Why the Victorians were so spookily good

[Still Waters]

Christmas Eve was traditionally the time to tell scary stories round the hearth. And 19th-century writers were fearsomely adept at exploiting a world of creaking floorboards, creepy servants...and gas lamps that caused hallucinations.

http://www.theguardi...s-spookily-good

[Frank Merton]

Now we have computer games and TV.

[+susieice]

I watch A Christmas Carol every year. Just watched it tonight in fact. It's one of my favorite Christmas movies.

[Crabby Kitten]

They didn't have television in those days and during the winter, it was a setting for ghost stories. Like today when people tell ghost stories around a campfire at night. Victorians started off with regular books and magazines getting published, and the imagination was fueled by just life.

[Erowin]

Same thing happening now, only this time it's an alien craze.

[Bendy Demon]

People were just as gullible and superstitious then as they are today. It's nothing all that extraordinary really.

Of course rampant ignorance helps too.

Edited December 26, 2013 by Ryu

[Jyre Cayce]

because t.v wasn't invented yet, duh!