Fed up all the holiday cheer? Looking at the break with dread instead of anticipating the festivities? Spend a few weeks this break ignoring the typical depictions and expectations of the season and return to the horror at the core of its literary and folklore roots! This course will begin with a look at the demons and beasts of winter across various cultures before moving into Victorian England and looking at the tradition of the Christmas ghost story heavily directed by Charles Dickens and A Christmas Carol. While Dickens usually dominates the conversation, the popularity the Christmas ghost story in England gave readers plenty of seasonal frights outside of that consistently adapted text. Moving forward, we will widen the scope to how this tradition was represented in the short story and poetry in Germany, France, America, and more. And, lastly, conclude by looking at the lingering ways in which more contemporary authors and filmmakers retain these traditions while subverting the clichés of the holiday, using it as a backdrop to discuss themes of violence, gender, and agency. Films include The Nightmare Before Christmas, Gremlins, Black Christmas, Silent Night Deadly Night, Christmas Evil, and several others.