Christmas Horror

Hugo Award-winning editor, and horror legend Ellen Datlow presents a terrifying and chilling horror anthology of original short stories exploring the endless terrors of winter solstice traditions across the globe, featuring chillers by Tananarive Due, Stephen Graham Jones, Alma Katsu, and many more. This anthology of all-new stories invites you to huddle around the fire and revel in the unholy, the dangerous, the horrific aspects of a time when families and friends come together—for better and for worse.

That there is darkness at the heart of the Yuletide season should not surprise. Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is filled with scenes that are unsettling. The hideous children - Want and Ignorance - beneath the robe of the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come. In the finest versions of this story, the best parts are the terrifying parts. Best-selling author and editor Christopher Golden shares his love for Christmas horror stories with this anthology of all-new short fiction from some of the most talented and original writers of horror today.

One Christmas Eve in a small hollow in Boone County, West Virginia, struggling songwriter Jesse Walker witnesses a strange spectacle: seven devilish figures chasing a man in a red suit toward a sleigh and eight reindeer. When the reindeer leap skyward, taking the sleigh, devil men, and Santa into the clouds, screams follow. Moments later, a large sack plummets back to earth, a magical sack that thrusts the down-on-his-luck singer into the clutches of the terrifying Yule Lord, Krampus.

A wealthy and depressed man (thanks to the economy, he's not quite rich enough to expand his cache of paintings by Vincent Van Guy, the famed Dutch realist) bound for Christmas in the tropics is abruptly summoned home to North Dakota to visit an ailing aunt. He arrives just in time to be trapped there by a blizzard. The electricity goes out, and when it does, figures from his childhood appear, and historical figures too, for a festive candlelit holiday.

It's once again Christmastime at Marlow House and the mediums of Beach Drive have all decided to stay in Frederickport for the holiday. Surprises await for them when the true Spirit of Christmas comes for a visit. Do you believe in Santa Claus?

Something festive is growing in the sewer... After last year’s tragedy, Douglas’ parents are ignoring Christmas. But when Douglas finds an eerie strand of lights slithering through the sewer, he unwittingly unleashes merry terror upon his neighborhood’s tacky lights contest. String lights spread like invasive kudzu, turning festive decorations into surreal, predatory nightmares.

Paint your toes. Pick up the wrong coffee and bagel order. Drive from Brooklyn to Jersey in traffic so slow you want to tear your hair out. It’s amazing all the useless things I can accomplish while on hold for three hours with customer service. Three hours when I should be getting the Date-in-a-Box website ready to launch at the big business expo in a few days. Except my shiny new website is glitching, and my inner rage-monster is ready to scorch some earth...when he finally picks up. Not the robot voice I expected but a real live human named Kal.

It's hard to know who to trust when you're worth billions. Christmas brings uninvited family members to Marlow House, vying for Chris Glandon's favor. One of them may have already killed for it. In the midst of the mystery, Lily is distracted with one question - what isn't Danielle telling her?

The family of Adam Nichols shows up in Frederickport when Marie ends up in a nursing home with a broken hip. Yet unlike Adam, who is trying to get his grandmother home, the new arrivals are more concerned with selling off her assets and keeping her in the questionable facility. While Danielle tries to help her dear friend, she begins wondering, maybe not having a family has its good points, after all. And it's not just Marie's family causing problems; Walt's distant cousin begins making his own demands.

Christmas Eve 1975, two innocent handy men are summoned to Ocean Avenue in Amityville, Long Island, New York, faced with the seemingly innocuous task of fixing a boathouse door. There is no way that Owen Blake and Randy Hallowell can possibly know that an ancient malevolence awaits them; a preternatural entity older than time, bent on the destruction of all living things; that the owners of this house, and others on this now infamous avenue, have stepped into an inescapable nightmare and will soon be thrown into their own macabre dance with death.

12 short stories of terror. Demons from hell. Gods and Devils. Unspeakable monstrosities. Humans with a taste for flesh. An upscale clothing store in the middle of New York City that offers its customers more than they bargained for. A prodigal son returns home for his aunt’s funeral, only to discover that an ancient entity awaits. A town shelters against the first snow, and the evil it brings. A mad king. A hired assassin. A world in the balance and an eternal force manipulating all of them. And seven other tales of horror that will forever change the way you experience the holiday ...

Everleigh Winter’s first mistake was admitting she could see ghosts. She had always been different. Now that difference could help save the only friends she had. She just needed to help find a missing artifact for a reclusive billionaire a few days before Christmas. Survival was just a séance away. Constantine Kor would do anything to keep from shapeshifting. The magical ring that broke the curse when fitted to his finger had been stolen, and the thief had the audacity to hide it and promptly die. His luck had improved with the arrival of the medium he’d hired. She was magical. Though ...

‘Twas the night before Christmas, and all through the mall, rushed a worker, named Steve, who was sick of you all. From Doris to Karen, and that pest, Creepy Santa, Steve wanted to clock them with a big, glass decanter. With the help of an elf, her clothes quite revealing, Steve finished his shopping with much a mixed feeling. After a beer or two, and he’d bought all his presents, Steve went to a house with a marijuana essence. Along with his buddies, their names Dave and Spike, the three amigos partied with beer and ganja alike.

It is 1890, and in the days before Christmas, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson are visited at Baker Street by a new client. Eve Allerthorpe, eldest daughter of a grand but somewhat eccentric Yorkshire-based dynasty, is greatly distressed, as she believes she is being haunted by a demonic Christmas spirit. Her late mother told her terrifying tales of the sinister Black Thurrick, and Eve is sure that she has seen the creature from her bedroom window. What is more, she has begun to receive mysterious parcels of birch twigs, the Black Thurrick’s calling card.

13 tales that will have you reaching for the nightlight before you go to bed tonight. Do you dare sleep without one? Do you dare enter the darkness without a little bit of light? A Zombie Christmas 3 Men. One solid plan to bring joy to children during a Zombie Apocalypse. A risky plan that could end their lives, but they are willing to sacrifice them in order to save Christmas for the children. Need to Feed Another year. Another massacre looming. When the sun rises on the old west town of Saltwater Junction its residents will come face to face with two savage and lethal predators. Vampires ...

Silent Night. Not Calm. Not Bright. Reggie was alone for Christmas. He liked it that way. But when he goes to a secluded cabin in the woods, he encounters something sinister among the trees. A strange red velvet sack waits for him along his hiking path. Inside is the gift of terror. Soon, Reggie finds himself thrust into a bizarre and horrifying world where the trappings of Christmas are deadly perversions of what he's always known. The only question is: will he escape with his life, or will he become fuel for a dark entity's fire and sustenance for its meal? Walking in a Winter Terrorland ...

Elf meets Aliens in this festive horror-comedy stuffed to the giblets with memorable characters, terrifying monsters, and gripping action. ❄❄❄ ‘Twas the night before Christmas and Nish needs to get back to his family home. But the last train out of London has been cancelled and his rail replacement bus has just broken down. He’s stranded in a snow-bound village pub with a handful of fellow travellers and the inhabitants of Little Slaughter. It’s the annual murder mystery and the tables are made up for visitors. With a roaring fire and generous hospitality, there’s nothing else...

It’s late December between Ground Zero and Fatal Error, a winter of discontent for Jack who’s perhaps spending too much time hanging at Julio’s. An old contact, Edward Burkes, convinces him to take on a missing-person fix. As usual, nothing is as it seems, and the missing person isn’t exactly a person. In fact, it’s like nothing anyone has ever seen. And in the middle of all this, the mysterious Madame de Medici hires him to safeguard a valuable object. Simple, right? Not even close. Yep, Jack is back and, as usual, weird trouble is on his heels.

This is an omnibus that features all three volumes of Twelve Days of Christmas Horror in one box set. Including such stories as "'Twas the Night Before Murder", "The Nativity of the Living Dead", "Secret Santa for the Sadistic", "Elf on a Shelf", and "A Christmas Carol: The Aftermath". It's time for your festivities to get frightening.

From the author of Tiny Terrors and Flashes of Fear comes a new collection of flash fiction horror stories. And all are Christmas themed! Some are just 100 words. Some are a little over 2,000 words. All are full of wintery, holiday creepiness! This is the first book of a three-book series, but they can be read in any order. This volume contains: Christmas Snacks Black Friday Trimming the Tree And 9 other flash fiction stories!