The Best 10 Ghost Stories for Long Dark Nights

What better time of the year could there be for reading ghost stories? There is a chill in the air, the nights are longer, and things start to go bump in the night. It comes as no surprise that Halloween comes at this time of the year, and ghost stories are a natural companion to this night, but did you know that ghost stories are also traditional at Christmas time and were told around Christmas Eve fires at night in Victorian England in fin-de-siècle America. A major part of the Victorian Christmas tradition is the reading of ghost stories. Charles Dickens's A Christmas Carol is perhaps the best and most renowned example of this tradition. Still don't believe me? Then check out fourth line of this classic Christmas carol, "Most Wonderful Time" (emphasis added):

There'll be parties for hosting,
Marshmallows for toasting,
And caroling out in the snow.
There'll be scary ghost stories
And tales of the glories of
Christmases long, long ago.

2001 was the year that this concept was finally drilled into my thick head, I had heard it before, but it never hit home until I read Charles Palliser's The Unburied, which bills itself as a "Victorian Christmas Ghost Story." So, without further ado, here are The Best 10 Ghost Stories I have read. Pick them up for Halloween, save them for Christmas, read them in July at the beach for all I care. Just read them and I guarantee you'll get chills and goose bumps with every single turn of the page: