Yuletide ghost stories no longer a thing of Christmas past - they’re back in Liverpool

It was tradition to tell each other a ghost story during the Victorian age on cold, dark wintry nights. Now Liverpool based community interest company ArtsGroupie want to resurrect the tradition of the Christmas ghost story.

Probably the most famous Christmas novel of them all, A Christmas Carol, by Charles Dickens, is essentially a ghost story of past, present anf future.

John Maguire from ArtGroupie said: "It's nice just to go right back to the oral story tradition. The story I've written, 'Stroke', was told to me when I was 12, well a variation of it, by my auntie. It absolutely traumatised me, so I've taken that trauma and turned it into something creative, so it's kind of urban fairytale."

For those not sold on the concept, John says he thinks that our modern idea of Christmas is just as eerie. He says, "If you think about it, the whole idea of Santa Claus coming down the chimney, a stranger, entering your house and leaving gifts just for the fun of it. It's kind of a bit sinister, really."

David Griffiths, who wrote one of the new ghost stories, said: “Here in Liverpool, Charles Dickens used to perform regularly at Saint Georges Hall. It was one of his favourite venues. The idea of A Christmas Carol, not being something that's adapted or turned into a TV show or Muppets performing it, but just a man stood there telling the story, I think it's a tradition worth revisiting."

They're also encouraging us to do the same festive period, but if you'd like to see them read their original ghost stories, then you're in luck. ArtsGroupie will be reading ghost stories on December 13 at Thingwall Community Hall and on December 15 in The Hornby Room at Central Library.