The Thirteenth Day of Christmas
Story Teasers
with art by Josh Voyles
Here you’ll find a little background and a brief description of each of the stories found in my Christmas horror anthology. The AI-generated art shown here was created by Josh Voyles using the WOMBO app and then enhanced with more nuanced imagery.
I think they’re uniquely creepy and beautiful. I hope you do, too.
"The Christmas Present"
Some of the imagery in the first story in The Thirteenth Day of Christmas anthology came from a nightmare I once had of an eerie theater. The story was originally called “The Nightmare Box.” and I hope to one day make a series of stories around this concept and its sinister central character. It would make a great comic book, wouldn’t it? Comic book artists, are you listening? (I do have another story in Tales from the Hearse where a young girl receives the mysterious, nightmare-inducing gift wrapped in black from Mr. Mephisto. So two scripts down, one to go!)
About the nightmare that started it all…I dreamt of an old, elaborately decorated theater in which the audience members sat perfectly still in their seats waiting for the beginning of the show despite the fact that I could hear the sounds of low conversation and quiet laughter as you would expect before the lights dim and the curtain rises. They were real people, but as still and breathless as mannequins. A low-hanging fog crept out from the stage and poured out into the audience where I noticed that some of the people were dressed in Nazi officer uniforms.
It was terrifying and I woke up with my heart pounding!
Fortunately my dream spared me the horror that takes place on stage in “The Christmas Present,” but the thought of that theater still gives me chills. I hope that setting and the events that transpire in “The Christmas Present” bring you chills, too! (Minor spoiler: no Nazis appear in this story.)
One more side note…this is one of the earliest stories I ever wrote as an adult. I remember sharing it years ago with the students in my English class one year to encourage them about their own creative writing. One of the principals came in during the reading to do an impromptu evaluation and I recall wondering if the violent parts of the story might get me in trouble. (They didn’t.)
"The Toymaker"
Many people have told me that “The Toymaker” is their favorite tale in this collection. It is unique in that I tried to capture an “old country” holiday vibe by setting the tale in mid-nineteenth century Bulgaria and using an old-fashioned narrative style.
The character of Old Nick in this story is not based on any actual Christmas tradition. It just struck me as a novel idea to have this Santa Claus figure be a mysterious and possibly ominous old man who visits a small village each Christmas Eve to give away toys he has made to deserving children. The fact that he could also be a scary figure for naughty children was impossible not to include since I am a horror writer, after all.
There are three families affected by Old Nick’s visit in this tale: a poor child whose family has just relocated to the village, a wealthy family with spoiled children, and a couple who have recently lost their daughter during the course of the previous year who want nothing more than to have just one day with their daughter. (Spoiler alert: it’s not a zombie story.)
You can hear me narrate this story along with Mombi Yuleman’s wonderful eerie music on the Dark Corners podcast if you’ll scroll back through the listings to Season 1.
"Christmas Eve in the Graveyard"
The narrator of this story is so real to me that I actually did tear up as I was writing it. I could easily hear his voice because it was based on my wife’s grandfather in spite of the fact that the character is Black and Papa Ledford wasn’t. But race isn’t really important to the story. The heart in it is.
I wrote this tale for our special Dark Holiday ghost tour when we were giving people cider along with their ghost stories on their nighttime hearse ride. At one point on the tour we would stop and I would get our guests out of the hearse and lead them along a dark path to an unlit, outdoor amphitheater where I asked the six or seven guests to sit on the front row of the wooden benches while I perched on the edge of the stage facing them. They huddled close together in the blankets we gave them while I shined a light on my face like a camp counselor scaring his campers around a campfire. I actually did have the projection of an animated fire burning behind me on the back wall of the Christmas Carol set behind me. A small battery-powered projector I could carry in my pocket was perfect for setting the atmosphere!
I assumed the role of the old widower who lived beside the cemetery he tended, who tells his listeners why he believes in ghosts. I would often get so wrapped up in the story that my voice would break as I got to the last line.
I don’t often write sweet stories. I hope you enjoy this one. You can also hear me narrate it on the Dark Corners podcast, btw.
"Last Minute Shopping"
While shopping for gifts might be one of the joys of the holidays for many folks, for me it can be a nightmare. I recall one year when I had a mini-panic attack in a mall. Suddenly, for no apparent reason, I was completely overwhelmed by the wash of colors and decorations; it seemed like I was in a totally unfamiliar landscape – another world (which was ridiculous since I had shopped in that mall for years) with swarms of people who seemed alien and frightening to me. I felt absolutely out of place and lost.
I have no explanation for this absurd fit of anxiety and I’m grateful to say I’ve never experienced anything like it again. Strangely enough, in the story “Last Minute Shopping” I did not try to re-capture that specific feeling. But the mall being a menacing place, malicious even, was something I did want to convey.
What if during the Yuletide season, you were to wake up in a mall, in one of those mechanical massage chairs, to find that you were the only person there? The stores are open, but there are no clerks, no shoppers, no security cops, no one but you in a large Christmas-decorated atrium with the sounds of Christmas carols playing over the speakers. The doors leading to the parking lot are locked so you can’t leave. Your phone is useless and the clock is stopped at the same time as the frozen time displays in the shops.
That’s the premise of this Twilight Zone kind of story. But in this one, it’s not about mannequins coming to life after closing hours. There’s something much worse for the character who awakens in “Last Minute Shopping” to find himself alone in a locked mall.
I can’t go to a mall now without imagining this scenario. Maybe it will cross your mind, too, on your next trip out for some last minute shopping. I suggest that you might want to pass on the massage chair, though. And by no means should you venture into Santa’s castle! (Although you have to admit…if you found yourself alone in the mall at Christmastime, you would definitely check out Santa’s house, wouldn’t you?)
"The Haunted Belfry"
There are two types of buildings I’d like to own and remodel to make them a living space. If you follow my posts in social media or receive my newsletter, you already know of my fascination with old theaters. But ever since I saw Arlo Guthrie’s movie Alice’s Restaurant I’ve always wanted to own a small church. With stained glass, a steeple, and yes, a graveyard, of course. Wouldn’t that be cool?
I suppose I’ll never have the chance to fulfill that dream, but the great thing about being a writer is that I can write a story in which my character owns one.
Like “Christmas Eve in the Graveyard,” the fourth story in The Thirteenth Day of Christmas, “The Haunted Belfry,” is also a mystery ghost story.
Jon Hamilton, a young, single architect, learns that the small, abandoned church he purchased and renovated to become his home is the site of an unsolved death. The headless body of the last minister to serve at St. Denis Methodist was found in the belfry below a bloody noose, perhaps the gruesome result of a violent suicide. A series of disturbing events in his new home causes Jon to wonder if there might be more to the story.
Btw, if you google St. Denis, you’ll find that he was a Christian martyr from the 3rd century who carried his own decapitated head for several miles while preaching about repentance. He provides the perfect name for the church in my story, wouldn’t you agree?
"You Better Watch Out"
You know there are such things as ice hotels, right? Hotels completely made of ice? The lobby, the lounge, YOUR ROOM, all at sub-freezing temperatures.
Once I learned that such things existed in certain northern climes, I knew I had to write a story about a couple staying in one and then finding their way to Santa’s home. Only, of course, being me, this Santa would not be the jolly old elf we love and adore.
“You Better Watch Out,” the sixth story in The Thirteenth Day of Christmas collection, was such a fun story to write. I loved looking at the photos of freezing hotel rooms complete with monstrous ice sculptures around beds also carved out of ice. The hallways and staircases look like something out of a fairy tale.
Google “ice hotel,” click on images, and you’ll see my inspiration for this story.
And then I want to know…would you stay in one of these? You know, I didn’t think I would at first, but now? Well, maybe…
"Up on the Rooftop"
Three stories from my Thirteenth Day of Christmas collection have characters inspired from people in my family. I told you about how my wife’s grandfather served as the voice in my head for the old cemetery caretaker in “Christmas Eve in the Graveyard.”
The grandfather in “Up on the Rooftop” was very much inspired by my memories of going to The Wigwam, my grandparents mountain home near Asheville, NC. My grandfather, a Baptist preacher, was a wonderful storyteller, a skill that made his sermons enjoyable to me even as a young boy. (Too bad they didn’t stick.)
At bedtime in the Wigwam, my brother and I would climb into a large bunk bed in a pine-paneled room exactly as described in this story. My grandfather didn’t tell his stories by lantern light like the character in the story, but he did often begin with the question, “Do you want to hear about when I was a good little boy, or when I was a bad little boy?” I wonder now what those good little boy stories might have contained.
The living room with the stone fireplace was also as described in the story, but from there any resemblance to my family ends. Read the story and you’ll see why.
“Up on the Rooftop” was also one of the original stories I told on our holiday ghost tours for Dark Ride Tours, only it wasn’t “a story within a story” to begin with. I just told the central story of Cindi, the bratty little girl, but later when compiling the stories for this anthology, I added the frame story.
I’m really glad I did.
"In the Flesh Appearing"
I have to say that the story “In the Flesh Appearing” kinda freaked me out when I was writing it.
I have a thing about dolls. Always have. Ever since I was about three or four years old and woke up from a dream of a doll attacking me to find small teeth marks on my arm. At that age you don’t really stop to think that the teeth imprints were probably your own. Of course, I still don’t really know if that was the case…
Non-spoiler: this story doesn’t have dolls coming to life. That happens in one of the other tales. THERE’S your spoiler, haha! Just kidding. But no, it really does.
So why the discussion about dolls? Well, you’ll just have to read it.
FYI, the phrase “in the flesh appearing” comes from the Christmas carol “O Come All Ye Faithful” way down in like verse 287. (OK, there probably aren’t 287 verses to that carol, but there are a LOT of them.) It’s a reference to the Word of God becoming flesh as a human being, which to a horror writer just conjures up all kinds of possibilities. I certainly intended no sacrilege in this story, and I hope my use of the phrase from the carol isn’t taken that way.
Intrigued yet? I’d love to know your thoughts after reading the story.
"The Bloody Wall"
I guess virtually every story can be said to have begun with the writer wondering, “What if…?” That’s definitely the process for me, and the premise of “The Bloody Wall” shows that very clearly.
What if you and the person you live with saw blood appear on a wall in your home, but nobody else could see it? It could be maddening, right? And certainly frightening.
“The Bloody Wall” didn’t have to be set during the holidays, but I think it works for this mystery.
Now for the mystery surrounding this story that I can’t solve…
Originally I included a line or two from a different Christmas carol that served as inspiration for every story in this collection, but just before publishing, I got nervous about copyright infringement issues. I abandoned the idea and deleted the quotes.
So what Christmas carol line would have worked for “The Bloody Wall”?
I wish I could remember.
"A Promise Kept"
The story “A Promise Kept” is a very traditional ghost story set in the first half of the 1900’s. I feel like it could have come from an old ghost story book. But it didn’t.
The two sisters, Merle and Gladys, are modeled after my grandmother and one of her sisters, and those were their real names. The character James was modeled after my grandfather, although I changed him to be their brother in my story.
Merle and Gladys were not spinsters but actually both married preachers. They lived in different towns in Florida, never Asheville, but when my son and I were conducting our ghost tours, our route took the hearse down Montford Avenue, an area with several Victorian-styled homes. I pictured these women as two old maid sisters living in one of those houses, and made up a story to tell our guests as we were on the last leg of our tour.
I’m pretty sure I actually only told the story one time as we discovered that we didn’t quite have enough time to squeeze that story in before we arrived at the parking lot to end the tour.
I think it ended up as a nice addition to The Thirteenth Day collection. You can also find my narration of it in the first season of the Dark Corners podcast.
"O, Christmas Tree"
There are several supernatural-themed shows on television now about haunted objects, but when I wrote “O, Christmas Tree,” I wasn’t familiar with any of them. I saw an artificial Christmas tree in a Goodwill store and found myself wondering about the previous owners of that tree. I thought of the Christmases that tree had been involved with, and of the energy that might be connected to it.
There could be lots of joy. But there could also be pain. And what about the ornaments? Could they be haunted, too? I’d love to talk to someone who thinks they have a haunted Christmas tree.
But if you can’t find a haunted Christmas tree, if you’re a writer, you can always create one.
Hope you enjoy this tale. It’s not one I could have included on our family-friendly ghost tours.
"Santa and the Haunted House"
It might be odd to include a humorous story in a horror collection, but I couldn’t help it. I mean, if you stop to think about it, of all the houses Santa visits on Christmas Eve, some of them have to be haunted, right? And wouldn’t that be kind of funny?
Once I started down that road, the twelfth story for The Thirteenth Day collection just took on a life of its own, and it wanted to be humorous rather than scary.
I also wanted this story to be originally presented near December 24th, so it needed to have the right spirit for a story to enjoy on Christmas Eve.
You can find my narration of “Santa and the Haunted House” and the wonderful original music Mombi Yuleman wrote for it in the first season of the Dark Corners podcast. I really hope you enjoy it!
"The Thirteenth Day of Christmas" (The novella)
The thirteenth story in this collection is a novella that gives the anthology its name. Starting on Christmas Day, the small mountain town of Deerpark discovers an eerie crypt made entirely of snow on its main village square. Each day brings more horrifying events as the townspeople discover that they are trapped within the borders of their town with no communication with anyone outside the village. No communication, except that their disconnected phones send warped, musical messages, fragments of Christmas carols that foreshadow grisly events to come.
This story contains some of the darkest material I have ever written, but I also think it is some of the best. I became very connected with the main character, the deputy sheriff Levi Parker, to the point that I began to feel the increasing burden that he endures throughout the story. He was like a real person to me.
“The Thirteenth Day of Christmas” unfolds like a movie for me. A holiday movie that would never be picked up by Hallmark. I hope you enjoy it, too.
