Do you find sickly sweet Christmas stories ho-ho-hum? We’ve rounded up five holiday stories that aren’t so warm and fuzzy.
1. “The Little Match Girl”by Hans Christian Andersen
This is one of the most disturbing classic Christmas stories ever. Separate it from the kid-friendly adaptations, and this is what you get: an impoverished, abused child hallucinates as she freezes to death. Heartwarming!
2. The Haunted Man And The Ghost’s Bargain by Charles Dickens
This novella shares some similarities with A Christmas Carol, but it’s not as cheery. In this version, a brooding chemistry teacher is visited by his ghostly doppelganger and exchanges his bad memories for bitterness and anger, which spreads to everyone around him. Merry Christmas!
3. Holidays on Ice by David Sedaris
You won’t find a single cheery story in David Sedaris’ collection of Christmas-themed essays. Along with his famous essay “SantaLand Diaries,” which chronicles his time working as a Christmas elf at Macy’s, Holidays on Ice includes a Christmas letter with only bad news, a scathing review of a grade school Christmas pageant, and a battle of holiday generosity.
4. “Dark Christmas” by Jeanette Winterson
Winterson — known for books including Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit andSexing The Cherry – published a spooky, Christmas-themed ghost story at the Guardian last year. If you love it, Winterson has several other Christmas short stories available to read on her website.
5. “Nicholas Was…” by Neil Gaiman
Neil Gaiman is an expert at twisting fairy tales into something horrifying and unrecognizable, and he did the same to Santa Claus in this short story. It begins, “Nicholas Was…older than sin, and his beard could grow no whiter. He wanted to die.”
Image: The Little Match Girl, Illustrated by Rachel Isadora
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