Reply #7: It's a Victorian tradition

[MorningGlow]

Apparently Dickens wrote a lot of them--other authors too.

"Ghost stories were an integral part of the Victorian Christmas. Read around the fire, they were a popular home amusement in those households that could not afford the expense of the theatre or concert going. Many stories were specifically written for such evening entertainment. The ghostly tales of M.R. James (1862-1936), for instance, were originally composed for reading on Christmas Eve at King’s College, Cambridge; they were first published as Ghost Stories of an Antiquary in 1904. Jerome K. Jerome (1859-1927) wrote "whenever five or six English-speaking people meet around a fire on Christmas Eve they start telling each other ghost stories"

The tradition of the Christmas ghost story (albeit probably not now told round a roaring fire) is still with us, as epitomized by the enduring popularity of Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, (1843) with its many adaptations on film, television and stage."

http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/month/current.html