In victorian times, telling ghost stories to your family on Christmas Eve was a cherished tradition. And even decades after it stopped being a feature of the holidays, it experienced a resurrection of sorts in the BBC programme A Ghost Story For Christmas (1971-78). But traces and influences of the victorian custom can also be found in Hammer films and some of the later slashers.

Film historian Sam Deighan traces the history and development of the spooky Christmas story.