"All this he saw, for one moment breathless and intense, vivid on the morning sky; and still, as he looked, he lived; and still, as he lived, he wondered."

Advent Calendar 2025

Every December, I get the itch for two things: candlelit cosiness and the delicious shiver of a good ghost story. So this year the blog is hosting an Advent Calendar of spooky Christmas tales.

From December 1st onward, a new short story will appear here each day. Some are classic winter-gothic pieces, some are sly mysteries, some drift into folklore or quiet horror. All of them share that peculiar seasonal tension I love: the warm glow of celebration pressed up against dark windows, long shadows, old houses, wishes that curdle, magic that comes with a price.

Think of this calendar as a nightly walk through snow that keeps changing underfoot: we’ll meet cursed objects and stubborn spirits, strange visitors, unsettling gifts, and the kind of winter magic that doesn’t always mean well; there will be famous names, rediscovered voices, and a few tales that I can’t believe aren’t read more often at this time of year.

If you feel like keeping pace, check back each day — or save this post so you can binge later with a blanket, a hot drink, and a pleasantly lowered sense of security.

Welcome to the Advent Calendar. Let’s make December a little spookier, together.

Summertime

Memoirs of Hadrian

Marguerite Yourcenar (1903–1987) was a Belgian-born French novelist, essayist, poet, and translator who became the first woman elected to the Académie française in 1980. No, I’m not kidding. Her full name was Marguerite Antoinette Jeanne Marie Ghislaine Cleenewerck de Crayencour; “Yourcenar” began as a pen

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Summertime

Fugitive Pieces

Anne Michaels is a Toronto‑based Canadian writer who first gained attention as a poet before becoming internationally recognised for her fiction. Her writing is poetic and meditative, blending philosophical reflection on history, trauma, and ethics, and she’s best known for her debut novel Fugitive Pieces

Read More »
Summertime

Ways for an Empire to Become a Ruin

Born Konstantinos Petrou Kavafis in Alexandria in 1863, the poet known as C.P. Cavafy is regarded as the greatest modern Greek poet, though he spent much of his life in the cosmopolitan world of Alexandria. He wrote only about 200 poems, many of them published

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Memoirs of Hadrian

Marguerite Yourcenar (1903–1987) was a Belgian-born French novelist, essayist, poet, and translator who became the first woman elected to the Académie française in 1980. No, I’m not kidding. Her full name was Marguerite Antoinette Jeanne Marie Ghislaine Cleenewerck de Crayencour; “Yourcenar” began as a pen

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Anne Michaels is a Toronto‑based Canadian writer who first gained attention as a poet before becoming internationally recognised for her fiction. Her writing is poetic and meditative, blending philosophical reflection on history, trauma, and ethics, and she’s best known for her debut novel Fugitive Pieces

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