'Older than Christmas'

This is a running review of the book Spirits of the Dead. Find out more here.

The second story in this collection features an amiable but rather solitary clergyman preparing to celebrate Christmas on his tod. The young, enthusiastic vicar has not won over the locals in a rather isolated rural community. He has received no invitations for the festive season, nor has he had the courage to issue any. And so our man prepares for a solitary evening on December 24th. Until there is a knock at the door...

The priest first suspects that his unexpected callers are a bunch of carol singers, but he soon realises his mistake. They in fact appear to be a group of bedraggled homeless people. But what an odd, mismatched group they seem to be. An old man, a woman, a pretty girl, and a dwarfish individual grasping a life-sized doll - what might they want? 

As with the previous story, Weighell's deep knowledge of folklore and religious history is evident here. The title is a clue as what the visitors signify, and what they worship. Suffice to say our protagonist does not grasp the implications of it all until things have done too far.

This is a good, pithy tale that packs a lot of imagery and atmosphere into relatively few pages. Onward to the third story!