Hello & thank you for visiting the playhouse!
I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas!
Ever since Charles Dickens published A Christmas Carol in 1843, ghosts have been part of the Christmas tradition – a different kind of Christmas spirit, so to speak.
Many people, besides Ebenezer Scrooge, have encountered ghosts at the Christmas season. Some of those spirits, like the eerie Ghost of Christmas Future, are dark and foreboding, while others, like angels, seem to embody the joy and hopefulness of the holiday.
Light a yuletide candle and consider these true stories...
Mother's Christmas Present
In 1969, I met a girl whom I will call Karen and we got married in March of 1970. In December of 1971 we were expecting our first child. We were living in a small 1-1/2 bedroom bungalow. There was a fireplace in the living room. My wife and I loved the fireplace and we had it lit every night.
It was Christmas Eve, 1971, and we had just finished putting the gifts under the tree and a nice fire gave off a beautiful glow. On the tree, one string of lights, which was supposed to flash, had stopped several days before.
It was five minutes to midnight when the fireplace suddenly just about went out, and the string of lights started to flash – and the other lights stopped flashing! My wife and I were sitting on the floor and it had become very chilly in the room.
I looked over to my Lazyboy chair... and a figure was sitting there – my mother with a big beautiful smile on her face! My wife, who had never met my mother, said she could see the same thing. This "ghost" never spoke, but just kept looking at me and my wife and smiling.
At 12 midnight, the fire in the fireplace started up again and the lights on the tree stopped flashing and the others started flashing again. I looked over in the chair and the ghost was gone.
No matter what I did to those Christmas lights, they never flashed again."
Father Christmas Ghost
"I am Magda and now I am 14 years old. When I was seven, I was in Poland with my family (that being where I come from!) I couldn't sleep that night because it was Christmas Eve and like many other children, I was too excited to fall asleep. My mind was going crazy!
But after midnight passing by, I decided to get into bed and close my eyes. I tried sleeping, which would not work. So, I just ended up tossing and turning to find a comfortable position.
In my bedroom, there was a large wardrobe (which belonged to my cousins. We were staying at theirs!) I happened to look at it and found myself staring at it for a couple of seconds...
I began to see what vividly looked like Father Christmas!
He had a white, long beard and a red jacket. I stared at it, eyes wide-open for what seemed like ages, but was in fact only probably a few seconds.
I couldn't move, I could hardly breathe properly!
At that time, my dad came into my room to say good night to me, and he could see my scared face. I pointed up to the wardrobe (I could still see Father Christmas) but my dad just looked at me as if I had gone mad. In the end, I burst into tears and ran out of the room into the kitchen.
My family heard me and came running after me. I explained what had happened and they told me that I just got a little too excited about Christmas.
I know that's not true and that I really did see him. What I can't figure out, is why?!
Was it really Father Christmas or was it an evil spirit trying to get through to me by pretending to be him?"
MawMaw's Last Christmas
I was "bigger than a house" pregnant and was munching on some left over Christmas dinner. We all were sitting in the dark while watching a movie.
I was feeling fine and my baby was kicking about. I moved closer to my MawMaw so she could feel the baby move. I sat beside her for the remainder of that movie.
She had a Christmas tree sitting in front of the window that was decorated with ornaments that she had whenever my mom, aunt and uncles were babies and some ornaments that my PawPaw liked a lot. They were looking their age, but still gave a nice shimmer when the Christmas lights would blink near them.
I felt a little funny. I thought it was a pregnancy thing. I saw something out of the corner of my eye and turned my head to see what it was.
On the tree, there was this large, gold ornament, which belonged to my PawPaw. It was spinning very fast around and around as if someone had wound it up and let it go. I found this utterly fascinating because the rest of the ornaments sat still. The tree did not move and nothing was disturbed.
I tapped my MawMaw on the shoulder and pointed to the tree. She looked surprised for a moment and a great peace washed over her. She said aloud, "Alvin (that was my PawPaw's name), I love you too. And Merry Christmas." Then her touch lamp came on, blinked twice and went off again.
Two months later, she passed away. For the rest of my life, I will always think that he was there letting her know he was waiting on her to go with her to Heaven. I never felt like he moved into the light until she joined him."
Christmas Phone Call from Heaven
Last Christmas evening, I went to bed and woke up to the phone ringing.
I answered it and a voice that was very familiar to me said, "Hello there." It was my mother's voice!
The line had a static noise and it started to cut in and out. I said, "This can't be you, mom. You're dead!"
She said, "Oh, come on now!"
She sounded a bit agitated, and then we were cut off.
My 16-year-old daughter was sleeping in the next room and also heard the phone ring that night.
I know it was my mother's voice: she has a Norwegian accent and it was her!"
Santa Sightings!
Over the years, many children and adults have reported sightings of the real Santa Claus - not department store Santas or bell-ringing Salvation Army charity collectors, but the real thing!
They even claim seeing the sleigh and reindeer in some cases. Are these illusions seen through the eyes of Christmas excitement and expectation?
Or are these cases of genuine Christmas magic?
Below, readers report on what they believe are genuine sightings of the real Santa Claus...
Several Strange Santa Sightings
After that, I decided to go to my room to watch some television, but there was nothing good to watch. I then found myself pacing back and forth in the hallway. My house is big, so there was no one with me. Everyone was in the living room watching a movie I wasn't interested in.
About seven minutes into my pacing, I saw a tall, fat figure scurry away about 20 feet away from me. It was crouched down, too. It was even wearing some sort of Santa Claus suit. I didn't believe in Santa, but this just freaked me out. There was a strange man in my house!
I quickly ran to where my parents were and told them all about it. They grinned at me and said jokingly, "Maybe it was Santa Claus." I didn't believe that, so I just sat down in the living room with my family and everybody else.
Then it occurred again on Christmas Eve, 2004. I remember it more vividly than the last one. I was lying on the couch in the living room. My parents were in the kitchen having a conversation about a business blog or something.
Suddenly, I saw a huge man, about seven or eight feet tall, crawl underneath the tree and just vanish. Before it disappeared, it looked at me and said, "Shh." Very strange, so I went into the kitchen and sat with my parents.
Smaller happenings occurred the following Christmases. I recall one in 2007, it was daylight this time and I just happened to see another tall figure with a Santa hat trudge by me for two seconds, then it was gone.
This really happened!"
WHITE SANTA - 1969
I wanted to see what Santa had brought me, so I quietly walked down the hallway and looked around the corner to our living room.
I saw my parents and someone I didn't know around our Christmas tree. The stranger was an old guy with a white beard and hair with a red suit. I quickly went back to my room as fast as I could with footed pajamas and slid into bed.
I told my mom what happened many years later, and she insisted that I was dreaming or that it was my dad.
BUT...
That wasn't possible, because my dad was sitting in a chair behind the stranger and my mom was standing right next to my dad!
I'm African American, and during that time the tenants in our building were all African American, so Santa really stood out!"
(Kinda like Rudolph stood out amongst all the other Reindeer I guess!;)
SAN ANTONIO SANTA
I don't remember seeing any reindeer, but I did see a man dressed in red with a beard. I was so startled, but I kept looking, even sticking my head and half my body outside of the window!
I told my family, but I knew they really didn't believe me.
I swear on my life to this day that I saw something.
I don't know if it was really Santa Claus, but I did see what I described!"
SCARY SANTA
He must have felt my presence because he turned around and looked at me. He didn't look jolly or kind and happy like you would expect Santa Claus to look. He looked kind of eerie, like he was staring into my soul.
Automatically, I ran into my parents' room and hid under the covers. I don't know why I was so scared at the time, but I wrote it off as a dream for a while before I forgot about it completely.
Years later, I remembered it.
I thought it could have been a burglar, but when I asked my parents, nothing was ever missing from that apartment. The only time we were ever robbed was when we moved later on.
The only explanation I have now, is that it was some kind of creepy apparition."
"He sees you when you're sleeping"....
"He KNOWS when you're awake!"...
"He KNOWS if you've been BAD or GOOD"....
"So BE GOOD for goodness sake!"
(And by "good" I mean be good enough to come back & read my next blog!)
Coming Soon!
Come on...
DON'T BE SCARED!! ;)
Source: about.com/paranormal-Santa Sightings
Fun blog! Thanks, waiting for the next one
ReplyDeleteThanks for stoppin' by Stan! Always a pleasure to have you! :)
ReplyDeleteI Believe i was 9 years old when this happened still living in California and at my grandmothers house. We did this most Christmases and it was a regular thing for us.I knew differently on this Christmas something divine about it and i guess eerie.
ReplyDeleteIt all started when we began to pack up all our unwrapped treasures and put them in the car. I stood mindlessly looking into the sky because it was Christmas night and with all the lights you could barley see the stars. When suddenly a dark object zipped across the sky and with amazement i followed it with my eyes. When i realized that it was not a plane i froze collecting all the details.when i began seeing the "reindeer's"moving across the moonlight i realized it was Santa.I paused with joy and watched as he went but that moment seemed as 10 or 20 minutes my neck even hurt from looking up. I jumped into the car after being called upon and searched the sky the whole ride home. I could never explain that moment even with all my encounters with spirits Ive never been one to tell my parents only later dismissing it as lost memories.
Although what i remember of this event Ive told my father in question it has been the most relieving of paranormal events that he has heard.
The more abnormal Christmas Scare i can tell you about was one my father actually reminded me about after his divorce. It was the 1st Christmas to be celebrated without my mom and dad together. You can only imagine how weird it was for me to experience abnormal sounds from toys and doors opening and closing at night after my mom moved out. But the starting of toys moving and being "misplaced" in and out of the house as well finding them in the fire place and wrapped up under the Christmas tree.My dad began to worry that as a 5 year old i was having some kind of post traumatic stress issues over the divorce. That's when Edward started getting very important in my life as well as my parents because to be imaging a giant lion was nothing until these events. I remember my dad freaking out about the burnt stuffed bear that i was fiercely crying to him about. How he asked me "who is Edward"? and how i said he was my imagination how he was my friend that it wasn't him and that i didn't know why i was being punished for it.I never really thought about the event more than crying about a bear. I never really cared to distinguish my pleasant imagination and ability to use my mind as my comfort until "spirits" began plaguing me with horrifying conversations with my parents later in my life. I realize now why they were so worried about my uncle lee coming to visit me that Christmas.
We had gone to my grandmothers house for Christmas as usual and my dad seemed kinda puzzled and curious.He had brought en the presents that accumulated under the small charlie brown tree at our house and one specific present he was unsure how it had gotten there. The only reason i know this was i knew it was from my uncle lee and my dad said otherwise. It wasn't until i unwrapped a small stuffed bear the exact one demolished from the fire previous to the event. Then my dad realized that his uncle lee which is actually my grandmothers brother that had died 3 years previous was trying to say something. I believe it was hope for him after him and my mothers divorce. The reason i feel this way is lee was a good man and he'd never do anything to hurt or scare my father. In a lesser note i believe lee was mad at my mother and had thrown the teddy bear into the fire because it was the only thing she'd left that was once hers.