Ghosts in UK at Christmas, but not in US
Because of cultural and religious differences, Halloween is the time for scary tales in America
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Belfast, Northern Ireland
A FEW years ago, the Downton Abbey Christmas special featured a ouija board that communicated a message from a dead character. American reviewers were extremely puzzled by this incursion of the supernatural while British reviewers found it unexceptional. Indeed, few bothered even to mention it. Why?
The answer lies with the long tradition of Christmas ghost stories, the most famous of which is probably Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol (subtitled "Being a Ghost Story of Christmas").
Dickens was a strong supporter of the Christmas ghost story, reminiscing in his 1850 essay A Christmas Tree about childhood Christmases spent "telling Winter Stories - Ghost Stories, or more shame for us - …
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