"Whenever five or six English-speaking people meet round a fire on Christmas Eve they start telling each other ghost stories. Nothing satisfies us on Christmas Eve but to hear each other tell authentic anecdotes about spectres" Jerome K. Jerome, 1891 #PhantomsFriday #BookChatWeekly #GothicAdvent

1/5 Viktor Rydberg was a Swedish writer known for a poem about a Tomte visiting a farm on #Christmas night. He makes his rounds, checking the family & livestock, while considering the passage of time. redbubble.com/shop/ap/1560... #LegendaryWednesday #gothicadvent #art #illustration #bookchatweekly

Sleeping Tomte and Cat - Jenny...

#GothicAdvent Carol Singers in Poland by A. Piotrowski, 1929

#GothicAdvent A lady gathering ivy at Christmas in the woods near Rowlands Castle on the South Downs met a horse and rider, who vanished suddenly. It was suggested she had encounted the ghost of local highwayman Charlie Pierce, who was killed when he was decapitated by a low-hanging tree branch.

#GothicAdvent Just finished this seasonal book of ghost stories from the @britishlibrary.bsky.social, the 1st of their Christmas themed collections. Favourites: the unexpectedly amusing 'Curse of the Catalfaques', creepiest 'Christmas Eve on a Haunted Hulk' & 'Lucky's Grove'. A great collection.

According to Slavic superstitions (mainly – the southern ones), a child conceived/born during the Christmas season, is likely to become a vampire. #GothicAdvent #ijulemørket #dailyspooklore #vampiresweekly Art: Albert Joseph Penot (detail)

The closer the Christmas, the closer Julegeita is to your home! This mysterious Christmas goat comes down the mountains/out of the woods, and enters a town/village through the oldest gate. Julegeita is known for punishing lazy kids and his sweet tooth. #GothicAdvent #ijulemørket #dontgointothewoods

In Norway, it was customary to throw outside your brooms on Christmas Eve, so witches had something to ride, and wouldn’t come steal your horses to join åsgårdsrei (the Wild hunt). #FolkloreThursday #ijulemørket #dailyspooklore #GothicAdvent Art: Seigneurgens

It was once believed unlucky to bring holly into the house before Christmas Eve and leave up after Twelfth Night. If you did so, you ran the risk of every berry and leaf transforming into a naughty spirit... #GothicAdvent #Solstice 🎨Cicely Mary Barker

In Scandinavia the night before the 13th of December is Lussi Night, named after a demonic witch who rides forth at this time to unleash a horde of demons to torment the land in the forthcoming dark nights of winter #GothicAdvent 🎨 by Andy Paciorek from this book: www.blurb.co.uk/b/10407793-s...