Most people don’t associate Christmas with chilling tales of being haunted by ghosts of yesteryear. Unless they’re British.
The Brits have a long tradition of horror during the holidays. Take one of the most famous Christmas dramas of all time—Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol—which is actually a ghost story. At the time it was written, it wasn’t unusual for people to tell tales of creepy creatures and spooky legends to get through the late winter months.
In keeping with this tradition, for a period in the 1970s (and briefly, in 2005), the BBC broadcast an annual TV series called A Ghost Story for Christmas. Much like the yearly Hallmark specials loved by many in the US, these made-for-TV movies were stand-alone stories produced especially for Christmas, and tended to have uninspired, nondescript titles.
We thought we’d have some fun contrasting the films: Can you tell which of the following is a BBC holiday horror or a Hallmark heart warmer?