Telling ghost stories at Christmas has been traditional since Dickens' A Christmas Carol, and in this wide-ranging collection of holiday chills we revisit this custom with tales both old and new.A young man decides to impersonate his school chum's family ghost. A doctor makes a house call to a woman who died years ago. A child begs to go back to a disreputable Santa who may be Someone Else. An old man hears a ghostly voice from a doll in a hospital room. A psychic detective is called in to exorcise a certain well-known holiday icon. A boy hears the story of his far planet's history from the family pet.

These aren't your traditional holiday tales.

Contents (view Concise Listing)
1 • Introduction (Spirits of Christmas) • (1989) • essay by David G. Hartwell
5 • The Prescription • (1929) • short story by Marjorie Bowen
27 • The Mystery of My Grandmother's Hair Sofa • (1895) • short story by John Kendrick Bangs
37 • How the Bishop Sailed to Inniskeen • (1989) • short story by Gene Wolfe
47 • Old Applejoy's Ghost • (1900) • short story by Frank R. Stockton
67 • Green Holly • (1944) • short story by Elizabeth Bowen
81 • Floodlights • (1989) • short story by Martha Soukup
95 • The Real and the Counterfeit • (1895) • short story by Mrs. Alfred Baldwin
116 • Snow Ghosts • (1989) • short story by Richard A. Lupoff
130 • Unawares • (1908) • short story by Hildegarde Hawthorne
137 • A Midwinter's Tale • (1988) • short story by Michael Swanwick
157 • The Haunted Man • [Christmas Books] • (1989) • novella by Charles Dickens (variant of The Haunted Man and the Ghost's Bargain 1848)
268 • The Haunted Man: A Christmas Story by Ch-r--s D-ck-ns • (1865) • short story by Bret Harte
278 • The Confessions of Ebenezer Scrooge • (1989) • short story by James Morrow
288 • O Come Little Children ... • (1989) • short story by Chet Williamson
301 • But Do You Recall ... ? • (1989) • short story by Greg Cox
309 • A Handful of Silver • (1967) • short story by Mary Elizabeth Counselman
319 • A Masquerade of Voices • (1988) • short story by Susan Palwick
336 • The Breakdown • (1976) • short story by Marjorie Bowen
348 • The Peculiar Demesne • (1980) • novelette by Russell Kirk
385 • Icicle Music • (1989) • short story by Michael Bishop