Ghosts of Christmas Past & Other Dark Festive Tales

Book excerpt: Four festive tales of the supernatural, apocalyptic and blood-sucking variety—an antidote for anyone who occasionally finds Christmas overly sentimental or commercialised and likes to escape to somewhere darker. In Ghosts of Christmas Past, a newly-wed couple spend every Christmas in the same remote country cottage. It's their 'thing' and they're not about to let tragedy get in the way. In I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus, a small boy creeps downstairs to see his mother in the embrace of a crimson-robed stranger. But Jake's not convinced: since when did Santa have long teeth and red, glinting eyes? In Rottin' Around the Christmas Tree, Nia decorates the tree while her parents look on. But this is not just another Christmas—it is the time of The Cleansing, the time when family life and the world as we know it are ending. In Christmas 'Midst the Zombie Apocalypse, two survivors sit out winter on the edge of an overrun city. Their efforts to enjoy Christmas Day as normally as possible turn out to be a mistake; a potentially fatal one.