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Adults, Teens & YAs · Library Program · December · 45–60 Minutes
A Haunted
Christmas
Charles Dickens · M.R. James · The Krampus
Classic tales brought to life — with spooky magic.
Adults, Teens & YAs · Library Program · December · 45–60 Minutes
There’s a Reason
Scrooge Saw Ghosts.
A Haunted Christmas brings back the forgotten Victorian tradition of telling ghost stories at Christmas — Dickens, M.R. James, and the legend of the Krampus — told with magic that happens a few feet from your audience.
Get the Program DetailsCall or text and I’ll send you everything your programming committee needs.
Booking December 2026 now. The season is short and the good dates go first.
If this sounds like your December
If your December calendar is wall-to-wall children’s programming…
And the adults who bring those children have nothing of their own to come back for…
Then let me show you a program built for the audience your holiday season keeps forgetting — and one that gets teens and YAs through the door in the deadest months of the year.
No singalongs. No crafts. No glue sticks. And nothing that talks down to a grown adult who came out on a cold night.
- You want one December program that isn’t for children — something the adults, teens and YAs on your card list will actually turn out for.
- Your holiday programming is strong for families and thin for everyone else, and you’ve noticed.
- You’d like something seasonal without being saccharine — December, minus the tinsel.
- Your teen and YA numbers fall off a cliff between Halloween and spring, and craft nights aren’t bringing them back.
- And you’d rather book something with real literary and historical substance that also happens to be enormous fun.
The forgotten tradition
Christmas didn’t used to be merry. It used to be haunted.
For most of the 1800s, the traditional Christmas Eve entertainment in England wasn’t caroling. It was ghost stories. Families pulled their chairs up to the fire and took turns terrifying each other in the dark.
That isn’t a piece of trivia. That’s the entire reason A Christmas Carol exists.
Dickens didn’t invent a strange premise. He wrote squarely inside a tradition his readers already knew by heart. When Marley’s chains come dragging up the stairs, Victorian readers weren’t confused — they were waiting for it.
Decades later at Cambridge, a medieval scholar named M.R. James took that tradition and perfected it. Every Christmas Eve, James gathered colleagues and students by candlelight and read them a new ghost story he’d written for the occasion. Those readings produced the modern ghost story as we know it — and very nearly every horror writer since has been quietly borrowing from him.
And centuries before either of them, villages in the Alps kept a very different Christmas figure. St. Nicholas dealt with the children who’d been good. Krampus — horned, chained and thoroughly monstrous — dealt with the rest.
Somewhere in the last hundred years, we traded all of it for elves.
Most of your patrons have never heard any of this. That’s the opportunity.
A December program for the people who bring everybody else to your December programs.
45–60 minutes · Adults, teens and YAs · Fits any room you have
The program
Three stories. Three centuries. One evening.
Charles Dickens, 1843
Everyone in your room thinks they know A Christmas Carol. Almost nobody knows it was written in six weeks, published at Dickens’ own expense, or that it sat inside a ghost-story tradition his readers took entirely for granted. We start with Marley — the business partner who arrives dragging the chain he forged in life.
M.R. James, Christmas Eve at Cambridge
A provost and medieval scholar who wrote ghost stories as Christmas presents for his friends, read aloud by candlelight. His rule was that terror should arrive quietly, in daylight, to a reasonable person. It is the most influential idea in modern horror, and it began as a party trick.
The Krampus, Alpine Europe
For centuries, St. Nicholas travelled with a companion. Horned, chained, and entirely monstrous, the Krampus handled the children the saint had no use for. Victorian greeting cards sent him to friends as a seasonal joke. He is having something of a revival, and your audience will have questions.
Each one told, then made to happen in front of them.
Why it works
The rare program that holds a mixed room.
Most library programs pick a lane. This one genuinely doesn’t, and that turns out to be its most useful quality on a December evening when a family arrives together.
- Adults get the history. The Victorian tradition, the Dickens backstory, the Cambridge readings, the Alpine folklore — all of it real, sourced, and mostly unknown even to people who read a great deal.
- Teens and YAs get the scares. Suspense, artifacts, and effects that happen close enough to touch. Nobody is bored and nobody is patronised.
- It’s spooky, not gory. Atmospheric and suspenseful, with no jump scares and nothing you would have to defend to a trustee. Campfire story, not horror film.
- It plays best intimately. This is a suspense program and it wants the audience close, which makes your meeting room exactly the right size of venue for it.
- It sends them to your shelves. Dickens, James, and a good deal of folklore, all of it in your catalogue or in the public domain. Put a display by the door and it will empty.
- It is seasonal without being a holiday show. No carols, no Santa, no message.
For libraries
What booking this actually involves.
Very little, deliberately. I have been doing this full time for over 20 years and I run 200+ shows a year, so the logistics are the easy part.
- I bring everything. All props, tables, backdrop and a compact professional sound system, at no extra charge.
- Any room, any size. Meeting room, community room, program space or a corner of the stacks. No stage required.
- A poster and a customized press release, sent ahead so you can publicize the event without writing a word of it yourself.
- No deposits. Ever.
- Fast set-up, and I work around your building’s schedule rather than the other way around.
- Fully insured, with a certificate of insurance sent ahead if your system needs one.
- One session or two in a visit — an afternoon program and an evening one, if you want to serve two different audiences on the same day.
Proof
What libraries say about my programs.
A Haunted Christmas is new for December 2026, so these are from libraries that hosted my other adult, teen and YA programs.
“Teens and adults loved the program. They leaned forward in their chairs during the stories and demonstrations. Cris is great to work with — he helped arrange tables, talked at length with the teens afterward, and was very engaging.”
Doris Jean MetzgerTeen Librarian
Steele Memorial Library, Elmira, NY
“Fantastic program! One of the BEST young adult programs we have ever had. ALL of the teens were extremely engaged and fascinated with Cris’ combination of storytelling and historical knowledge. Every teen who attended wants Cris to come back as soon as possible!”
Tim RyanYoung Adult Services Librarian
Sully Branch Library, Rochester, NY
“This was one of our most popular programs of the year! Our patrons enjoyed the audience participation and were very happy with the program. Highly entertaining and educational. Thank you so much!”
Carol Ellen Kowalik-HappyLibrarian
Olean Public Library, Olean, NY
“I loved your program — it was a great mix of spooky and fascinating and informational. The patrons loved it, too! The props were amazing! I was thinking about them all weekend. Your online forms were very helpful and you always responded very promptly to emails.”
Amy HendersonAdult Services Librarian
Irondequoit Public Library, Rochester, NY
“The guests really enjoyed the whole show — the stories, the presentation, and the presenter! Cris was great to work with, very professional and personable. I liked that he plugged librarians and books!”
Tina DaltonYouth Services Librarian
Cuba Circulating Library, Cuba, NY
“Cris was a very self-sufficient and flexible performer. The audience was very engaged and entertained, with several true shocks and surprises. Great mix of history, surprises, and the supernatural.”
Kirstra OttoLibrarian
Greece Public Library, Greece, NY
“Our show was AWESOME! My group had such a great time listening to and participating with all the different stories. A guaranteed awesome, spooky time! Highly recommended!”
Katie SmithTeen Services Librarian
Wood Library, Canandaigua, NY
“It was a great performance! He kept me wondering what was next! Cris was very knowledgeable. I thought it was very interesting and informative.”
Nancy RaymondLibrary Director
Genesee Public Library, Little Genesee, NY
The no-risk part
If you don’t feel I delivered an amazing evening, I return your check — and I donate $500 to your library.
In over 20 years of full-time professional work, performing 200+ shows a year, no one has ever taken me up on it.
Before you ask
What library directors ask me first.
Is it too scary?
Who is it actually for?
How long does it run?
What space do we need?
Is it religious?
Can you do two programs in one visit?
Do you help us promote it?
Service area
Booking December library programs across six states.
A Haunted Christmas travels from Niagara Falls, New York to libraries throughout New York, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Connecticut, Massachusetts, and New Jersey — and December dates are booked first-come across the whole territory.
Book it
December is a short season.
There are only so many usable dates between Thanksgiving and the holiday closures, and I’m booking them across six states. The libraries that get the evening they wanted are the ones that reach out early.
Call or text me and I’ll send you everything your programming committee needs — what the program covers, how it runs, the space and setup requirements, and how the poster and press release work. Then I’ll follow up with your date and a quote for your library.
That’s my cell. You’ll be talking to me, not an agency. Or email [email protected].
Cris Johnson · Niagara Falls, NY
Serving New York · Pennsylvania · Ohio · Connecticut · Massachusetts · New Jersey