Christmas is usually seen as a time of light, warmth, and happiness. However, in Europe there is a long tradition of people embracing the darker side by telling ghost stories during the festive season.

One of the most famous Christmas stories of all, A Christmas Carol, is essentially a ghost story. Indeed, Mark Gatiss’s well-received staging of the play is currently running under the name A Christmas Carol: A Ghost Story at London’s Alexandra Palace Theatre. But what is the psychology behind people who enjoy hearing, reading and watching ghost stories at Christmas?

One important reason comes from Christmas’s winter setting (in the northern hemisphere at least). The short days and long nights of winter provide us with the opportunity for reflection on dark topics such as the supernatural.

The stark contrast between our warm homes and the coldness outside can create the sense of a liminal space (from the Latin word limen, meaning threshold) between light and dark, and between the end of the old year and the beginning of a new one. This can encourage reflection on liminal beings that cannot easily be defined or understood, such as ghosts and spirits.

The religious themes of Christmas also encourage many people to lean into the supernatural. Although for Christians the Christmas story is about the joy surrounding Jesus’s birth, the spectre of his death and resurrection are never........

© The Conversation