Creepmas Day 2: Creepy Christmas Anthologies

So this year I'm celebrating Creepmas! 

From the 13 Days of Creepmas website: 

"A reaction to the continuing incursion of Christmas into Autumn and Halloween, CREEPMAS is a good-natured chance for Halloween lovers to exact revenge by bringing some spooky good cheer into the holidays or, more appropriately, the Hallowdays..." Read more about the inspirations behind this 13 day celebration HERE. 

Today's visit to the creepier side of Christmas Town is centered on a book. A book given to me by my good friend Brian "The Trash Man" of Pop Pop! It's Trash Culture fame, and also one of my co-hosts on the Geek Fallout podcast. 

This was included in a package of goodies that I will be sharing with you all in the new year in its entirety. But for now, I will share this one book with you, which is an anthology of Christmas-themed horror stories (and the inspiration for me celebrating Creepmas this year in the first place!).  

While the book doesn't actually have any stories by him, there is an introduction by Isaac Asimov, and he gets an editor's credit. Here's the story list:

0. Introduction: The New Beginning • essay by Isaac Asimov
1. The Chimney • by Ramsey Campbell
2. Markheim • by Robert Louis Stevenson
3. The Night Before Christmas • by Robert Bloch
4. The Festival •  by H. P. Lovecraft
5. The Old Nurse's Story • by Mrs. Gaskell
6. Glámr • by Sabine Baring-Gould
7. Pollock and the Porroh Man • by H. G. Wells
8.  The Weird Woman • by Anonymous
9. The Hellhound Project • by Ron Goulart
10. Wolverden Tower • by Grant Allen
11. Planet of Fakers •  by J. T. McIntosh
12. Life Sentence • by James V. McConnell
13. The Star • by Arthur C. Clarke

I think I'm most excited to read the stories by Ramsey Campbell and H.P. Lovecraft, but honestly, they all look fun! My thanks to Brian, the Trash Man of Pop Pop! It's Trash Culture once more for the awesome book and the inspiration behind my Creepmas Countdown!

Next I'd like to feature this collection of Haunting Christmas Tales by Joan Aiken and Others. This one I found at Goodwill, and when I realized I now owned not ONE but TWO anthologies featuring spooky Christmas stories, I couldn't resist!

1. Jingle Bells • by Tessa Krailing
2. The Woodman's Enigma • by Gary Kilworth
3. The Weeping Maid • by Robert Swindells
4. The Investigators •  by David Belbin
5. The Cracked Smile • by Anthony Masters
6. The Other Room • by Jill Bennett
7. The Chime Child • by Ian Strachan
8.  Crespian and Clairan • by Joan Aiken
9. Across the Fields • by Susan Price

I haven't read either of these books at this point, and I honestly don't think I'll have them read by the time Christmas gets here... but I will definitely be reading them soon, even if I have to continue them on into the New Year!

Happy 13 days of Creepmas! I'll be back tomorrow with another entry in the countdown, which may or may not involve a Goodwill Goody! Until then, Happy Hunting!