids would try to get in the front of the library line so they could be the first one through the library door, dash over to Dewey number J398 and quickly grab the book from the shelf, holding it triumphantly in their hand as if they had just pulled Excalibur from its stone. That book was Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark by author Alvin Schwartz and illustrated by the almighty master of disturbing imagery, Stephen Gammell.

   During 1990-1999, the Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark books were the number one most challenged. From 2000 to 2009 it still sat comfortable at #7 on the most challenged list, having lost a few notches thanks to Harry Potter who took the number one spot. Was there filthy language in these books? No. Were the stories of such a nature no child should be reading them? Not really.

   It was the illustrations. 

Page 30. No explanation needed.

   Imagine a child, excited with the thought of having a sleep over with a couple friends one weekend. He's super geeked because he acquired one of the prized books at the library that day: Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark. The book is tucked deep inside his backpack and he can almost hear the gnashing of monsters and the wail of ghosts coming from the bottom of his bag. He can feel the creepy illustrations trying to escape from their paper prison.
   Once home, his friend's get dropped off, pizza is served, the sun has set and they they are off to the tent in the backyard! Everyone in the tent has that giddy anticipation only a scary story can create.The proud borrower of the book pulls it out of his bag and starts to read. Two hours later, every kid is knocking on the back door, terrified and screaming about monsters and ghosts and that they would prefer to sleep inside. The half awake parent goes to survey the tent to make sure everything looks OK and finds the book lying in the tent open to page 30 (look now at the illustration on the left if you haven't already been trying to avoid it.) Now at this point in the parents night, they can chuckle at the thought of the kids reading ghost stories and not wanting to stay outside and the great memories moments like that create or they look at this book with it's spooky pictures and decide their only goal in life is to make sure no child is ever witness to such drawings again for all eternity. They will make sure these books find their on the (lighting strikes and thunders sounds)...THE BANNED BOOKS LIST!!!

To Everyone's Shock and Horror...

   A friend emailed me with the subject title, "I think you will be saddened by this..." I clicked on her link and my mouth dropped as I read the story headline: "Publishers destroy Scary Stories to Tell In the Dark's amazing artwork." The haters had finally won. In honor of the 30th anniversary of the series, the publisher decided to release a new edition...or let's just say a complete farce of an edition. I stared at the photo in the article displaying the new artwork in comparison of the old.

Gammell's spider girl on the left and Helquist's new rendition on the right.

What were the publisher's THINKING!!? Those drawings were what MADE that book! Fan's of the books and artwork were infuriated when this new edition was released. It was blasphemy to the series and while no one is denying the new illustrator Brett Helquist isn't talented, the drawings are not Stephen Gammell's. There are abundant blogs ragging on poor Brett Helquist as if he had stormed into HarperCollins, made an executive decision to remove the drawings himself knowing he would incite fury everywhere and then forced his whimsical drawings upon the publisher at pencil point. Not quite. Like any illustrator, he was simply commissioned to do what he does for the new 30th anniversary release of the books and so he did just that (I'm sure they asked him to "tone it down" a bit).  Its just we didn't want to see it happen to these particular books. I got my hands on these new copies and parused the new artwork and the only illustration I can say was a little creepy was the drawing for "The Window." It shows a dried up, mummy-like creature with sunken eyes looking into a window. It's such a creepy story that I'd almost believe any illustration for this story would give a shiver.
   Brett Helquist does have an amazing list of works under his belt including the very popular,  A Series of Unfortunate Events books by Lemony Snicket. But regardless of Helquist's achievement and many talents, they won't be as appreciated in these new editions. In a post on a blog called The Fiction Circus, blogger Miracle Jones points out, 

"These books [Scary Stories] are only successful because of the diabolical images that have burned their way into all of our brains over the past three decades, making several generations of children want to become illustrators of children's books to own the awesome power of nightmares for themselves."

Well said.

   A quick look at the new box set featuring all three books on Amazon has a two star rating with the majority of ratings a one star due to the fact the original drawings were omitted. After this, I'm wondering if the book will finally fade from the challenged book list now that the illustrations that were sure to send your kid down the wrong path, have been removed for future generations.

So Who Is This Amazing Stephen Gammell?

Photo/website credit: http://littlewolfblog.com/tag/stephen-gammell/

   The self taught artist has been illustrating since 1972, won the Caldecott award for his work in "Song and Dance Man" in 1988 and won two Caldecott honors for, "The Relatives Came" and "Where the Buffaloes Begin." The bio on his Wiki page is brief, but points out, "He is particularly well-known for the surreal, unsettling illustrations he provided for Alvin Schwartz's Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark."

There's not much info around regarding Gammell's thoughts on his illustrations for Scary Stories, the public's reaction to them and the cult-like love of his artwork. He's almost as mysterious as his amazing ability to paint the DNA of nightmares onto paper. What was his inspiration for each drawing? Where did the ideas come from? Did any of the drawings shock even him when he stepped back and looked at the finished masterpiece? After a little digging, I did happen to find this comment from a blog about the books that sheds a little light on Stehpen's thoughts while creating these drawings:

Comment by Katie Shutt on April 14, 2008 
I’ve actually had the privilege of corresponding with Mr. Gammell, and after discussing his career as an illustrator, I’ve found that he is every bit as interesting a person as his crazy-intense drawings would have you believe. Ironically, his “Scary Stories” drawings were something he did largely with a sense of humor, and didn’t intend for them to be taken as seriously frightening as they were–which only impresses me even more, because how does someone create something so incredibly creepy without even meaning to make it as frightening as it was?

This bio written by Stephen Gammell for the Children's Literature Network is just perfect and gives a fan a little more insight into how cool this guy is.

"Some of my earliest and happiest memories are of lying on the floor in our old house and Des Moines, books and magazines around me, piles of pads and paper, lot of pencils...and drawing. Just drawing! I was four at the time thinking that I really didn't want to go to school next year...I just want to do THIS.

Well, these many years later, here I am doing THAT. Drawing. Painting. Making art. Making books. What I wanted to do.

Sometimes there is uncertainty about not getting on paper what I see in my mind's eye, or wondering about how to achieve a certain effect, or even being puzzled about the direction an illustration is going, or should go. But never any dissatisfaction about what I am doing in life. I've alway felt, and I've said this, that a bad day at the studio is better than a good day doing anything else (with the possible exception of a wilderness hike, or watching a Laurel and Hardy movie).

So, still at it. Still on the journey. Still taking a perfectly good sheet of paper and ruining it. My thanks to all who enjoy my efforts. Hopefully we'll continue to enjoy them together."

Stephen Gammell

Lesser Known Works of Scary Art by Gammell

 

These four books feature some of Gammell's earlier "spooky" drawings and may have been what originally impressed HarperCollins for the Scary Stories series. There are some amazing illustrations in these books that are equal to the ones in Scary Stories. 

1. Ghosts by Seymour Simon (The Eerie Series) published in 1976 by J.B. Lippencott

2. Meet the Vampire (The Eerie Series) by Georgess McHargue published in 1979 by J.B. Lippencott

3. The Ghost of Tillie Jean Cassaway by Ellen Harvey published in 1978 by Four Winds Press

4. Halloween Poems selected by Myra Cohn Livingston, published in 1989 by Holiday House.

5. Terrible Things: An Allegory of the Holocaust by Eve Bunting, 1996

And thanks to my first comment from a reader I can add:

5. Leo Possessed by Dilys Owen, 1979. 

6. Meet the Werewolf (The Eerie Series) by Georgess McHargue published in 1976. 

The Writing of Alvin Schwartz: What Are Your Favorite Scary Stories, Memories and Reactions?

   Along with the disturbing drawings, Alvin Schwartz had a way with these short, simple tales that made every hair stand up on your body. His stories had a believable quality to them, mainly because they were based on actual folklore and urban legend. Urban legends have that "this could be real" vibe to them because they are usually handed down with the preface,"A friend of a friend heard..." Sadly, Alvin Schwartz passed away from lymphoma at the age of 64 on March 14, 1992, hardly aware of the impact his books would have on a generation of reader's and budding artists prone to the macabre. At the time of his death, his New York Times obituary reported, "he had sold more than three millions books." The New York Times also said, "that his scary stories appealed to "a primal need to be scared out of one's wits," and that "these stories are the stuff nightmares are made of." 

So true.

This is a list of my personal favorite stories & quotes from the books along with various comments from bloggers around the Internet that have posted about these same stories and illustrations.

Illustration from "The Window"

 1. The Window - The concept in this story has always terrified me. The idea of looking out your window and seeing something in the darkness that doesn't belong, coming closer towards you is unsettling. You know you are inside, but the only thing between you and the unknown is a pane of glass. In the story, the girl looks back out toward the window and finds "herself staring through the window at a shrunken face like that of a mummy. It's yellow-green eyes gleamed like a cat's eyes. She wanted to scream."

   When I look out a window at night, I still feel like something is going to be looking in, thanks to Schwartz & Gammell. 

   

2. One Sunday Morning - This story was everyone's worst nightmare: finding yourself surrounded by dead people. It was just scary and the drawings of the dead people helped add fear to this tale.

"One Sunday Morning" Illustration. "She looked around again. As her eyes began to adjust to the dim light, Ida saw some skeletons in suits and dresses. "This is a service for the dead, Ida thought. "Everybody here is dead, except me."

Illustration from "The Bride" - No comment needed.

3. The Bride - A classic urban legend story, this was one of those eerie tales that made you think even as a kid, how awful this would be! It especially didn't encourage you to hide in a trunk hidden in a dusty attic. The epic sadness of something like this really happening was disturbing and still is. If you don't remember, the new bride is playing a game of hide and seek with everyone and puts herself in an old trunk in an attic. Of course, she's locked inside and no one thinks to look in there and no one ever here's her screams of help. The picture of the skeletal bride with her jaw set unnaturally ajar was the perfect icing on this very short tale.

Illustration from "Footsteps"

4. Footsteps - Oh and the picture. How disturbing is this picture? Not that disembodied footsteps is a comforting thing to hear, but it was the image of the spectral feet pushing through the ceiling that stayed with me and has continued to influence even some of my artwork through the years. The idea of familiar things pushing through objects that shouldn't move or bend, such as a ceiling!

T-H-U-P-P-P-P-P-P-P! Illustration

5. T-H-U-P-P-P-P-P-P-P! - "It's on my bed. It's looking and looking at me!" Now this story ends "cute" you could say, with advising the reader to make a loud sound at the end to scare the audience, but it's the picture that accompanied this story that stayed with me. A comment on Tumblr from a user named lunarsauce, was talking about this very picture and how it stuck with them forever and stated, "Looking at those books was like, a test of bravery in my childhood. We are breeding wimps now." (also in reference to the replaced artwork.)

Illustration from "The Thing"

6. The Thing - "The night Ted died, Sam said he looked just like the skeleton." Another creepy tale about something following you in the darkness. And if that "thing" looked like that thing on the right? Faint. 

"Illustration from The Haunted House"

7. The Haunted House - "Her hair was torn and tangled, and the flesh was dropped off her face so he could see the bones and part of her teeth." The illustration that accompanies this story is by far one of the most gruesome drawings in all of the series and is one of the most commented upon drawings. "Behold, the illustration that caused me to toss the book across the room," stated paradoxiica, a user on Tumblr.

"Oh Susannah" Illustration by Gammell

   While not exactly a personal favorite, The story "Oh Susannah" from More Scary Stories is a top favorite for people and one I saw come up again and again on Internet blogs and posts. The story is based on an urban legend called "The Roommate's Death."  And let's face it, the illustrationg for this one is really messed up. I don't even know what to say about it. Schwartz did a lot of research into urban legends and ghost stories. When we were kids, we didn't bother looking at all the notes in the back of the book but any adult fan of the books will find these notes extremely interesting now.

   A basic search of Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark will deliver all kinds of anecdotes about how this person remembers this drawing, and this reader is still haunted by this image...and so on. There are even people who love the books so much that they have gotten tattoos of Gammell's artwork. I have to post this one hilarious comment and one poignant comment from another blog in regards to reactions:

"That sh*t damaged me. Honestly, that picture of the girl with baby spiders coming out of her face haunted me for years. I've always feared a spider bite, until I finally got one on my face a few years ago while I was sleeping. Four days went by and the bite kept swelling and I couldn't get over that Scary Stories image – thinking that was going to happen to me. The entire time I was thinking that I was injected with a spider egg." Brian Miggels, IGN

"These books were what got me into art, it wasn't just the startling subject matter Gammell used it was the technique and how he executed it that really got me interested. I love that his work blurs the line between abstract and representational illustration because in between that line there comes the feeling of insecurity, fear, uncertainty, and it's rather convincing that the horrors of the unreal are captured through Gammell's perspective so well it's quite disturbing and the books wouldn't be anywhere near as effective without those illustrations. They add moment's of slippage and begin to plummet into a frightening take of reality. Marie"

Ingredients for the perfect nightmare. For adults to try on their kids.

   Mix the following together only in the evening at the beginning of a slumber party (preferably with just a hint of a good storm brewing in the distance.)

    1. Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark, More Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark and Scary Stories 3

    2. Three or more children 

    2. Read this particular story: The Haunted House in Scary Stories 1.

3. Scan or find the above image online, blow it up to fit your face, cut it out and make a quick mask out of it with two holes on the side and some string.

4. Read the story to them in the most spooky and animated way you can. After the story is done (hell, throw in a few others while you're at it) tell them at 11:00pm, there will be cookies waiting for them in the kitchen if they "dare" to venture out of their room.

5. Let the terror sink in for a couple of hours.

6. When the kids come into the kitchen in search of cookies, be hiding nearby in your .10 cent mask and preferably a dark robe or cloak of some kind, wait for the perfect moment to come out and when the kids scream and run the other way, pat yourself on the back for being part of the perfect nightmare and for making a fun memory they will talk about for years to come. If the children need therapy after this, don't blame me.

If you really do this, write me and let me know how it turned out. 

If you have memories of these books, please feel free to post your comments and stories to this blog.

Selected Resources

http://www.nytimes.com/1992/03/16/nyregion/alvin-schwartz-64-an-author-of-folklore-books-for-children.html

http://www.prationality.com/2010/10/hy-scary-stories-to-tell-in-dark.html

http://www.adventuresinpoortaste.com/2011/12/18/scary-stories-to-tell-in-the-dark-gammell-vs-helquist/

http://special.lib.umn.edu/clrc/kerlan/newsletters/2003/wtr03.html

http://www.lookingglassreview.com/html/stephen_gammell.html

http://littlewolfblog.com/tag/stephen-gammell/

 http://fyeahtattoos.com/post/2058207440/this-is-my-3rd-tattoo-it-is-actually-from-the

 http://www.harpercollins.com/authors/14419/Brett_Helquist/index.aspx

http://sarasart.tumblr.com/post/978299839/theblackflamecandle-christ-almighty-a-stephen

http://arnaudv.blogspot.com/2012/01/tribute-to-stephen-gammell.html

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/stephen-gammell?before=1332925176

Some fun Misc art fans have created. I linked each picture to where I found it.

brbnightmares 

1980's Toys & TV Pt 1: When being a kid rawked

If you were a kid in the 1980's, it's my opinion that you were one of the luckiest damn kids in the world. Why? Because our toys were awesome. We were pre computers and Internet but post tin cans and wooden dolls. Toys were what fueled our imaginations. It was the age of five inch thick, glorious toy catalogs that every kid drooled over before Christmas. There were toys that were starting to talk, walk and take on a "life" of their own with the help of batteries and electricity. Teddy Ruxpin could tell you a bed time story, you didn't need your parents for that! And screw TV! The drama that was going on between your Barbie dolls or GI Joes was way more exciting. The dark wasn't so scary with your Glow Worm or your Light Bright. Care Bears reminded you to stay positive. The bottom of the breakfast cereal meant a toy was at hand (unless your parents let you dump it all in a big bowl first.) Saturday morning cartoons were still in existence and were actually good.
   Simply put, the 80's were an amazing time to be a kid. I'm going to use this series of blogs to take a break from paranormal & creepy topics to share my love of the 80's. I'm going to dive into some of my favorite memories and toys from that bygone era many of us miss and still love to get lost in the forgotten nostalgia.

Toy #1 - Hello Kitty

I can see ones I owned in this pic. Source 

   This freakishly adorable cat with its assortment of equally cute friends was a solid obsession of mine and of many other kids out there. If I had anything Hello Kitty, it was lovingly taken care off and kept in a special place. I had pens, erasers, stamp kits, mini pencil kits and stationary. These would all be stored neatly in a drawer or be on display. If I took any of these items to school, I wouldn't use them. They would just be artfully placed inside my desk somewhere or in my room with other designer erasers and pens that were just for looks.
 

This was it! The Hello Color! I found this pic
on www.hellokittyjunkie.co

But my favorite Hello Kitty toy was my beloved Hello Color. Hello Color was the ultimate bath toy. It was a plush doll you could dunk underwater and it would change color! It was incredible. It started out pink and purple and when the hot water touched it, bam! It turned to lighter colors. Now as a kid, I wasn't just content to dunk the doll underwater once and watch the colors change. It needed to happen again, and again. So on the cold water would go and I'd hold the doll under it and watch the dark colors come back. Then it would go back into the hot bath water...then the cold...then the hot...and after some time lapsed, I would find myself sitting in lukewarm bathwater with the start of chattering teeth. But playtime would continue until my parents would rip me from the tub and hang the doll up to dry. Until tomorrow night Hello Color! 
 
   Then one day, the unthinkable happened. Our large Husky decided to get his hands on my Hello Color and destroy it. When I found her, she was torn open, her fluffy insides spilling out. I cried. My grandma did her best to sew the doll back up, but it was never the same after that. The face was sewn up like Frankenstein and it was obvious to me that the soul of the doll I bonded with over bath time had left its body when it was attacked by our heartless dog.
   At some point, like all bath toys, the doll was getting a little rank and had seen its last days and made its exit to toy heaven. But I never forgot Hello Color and our short time together on this planet and I have often done Ebay searches looking for another one just for the hell of it. In fact, it was my searches that reminded me it was even called "Hello Color." I just remembered the awesome Hello Kitty doll that changed colors in the tub. A few key word searches later and thanks to YouTube and other nostalgic 80's toy nuts, the commercial below popped up and I was instantly reconnected with my long lost toy again through 31 seconds of streaming bliss. I found this commercial actually disturbing seeing the children in the tub seem really exposed for TV. Something tells me we wouldn't see this on the television today.

Toy #2 - She-Ra = Awesome

   There are no words that can really describe my fondness for these toys. I have been slowly getting rid of some of my toy's from the 80's as they have been gaining some collectibility, but I will never, ever, ever part with my She-Ra dolls. The one thing I regret was selling off all of my He-Man dolls at a garage sale back in the late 80's. I had tons of them all in mint condition and I cringe every time I think about it. 

   I can honestly say that I still have dreams once in a while that She-Ra comes back into stores and there I am, (adult me), walking through the toy aisle when I see brand new She-Ra dolls hanging there ready to collect all over again. But then I wake up, and it just angers me that they came out with He-Man a second time a few years back but not She-Ra. Of course, Mattel learned that it wasn't the kids picking up all of these new He-Man toys, it was actually adults who played with the originals in the 80's and still wanted to collect this new version of their favorite toy. Today's kids didn't know what to do with them. They didn't do anything or come with a screen. They didn't have buttons or a microchip,so the toys didn't catch on with the new generation of kids.

After digging on the Internet, I was able
to find this old ad showing the actual
pajamas on the kid on the right.

  Two of the coolest She-Ra items I owned were my She-Ra pajamas and the actual (plastic) armor of She-Ra. First, the pajamas were pretty sweet seeing they came with knee length yellow-gold footies that were supposed to resemble her boots. The actual pajamas were made to look like her mini skirt. She-Ra and her horse were printed on the front of the shirt and then there was the coolest part of the whole ensemble: the red cape. The cape was a piece of red fabric that attached via Velcro onto the shoulders. It wouldn't always stay, especially after it had been washed a few times, but when I went to bed, I didn't go to bed as Amberrose...I went to bed as She-Ra, and there was nothing cooler than that. I would slide down our long wooden hallway in my slippers, trying to get the cape to somewhat blow upwards as if I were flying. It was never too successful but I'm sure it was good exercise and annoying to my grandparents.

   My She-Ra armor is still sought after by my friends who beg me to locate all the parts so they can try it on and wear it. This set included bracers, a necklace, the shield, a belt, the sword of power and the most magical piece of them all...the She-Ra mask. Combine these items with my pajamas, and there was no stopping me as a little kid. (Note: I looked cooler than the kid featured in this picture. The white leotard and Keds just don't make a powerful super hero statement.)

Who was your favorite?

   My friends and I have often talked about getting together and trying to pull off She-Ra characters for Halloween but we have come to the conclusion that in our 30's, it would take many months of intense physical training and strict dietary habits to even remotely come close to portraying a Princess of Power figurine. 

I came across this on the Internet and just had to put this on here in reference
to the small conversation below regarding Halloween.

::Me to my cousin:: "You could be She-Ra for Halloween! You have blonde hair and blue eyes! You could pull it off! I could be Frosta or something!" 

::My cousin:: "No one wants to see a fat She-Ra."

::Me:: big sigh. 

And who could forget those mighty words, "I HAVE THE POWER!!!"

Don't Stop...Believin'

   Proof and belief. Those two frustrating words that are the crux of the paranormal enthusiast and skeptic alike. "Show us the proof!" the skeptic's all demand, while shaking their fists in the air for added emphasis. And while this may grate at the minds of the paranormal believers out there, we'd all love to be able to show them that proof. Someday. Maybe. Hopefully. Until then, all we have is our good old fashioned faith.
   There's not another holiday out there that evokes as much emotion, nostalgia and raw belief as Christmas. Every adult has memories of presents under the tree in the morning, believing in Santa Claus or... the moment they found out Santa Claus wasn't real. I didn't have that moment of shock and horror such as finding my presents under my parent's bed. I just stopped believing one year. My cousin on the other hand, gripped onto the idea of Santa Claus as if she were hanging over a dark chasm filled with hungry wolves. She refused...absolutely refused...to believe that Santa wasn't real and we were getting a little too old to truly believe Santa was anything more than a metaphor. 
   On Christmas day, we had the family get together at her house. As soon as I arrived, she would rush me upstairs to her bedroom and show me what "Santa" got for her. This day, she proudly pointed to a new stereo set up in the corner of her bedroom, complete with two tape decks for recording and "high speed dubbing," an AM/FM radio, and a record player on top. Two tower speakers were on each side of it. It was around 1991 and that stereo was pretty damn awesome.
   "Look what Santa got me!" she exclaimed, proudly standing next to the stereo as if it was her son on the first day of school. I looked at her and was shocked she had just said that to me.
   "Santa didn't get that for you...your parents did," I said bluntly. She looked at me, unblinking.
   "No...Santa got it for me," she said defiantly.
   "Santa isn't real," I retorted back. But she didn't say anything more to defend herself and I decided it wasn't worth it. If she wanted to still believe in Santa, I wasn't going to fight her on it.
   The following Christmas she discovered a Barbie toothbrush in her parents attic space. She then received said toothbrush in her stocking from "Santa" on Christmas day. The cover was blown. Her belief in Santa went straight out the chimney he used to come down and she joined the millions of kids who have to go through the crushing realization that Santa isn't real. As we grow up, we are told a lot of things are not real that we used to believe were just as real and true as the sun rising everyday.
  As I grew up and became more and more obsessed with paranormal topics, I found myself starting to believe in the unbelievable again, or the things we are encouraged not to believe in because they cannot be proven under a microscope or in a testing lab somewhere. Belief in the magical and miraculous around Christmas time is a little more tolerated and even encouraged. In fact, Christmas used to be the time when ghost stories were shared! Go figure!

Ghosts and Goblins at Christmas?

   The history of Christmas is fascinating and actually has its roots in ancient Pagan celebrations such as the winter solstice and Yule. Because December is the darkest time of the year, our ancestors used to believe that that was the time of the year to be scared of ghosts and goblins. It was dark and cold outside and obviously that made it easier for the dead to return and torment the living (as if cold and darkness weren't enough already.) The winter solstice symbolically celebrated the death of the Earth and it's coming rebirth with the returning sunlight and spring season ahead. So for the ancients, death was a central theme in the month of December. It was the perfect month for ghosts and December 24 used to be the time when the veil was thinnest and the dead could easily pass from their world into ours.
   The English Victorian's used to tell ghost stories around the hearth in the cold winter months and around Christmas as a way to pass the time. Ghost stories were immensely popular in the mid 19th century and onward. Most everyone is familiar on some level (unless you live under a rock) with Charles Dicken's, "A Christmas Carol" from 1843, where Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the three ghosts of Christmas past, present and future. We can actually thank Victorian England for many of our current holiday traditions we still celebrate such as Christmas cards. For whatever reason, telling ghost stories at Christmas become a tradition long forgotten and left for the month of October. But really, what a perfect time for a ghost story...when we are actually encouraged to believe in magic and unseen forces working behind the scenes in our great, big world.
 

"Ghost of Christmas Future" original illustration by John
 Leech from the 1843 first edition of "A Christmas Carol." 

Fun Christmas Superstitions

If you are born on Christmas, you can not die by drowning or hanging. Lucky you!

If you are born on Christmas, you are more prone to seeing the dead. Other versions say the dead will never bother you if born on this day. So I guess you'll have to talk to someone born on Christmas and get their opinion on this one.

Think a few evil spirits are lurking around your home? Open the doors of your house on Christmas Eve at midnight and let those wild spirits fly out into the night sky! Or the first to open the door on Christmas needs to yell "Welcome Father Christmas!" and then the bad spirits will be let out.

Candle's left to burn over night in the window or windows of a house ensured good luck. If the candle is blown out in the morning...well...it's just not good. Not good at all for you.

If you deny someone a kiss under the mistletoe, bad luck is sure to find you and don't replace the mistletoe until next year with new mistletoe, or more bad luck will find you.

The Weirdest Christmas Fact You Will Read Today

How terrifying would this be to show your
if they weren't behaving for "Santa."

   While researching a few fun facts about the history of Christmas, I found the devilish figure of Black Peter. Now in old postcards such as the one featured in this post on the right, Black Peter pretty much looks like the Devil. Metaphorically speaking, he was the complete opposite of Santa Claus. Sort of like God and the Devil. While it was Santa's job to give presents to the good little boys and girls, it was Black Peter's job to dish out the punishments and drop the lumps of coal in the stockings of the bad children.
   Black Peter got his start in 15th century Holland. First appearances of him don't actually portray him as a devilish figure, rather a Spaniard! Gasp! At the time Black Peter surfaced, the Spanish were occupying the Netherlands and they weren't all that happy about it. Other people suggest his origins are Moorish due to his dark skin and manner of dress in depictions of him. Peter's outward appearance would continue to change through the centuries and in Holland today, Black Peter is more like Santa's sidekick and is usually portrayed by a white man with his face painted black (that ticks off a few people over there), rather than some evil monster with horns and a hairy body. Santa and Black Peter arrive in a parade on December 5 in Holland and has been a holiday tradition for a long time that has also become controversial due to the stereotypes Black Peter embodies.

   Hopefully you've been slightly enlightened now with some strange facts about Christmas to share with the family this holiday. Now go listen to that song by Journey "Don't Stop Believin," and yell the chorus over the rooftops. Because when we stop believing in things, this world becomes a pretty dull place to live in.