“There'll be scary ghost stories” is more than just a line in an Andy Williams Christmas song. For centuries, telling tales of hauntings and specters on Christmas Eve has been a revered holiday tradition, particularly in Victorian England. It's why we have A Christmas Carol, and why it remains one of the most popular Christmas tales ever written.

There's just something about the comfort and warmth of the holiday season contrasted with tales of things that go bump in the night that's always stuck. If you ask us, it’s the perfect way to spend long, dark winter nights. In the 1970s, the BBC answered the call by producing A Ghost Story for Christmas.

Beginning in 1971, director Lawrence Gordon Clark, a string of talented writers, and revered English actors brought U.K. viewers eight consecutive years of classic ghost stories arriving on or around Christmas Day. Those eight short films still provide wonderful, atmospheric fun. They're so beloved that the series has since been revived, but today, we're strictly talking about the classics from the original run, all of which you can watch on Shudder right now.

If you'd like to have yourself a haunting Christmas Eve this December, cuddle up with some Christmas ghost stories and queue up these classic short films, ranked here.

8. "The Ice House" (1978)

A GHOST STORY FOR CHRISTMAS (Credit: BBC)

The last episode of the original series, and the only one not directed by Clark, is also arguably the weakest of the original Ghost Story for Christmas lineup. The story of a man (John Stride) who heads to a country health spa harboring dark secrets, its first real mistake is simply that it's not a ghost story.

Instead, it delivers more dark fantasy vibes, and while it packs some evocative visuals and interesting performances, it just can't hang with the others on this list.
7. "A Warning to the Curious" (1972)

A GHOST STORY FOR CHRISTMAS (Credit: BBC)

The first five episodes of A Ghost Story for Christmas are all adapted from tales by the greatest practitioner of the English ghost story, M.R. James, and while this may be the weakest of the five, it's still a solid, chilling TV film. It follows an archaeologist (Peter Vaughan) searching for a fabled lost crown, and the spectre that haunts him once he finds it.

It’s a fairly straightforward ghost story, but if you love James' tales of academics poring over dusty tomes in search of ancient secrets, it'll certainly hit the spot.
6. "The Stalls of Barchester" (1971)

A GHOST STORY FOR CHRISTMAS (Credit: BBC)

A scholar cataloging a dusty, boring cathedral library happens upon an old diary locked in a box, and falls directly into a decades-old supernatural mystery involving a former Archdeacon and mysterious wood carvings that seem to convey a curse.

The very first Ghost Story for Christmas, it's not the best of the bunch, but Clark's commitment to compelling framing and atmospheric detail is already there, and it's a very effective riff on the original M.R. James tale. If you like creepy old churches, don't miss this one.
5. "The Treasure of Abbot Thomas" (1974)

A GHOST STORY FOR CHRISTMAS (Credit: BBC)

A reverend (Michael Bryant) and his academic apprentice (Paul Lavers) spend their days debunking spiritual mediums even as they're closing in on a deeper supernatural mystery while hunting for a treasure hidden in an old monastery.

The solution to that mystery is chilling, but it's the build-up that makes this one special. It's one of the most visually dynamic episodes of the series. Bryant and Lavers are great in the lead roles, and it's packed with the tension of faith, greed, and what happens when you don't heed warnings.
4. "Lost Hearts" (1973)

A GHOST STORY FOR CHRISTMAS (Credit: BBC)

Creepy children alert! In this tale, a young orphan on the verge of puberty (Simon Gipps-Kent) moves in with his much older cousin (Joseph O'Conor), who's obsessed not just with the boy's youth, but with immortality as an attainable goal.

Through alchemy and various old tomes, this man hopes to live forever, and if the ghosts of two young children roaming the halls of the house are any indication, he's going to use his orphan cousin to do it.

The ghost children may look a little dated with simple ashen makeup, but everything from the way they move to their mischievous grins will send a chill down your spine.
3. "The Ash Tree" (1975)

A GHOST STORY FOR CHRISTMAS (Credit: BBC)

Like all of the classic ghost stories upon which they're based, many installments of A Ghost Story for Christmas follow a simple format: A possibly supernatural mystery emerges, tension builds as characters investigate, and it all ends with a terrifying shock.

Of all the episodes with this basic format, “The Ash Tree” packs the absolute best final scare. You'd be forgiven for thinking that this is one of the slowest episodes of the show, as an aristocrat (Edward Petherbridge) investigates dark legends surrounding his ancestral home, but it's worth it for the final minutes.

The big scare at the end of this one is genuinely one of the most terrifying things I've ever seen on broadcast television, even 50 years after it aired.
2. "The Signalman" (1976)

A GHOST STORY FOR CHRISTMAS (Credit: BBC)

The only episode of the original series adapted from a Charles Dickens story, “The Signalman” follows the title character (Denholm Elliott), a lonely train signalman, as he recounts the tale of a spectral form that seems to predict disaster each time he sees it near the train tracks.

Elliott is wonderful in the role of a working class man confronted with forces he can't comprehend, and the episode is full of delicious tension, all building to a chilling conclusion.
1. "Stigma" (1977)

A GHOST STORY FOR CHRISTMAS (Credit: BBC)

The final two episodes of the original A Ghost Story for Christmas run are a change of pace, as producers decided contemporary, original supernatural tales might pull in bigger audiences. The first of these two, an original script by venerated TV writer Clive Exton, is an essential piece of British horror.

It follows a modern family who moves to a house in the country, and hires workmen to remove an ancient stone lodged in the garden. As the workers disturb the stone, matriarch Katharine begins bleeding uncontrollably from invisible wounds, and the more the workmen dig, the more she bleeds.

It's a simple concept, but it's executed beautifully, and the very idea of bleeding uncontrollably from a nonexistent wound is both a potent commentary on, well, existing as a wife and mother, and a deeply unnerving thought for viewers of all kinds.