A present contains a monstrous secret. An uninvited guest haunts a Christmas party. A shadow slips across the floor by firelight. A festive entertainment ends in darkness and screams. Who knows what haunts the night at the dark point of the year? This collection of seasonal chillers looks beneath Christmas cheer to a world of ghosts and horrors, mixing terrifying modern fiction with classic stories by masters of the macabre. From Neil Gaiman and M. R. James to Muriel Spark and E. Nesbit, there are stories here to make the hardiest soul quail - so find a comfy chair, lock the door, ignore the cold breath on your neck and get ready to welcome in the real spirits of Christmas.

In the mind's eye of the author a fairly large settlement exists at the North Pole. There Santa and his elves live, work and spend each year preparing the sleigh full of wonderful things for boys and girls the world around to find under their Christmas tree each year. The centerpiece is Santa's workshop. It is fitted out with workbenches and tools for the skillful elves to use as they form their creations. Some of the elves are married and live in individual houses on the various residential streets. Most of the single elves live in dormitory rooms above the workshop. There are many other buildings similar to those you might find in any village around the world. There are grocery stores, service stations, clothing stores, a haberdashery, a bakery, a fire station and so on. Santa and Matilda Clause live not far from the workshop in a house attached to a large barn where the reindeer live. It is a large and thriving village populated with a variety of "little people," Gnomes, Leprechauns, dwarfs, trolls, elves and so on. Across the square from Santa's workshop is the TDW, an acronym for the Transportation Division Workshop, where all sorts of wheeled conveyances are constructed. With its large warehouse type doors it is the launching point for the numerous parades staged for the most trivial of occasions. Such units as the Dwarf Marching Band, resplendent in bright colored uniforms, and the Marinette Twirlers, also wearing vividly colorful outfits, spill out through those doors to the applause of the other villagers. It is the site of great energy, all pointing to the most important night of the year, Christmas Eve. So give your imagination free reign and you will find these stories fascinating, and entertaining.

Stories About The Christmas Hawthorne, The Holy Family, The Wise Men, Shepherds, The Talking Animals, The Flight Into Egypt, And The Stories Of Saints Christopher, Nicholas And Joseph Of Arimathea.

Coasts of Christmas Past is the third book in the Dan Coast series of books. Dan Coast is all set to spend Christmas just the same way he has every year for the past few years; alone and drunk. But when uninvited, unexpected guests arrive and throw a wrench into his holiday plans he is forced to sober up (slightly), and throw on a smile. Just when it seems nothing else could go wrong, a close friend is injured in what appears, to the police, to be a drug deal gone bad. Dan Coast and his sidekick, Red jump into action to find the truth while their friend lies unconscious in the hospital.

Christmas Wood is full of animals: Badger, Fidgety Fox, Owl (not Wise Old Owl, just Owl), the Rabbit family, Tiny Mouse, and Robin. It's nearly Christmas and all the animals are getting ready to celebrate Badger is looking for new friends, Tiny is making (or is that eating) gingerbread, and Rosie Rabbit just can't get ANY peace and quiet! Five festive stories from the animals in the wood all come together in a fantastically Christmassy finale in a barn with some rather special guests.

It's almost Christmas, and a small hopping mouse is hurrying to get home with presents for his children. But he's been away so long. Can he find his way?