The holiday season is often celebrated with traditions of joy, generosity, and storytelling, including the long-standing custom of sharing ghostly tales during Christmastime. As the classic lyric reminds us—“there’ll be scary ghost stories and tales of the glories of Christmases long, long ago”— these chilling narratives have been a part of the season’s folklore for centuries. From eerie apparitions to unexplained phenomena, the season of goodwill has a darker, mysterious side woven into its history. Are they only holiday legends, or real ghosts of Christmas past? On this Friday the 13th, here 13 haunting Christmas tales as chilling as the winter air.

The following written confession was submitted via email: I was listening to 678 and a description stood out to me of something that has been seen in physical form twice in the house I currently live in. I actually managed to capture an image of it, totally by accident…

As Halloween draws near, cemeteries become hotspots for ghost tours and paranormal investigations, with many hoping to capture something supernatural on camera. If you're planning your own spooky adventure, be sure to keep your eyes open—these haunting locations have a way of surprising even the most skeptical visitors. To get in the spirit, here are some eerie images of alleged ghosts caught on camera in graveyards, leaving us to wonder: are they genuine ghosts or trick photography?

The following written confession was submitted via email: I've only lived in one haunted house (old farmhouse) and one old house that one bedroom I never felt right in along with the hayloft out in the barn. I found out over a decade later after we moved away from that house, that a teenage girl hung herself in the hayloft decades before we lived there. The one house I'm sure was haunted, because when my youngest daughter was three through four years old, several nights a week she would wake up talking and laughing at around 2a.m.-3a.m....

The following written confession was submitted via email: Early summer 86/87. Me and my brother's were throwing a football around in our front yard. We lived out in the country in Kentucky. Anyway my brother threw the football and I missed it, it rolled under a bush. I crawled under and got it. When I stood up to throw it, my brothers were both staring at the road...

America’s purple mountain majesties and fruited plains are hauntingly beautiful… and also haunted by ghosts. From the misty mountains of West Virginia to California’s sunny shores, every state has ghost stories woven into the fabric of its history. Catch a quick glimpse of the most legendary ghosts in all of the 50 states!

Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary was once housed some notorious criminals, but even after the prison’s closure, it seems some of them were never released. Now notorious for being one of the most haunted prisons in America, the ghosts of Alcatraz are still alive and well— metaphorically speaking, of course. Recently, a team of researchers experienced the prison’s paranormal activity firsthand when they stayed overnight while working on a project to create a 3D map of Alcatraz Island.

The following written confession was submitted via email: I went on holiday to Kangaroo Island in South Australia with my partner at the time. We stayed at the Pennashaw hotel/motel on the last night before leaving..I was watching a program on the Barney and Betty Hill abduction that night and went to sleep about 11:00….

A bizarre video from a farm in Chalatenango, El Salvador, captured in late March, shows a ghostly figure strolling past a farm animal before vanishing. The footage, which went viral on social media in Latin America, depicts a small, eerie figure appearing out of nowhere, walking in front of a resting animal, and then disappearing without a trace.

Gear up for a spooky adventure in Bridgewater, Massachusetts, where the ordinary meets the extraordinary, and backyards aren't just for barbecues! Phill from the YouTube channel Exploring with Phill explores the creepy story of his friend Kristine's childhood home and the mysterious woods out back.

For every enduring love story for the ages, there is an equally tragic tale of lost love and broken hearts. And for every other one of those ill-fated love affairs, there’s a horrible ghost story to make it even worse. Whether your relationship is single, married, or “it’s complicated” this Valentine’s Day, you can be thankful you aren’t involved in any of these five tales of tragic love that grew into ghost lore, proving that true love never dies — it haunts you forever.

The following written confession was submitted via email: …While doing an hourly check at the outside trimmers I saw an 18 wheeler come down the drive way to the plant. Nothing abnormal. It didn’t slow down which was sorta strange but I didn’t think anything of it. The guard opened the chain fence gate and the truck kept going instead of stopping to check in…

The following written confession was submitted via email: I saw the woman who used to live in the flat below standing in my hallway when I was around 4 or 5. She used to come up to our flat to escape her abusive husband (he also used to terrorise my mother years after this he had a knife to her throat in front of me one time)…

The following written confession was shared online: When I was about 12 during a summer, my sister who is 5 years older than me was out with friends after work. We shared a bedroom. I was up late, doodling in a notebook in bed and had an older, glass tv next to my bed that was turned off. At one point I looked up and saw (in the reflection of the tv screen) my sister walk out of our bedroom doorway and into the stairwell. When I turned around to greet her, she wasn’t there….

The following written confession was originally shared via Reddit: I was staying in the Flamingo Hotel in Las Vegas (oldest property on the strip with a sordid mob history). In the middle of the night, I woke and saw a dark figure moving around the foot of my bed and coming up the gap between the twin beds….