Here in the US, we tell ghost stories at Halloween. In Japan, they tell ghost stories in the summer. (The resulting chill down your spine is supposed to cool you off in the heat.) But in the UK, Christmas in the time of year for ghost stories. (Hence A Christmas Carol.)
I found this Christmas-themed tale on About.com's (supposedly) true ghost stories page. It's by someone who used only the name "James."
My father told me this story. When he was a boy his family lived in a house with a legend behind it. It happened on Christmas Day somewhere in Texas. The legend goes when the house was first built in the late 1800s a stranger, in the middle of the night, knocked on the front door looking for shelter. It was cold and snowing hard that night. Without opening the door, the owner listened to the stranger tell him he was afraid he was being followed by Indians and asked if he could spend the night there. The owner refused and told the stranger to leave! The next day they found his mutilated body in a field not far from the house! From then on, every Christmas Day at midnight there would be a knocking on the front door, and when you opened it, there'll be nobody there!
People say it's the spirit of the stranger wanting to be let in! So on Christmas day in 1933 my father waited up with the rest of the family to see if the legend was true. A little past twelve midnight they heard a knocking on the front door, which made my father's sisters run to their rooms! Even though he was scared, my father opened the door. There was nobody there, but without hesitating my father's dad (my grandfather) called out and said, "Come in, come in, you're more than welcome. Come sit by the fire. You must be cold!" There was a chair in front of the fireplace and my father said he saw it rock just a little!
After that night the knockings stopped. My father understood that by his dad's invitation, the stranger's spirit can finally rest. My father was sure of that for in the new year in the spring when the snow melted away there was a message carved on the trunk of the tree in front of the house. It simply said,"Thank you for your kindness."
Merry Christmas, all!
