The Twelve Frights of Christmas [Paperback]

Isaac Asimov (Author), Carol-Lyn Waugh (Author), Martin Greenberg (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Avon Books (Mm) (December 1986)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0380750988
• ISBN-13: 978-0380750986
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.1 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,153,479 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Stories that stay with you., November 29, 2006

By 

Heather Swanson (Ontario. Canada) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Twelve Frights of Christmas (Paperback)

I was actually given this book in 1985, by my 5th-grade boyfriend, as a Christmas gift (which, in retrospect, is kinda creepy!). I was just barely 10 years old at the time, and I read the whole book cover to cover... It scared the living daylights out of me. Now, one might argue that it was because I was ten, but years later, I've re-read the book, and while not all of the stories held up altogether well, there are more than a couple that would still frighten any adult.

Even though Isaac Asimov does not in fact have any of his own writing in the collection, he's helped introduce and put together a fairly impressive bunch of creepy Christmas-themed horror stories. The first one, Ramsey Campbell's "The Chimney", is (in my opinion) the best of the lot - a story about a young boy who is terrorized by the idea of a man (Santa or not) sneaking down into his bedroom's fireplace, and who goes to ghastly measures to make sure such a thing doesn't happen.

Such are the other eleven tales in the book, done by a bevy of talented writers from all sorts of genres and eras. Robert Louis Stevenson's "Markheim" is featured, a tale about the murder of a curio dealer on Christmas day which is beautifully written and yet still manages to make one's flesh crawl whilst reading it. There are other well-loved authors in there, too - H.P. Lovecraft, Robert Bloch, Arthur C. Clarke, H. G. Wells... The list goes on. Each story is quite short, only a few pages long, which makes it an easy book to simply pick up for a brief taste of "creepy" during the holidays.

Despite it being a hard book to find nowadays, it's definitely worth picking up here on Amazon if you can. It's a deliciously creepy anthology, and it's perfect for those who don't like their Christmas TOO pretty and perfect. (There's also one called "The Twelve Crimes Of Christmas", if murder mysteries are more your thing.) With the array of authors and styles to each scary story, there'll be at least one tale in there that will stay with every reader, just like "The Chimney" has haunted me since I was 10.