The Legend of the Christmas Spider

You may have seen spider ornaments on Christmas trees before, and may have just assumed they were a goth ornament or leftovers from Halloween, but did you know that spiders actually have a long history of being placed on Christmas trees due to Eastern European folk tales? The legend of the Christmas spider dates back to the late 1800s or early 1900s and is believed to be of Ukranian origin, though the story can also be found in parts of Germany, Poland, and Russia. It is also credited as being the origin of hanging tinsel on Christmas trees.

I love the story of the Christmas Spider and its message of charity and goodwill. The Christmas Spider celebrates kindness to all living things, the magic of giving, and those that work quietly in the background to bring joy to others. The legend of the Christmas Spider is as follows:

Haunting Holiday Books to Read for Christmas

The longer days and cold nights are perfectly suited for reading spooky stories. It recalls past traditions from Victorian and Edwardian times when friends and family would gather on Christmas Eve and spend the night by the crackling fire telling each other spooky stories. Let's keep this wonderful tradition alive this holiday season with the following collections of holiday-themed horrors that you can read this Creepmas!

These books of short Christmas ghost stories would make a perfect gift, either to yourself or your favorite horror reader. It would also be fun to take these home for the holidays to read them to your friends and family as you spend time together - which will infuse your gatherings with some must-needed spookiness this time of year!

Check out these Haunting Holiday Books to Read for Christmas:

10 Things I'm Loving This May

I'll be honest, this month has been a struggle for me. I got sick at the beginning of the month for two weeks and also found out we have to move at the end of our lease. In order to fund this unexpected move, I've been selling a large chunk of my Halloween collection. The whole month feels like one long battle against being sick and then another battle of purging belongings. I don't share this because I want pity, but just to show that life can throw us some curveballs sometimes and I just wanted to share why I've been so absent from here and social media. I know it will all work out in the end and I'm excited for a change of scenery, but it sure has been stressful.

Still, this month hasn't been all bad - I feel like even more than usual I need to focus on the positive and savor the little things I sometimes take for granted. As per my monthly tradition, I'm sharing 10 things I'm loving this month below, which encourages me to reflect on things I'm grateful for this month as well as sharing some cool things with you!

Check out 10 Things I'm Loving This May below:

10 Things I'm Loving This April

It's officially springtime here and temperatures are heating up, flowers are blooming, the rain has stopped, and summer is swiftly on the way (but that just means we are closer to Halloween season, right?!). This month has been a whirlwind of activity and seems to have gone by in a flash! So much good stuff happened that it is gonna be tough to consolidate it down to ten, but here we go!

As I've been doing on a monthly basis with these "ten things" posts, I'm sharing 10 items I'm loving this month. This practice encourages me to be grateful for the little (and big) things in my life and also give me a chance to share some cool things with you!

See the 10 Things I'm Loving This April below:

10 Things I'm Loving This February

Hello darlings! I hope you are having a spectacular February! Valentine's Day is behind us (did you see my goth love songs playlist, spooky love decor ideas, creepy cards, and ghoulish gift guide posts?) and hopefully you've all been celebrating Black History Month and Women in Horror Month! As for me, I've been watching a new horror documentary, listening to gloomy tunes, reading a thrilling book, eating delicious vegan sweets, and more. As I've been doing on a monthly basis with these "ten things" posts, I'm sharing with you 10 items I'm loving this month, which encourages me to be grateful for the little (and big) things while also passing along cool things for you to check out. See the 10 Things I'm Loving This February below:

10 Things I'm Loving This January

A new year brings endless possibilities for reinvention, improvement, and becoming your best self. I'm all for that, but I'll be honest and say that this new year started off rather languidly for me. No harm in that, I've just been enjoying easing into the new year! I also celebrated my birthday at the beginning of the month, so that, along with the holiday break has encouraged what I like to call a "gentle laziness."

So far, this easing into the new year has gone very well, and I've enjoyed it along with some wonderful treats this month. Like I'm trying to do every month, I'm reflecting on ten things I loved. This both encourages me to be grateful for the little (and big) things, while also sharing some of my favorite things with you (which I always love to do)!

For January, here are 10 things I loved:

Victorian Ghost Stories for Christmas

I simply love the Victorian tradition of telling ghost stories around Christmas. There is something so wonderfully cozy about gathering with friends and family around a crackling fire on a dark winter night and telling terrifying tales to one another. In recent years there has even been a resurgence of this tradition, with people bringing back the chilling custom of sharing ghost stories around Christmastime.

Of course, I am all for this - the long, dark winter nights create an eerie atmosphere that is so well-suited for telling or reading ghost stories! It is definitely a tradition I want brought back, and there are lots of classic Victorian Christmas ghost stories available to resurrect this custom. There are also some newer spook stories that aren't from the Victorian era, but still honor the tradition of getting scared silly on Christmas Eve, so I've included them in my round-up below! Links will take you to each book's Amazon page, and some are available to read online now, so I've also included those links when applicable.

So find a comfy chair (preferably near a crackling fireplace), light some candles, brew yourself a hot cup of tea or coffee, make sure your doors and windows are locked tight, and settle in to welcome back the real spirits of Christmas in the book and story recommendations below:

13 Krampus Gifts For Those On The Naughty List

Merry Krampusnacht to you ghouls and boils! Krampus has been around for centuries, but just seems to keep gaining in popularity here in the United States. If you're not familiar, Krampus, or the Christmas Devil, is a horned, cloven-footed monster that punishes naughty children on the night of December 5th, or Krampusnacht (Krampus Night). He is kinda the anti-Santa Claus, or more like Santa Claus' evil counterpart. He collects naughty children into his sack, then whips them as punishment.

The Christmas season is typically filled with sweetness and light, so I always welcome a figure that represents the darker side of the holiday. And I'm not the only one - lots of people have taken to Krampus and treat him as kind of the dark lord of the holidays. As a result, there are so many fun Krampus-themed gifts available, from toys to clothing to candles to books to decor and a whole lot more!

I've put together a list of 13 gifts to get yourself or your favorite Krampus-lover:

The Stay At Home Girlfriend Zine #29 - Halloween 2018 Edition

My friend Kendy P. (aka MissMuffCake) creates some incredible zines (several which I've had the pleasure of contributing to or featuring here, like Cemetery Gates volumes three and five and Catsploitation). I recently had the pleasure of contributing a Halloween playlist to her latest zine, The Stay At Home Girlfriend volume 29. I just received my copy and it is packed full of Halloween treats! Get a sneak peek below...

13 Vegan Cookbooks for the Strange and Unusual

Spooky friends who are interested in vegan food often ask me about my favorite vegan cookbooks. I'm happy to say that there are several vegan cookbooks made for darklings and weirdos! This post is about vegan cookbooks with a darker aesthetic, ones that draw inspiration from rebel culture like punk rock, goth, and metal, along with horror movies and, of course, good food! While some of the selections below might not scream "spooky", I've chosen them based on their aesthetic as well as the background of the authors, several of which grew up in the punk, metal, goth, and/or alternative scenes. Others are novelty books, while still others I just really like and think others will enjoy as well.

Here are my picks for Vegan Cookbooks for the Strange and Unusual:

The Spooky Vegan Shop Now Open On Amazon

Do you ever wonder what kind of things I shop for on Amazon? Do you like discovering new products that I personally recommend? Looking for that spooky something to get yourself or that special someone? Are you interested in what cruelty-free and vegan products I use daily? Wanna check out my favorite vegan snacks? Have you ever wished to get your hands on the black nail polish I use or get a peek at what movies and books I'm into?

Well, fiends, lucky for you I've curated a spooky shop on Amazon full of product recommendations so you can find all of these eerie items collected for you in one place! I thought this would be a fun way to show off some of my favorite things and show you what items I use regularly (for example, what hair dye or face wash I use, which I get asked about a lot!). Also, when you purchase items via my Amazon shop you are helping me earn referral fees, which go toward keeping this blog running, especially since I do not use ads, only Amazon affiliate links.

So take a look at my spooky shop, filled with treats like Halloween decor, horror movies, books, accessories, cruelty-free and vegan beauty/makeup/skin care products, and even some of my favorite vegan snacks and food!! You just might find some must-haves or new favorites! I'll be updating the spooky shop regularly with new and old favorites, so check back often!

Visit The Spooky Vegan Shop on Amazon!

Stay spooky!

Macabre Non-Fiction Books for Darklings

I simply adore catching up on reading over the holidays - my family knows I love books, so I usually get a pretty good book haul for Christmas. Then for the next few weeks I usually spend my spare time on the couch curled up with one of the books I received. It's bliss!

This year, there are many new non-fiction releases that I have my eye on and that I've added to my Christmas wish list. The ones I've chosen below explore death culture and customs around the world, gorgeous cemeteries to visit before you die, grisly methods of Victorian surgery and medicine, historical charlatanism involving "cure-alls", and the popularity and downfall of spirit photography.

These nefarious non-fiction books are perfect for yourself or for that special someone who is into macabre history and death-positivity. Check out my non-fiction recommendations below for darklings!

Book Review: Drawn to the Dark - Explorations in Scare Tourism Around the World (Plus Giveaway!)

How would you like to travel the world checking out festivals, celebrations, and haunted attractions Imagine the wonder and excitement you would have visiting traditional Dia de los Muertos cemetery celebrations, attending demon festivals in Japan, getting menaced by Krampus in Austria, exploring locations that inspired Castle Dracula, traveling up a mountain to celebrate Walpurgisnacht in Germany, and checking out different haunted attractions around the world! That sounds so incredible, and that is exactly what author Chris Kullstroem did for a whole year.

Use Switch Witch to Help Kids Ditch Unhealthy Tricks for Treats This Halloween

Every kid should be able to go trick or treating, even if they aren't able to eat the candy they collect due to allergies or wanting to eat healthier. Now with this adorable Switch Witch, they can! The Switch Witch offers a new tradition that encourages kids to swap out Halloween candy for other fun things.

Catsploitation: A Zine Celebrating Horror Fans and Their Cats

I recently contributed to a zine called Catsploitation that celebrates horror fans and their cats and had such a blast! Each contributor was interviewed about their favorite horror movies and their cats. Each page of the zine showcases the interviewees' taste in movies, photos of them and their cats, and what horror movie characters and movies best describe their cats' personalities. The zine also contains an article on horror and sci-fi movies that feature cats as main protagonists or antagonists. Take a peek at this meow-velous zine below:

Cemetery Gates Volume 5, Part 1: Cities in Dust

The whole end of December and all of January have been rather challenging for me, so I apologize for the absence. Besides all the usual holiday-craziness/traveling, my sweet cat Havoc got sick right before Christmas (and right before I was heading out of town). I took him to the emergency vet before leaving, and he seemed okay after getting checked out, but when I got back he still wasn't himself, so we've been going back and forth to the veterinarian (this is the first time he has ever been sick in 11 years!). He isn't quite out of the woods yet, but he seems better. And as if that wasn't stressful enough, I caught the nasty flu bug going around and have been sick for the past two weeks and haven't had energy to do much besides sleep, not to mention the awful state of the U.S. at the moment.

Anyways, it seems like I am on the mend (fingers crossed) and next week I'll find out if my dark prince Havoc is doing better. At least while I was sick I had the chance to catch up on some long-overdue reading, including Cemetery Gates Volume 5, a DIY zine created by the badass Kendy aka MissMuffCake! She releases many amazing zines (you can check them all out on Etsy!), and this one is filled with cemetery stories and photography. I've shared past issues of Cemetery Gates (check out Volume 1 and Volume 3!) and loved them, so I was stoked to dive into Volume 5!

The Witch's Christmas

The Witch's Christmas (1986 version)

I came across this adorable children's Christmas book recently called The Witch's Christmas by Norman Bridwell, the well-loved author of the Clifford the Big Red Dog series of children's books. The Witch's Christmas is about a witch that not only puts a fun Halloween spin on Christmas, but also saves Santa when he runs into some trouble on Christmas Eve.

The Witch's Christmas originally came out in 1970 and looks like it was re-illustrated and re-released in 1986. Both versions were illustrated by Bridwell, with the later version getting some color. I've included pages from both versions below.

Both versions look frightfully fun and our witch shares a lot of the Creepmas spirit, like making it rain black snow, creating a holiday wreath from bats, singing Creepmas carols with some monster friends, and decorating a Creepmas tree with skulls, bats, and spiders! Merry Hexmas indeed!

Check out some of the pages from both versions of The Witch's Christmas below:

Goth Gift Guide: Nefarious Non-Fiction for Curious Creeps

My idea of the perfect gift? BOOKS! I'd be happy buried beneath books, and while I really, really try to limit my collection these days due to space issues, I am finding it hard to resist adding the non-fiction books below to my personal Christmas wish list! There are books featuring hidden wonders from around the world, photographic collections of macabre items, recollections of 31 days of October spent in Salem, Victorian ways of death, haunted histories, personal art collections, and even a horror-inspired coloring book. These are all fairly new items, released just this year, and any of these are sure to make my fellow creeps happy!

Check out the nefarious non-fiction books I've selected for fellow spooklings below:

37 Bewitching Book Covers for Halloween

The Halloween Tree by Ray Bradbury

There is nothing that makes me want to pick up a book more than when it boasts a spooky Halloween cover! I simply cannot resist books decorated with glowing jack-o-lanterns, decrepit haunted houses, wailing ghosts, spooky scarecrows, creepy corn fields, or festive fall foliage! Anything orange and black will immediately catch my eye, and I especially love older paperbacks with Halloween themes! Below you'll find some Halloween-themed books with boo-tiful covers, some even from my personal collection:

The Occult Activity Book Returns with Volume Two

The Occult Activity Book is back, and bigger and better than ever! The first volume was filled with wonderfully dark art and activities, and the second is packed with even more! In fact, this new volume has doubled in size and it is bristling with 52 pages of gore-geous artwork, eerie activities, gruesome games, and all sorts of fiendish fun! Where else can you immerse yourself in activities like Mad Libs-inspired incantations, building your own papercraft coven, solving the sexiest occult-themed crossword puzzle ever, mastering macabre mazes, learning about the Gilles de Rais, Ed and Lorraine Warren, Madame Blavatsky (and more) while coloring in their illustrations, testing your knowledge of the esoteric, all the while listening to a hand-crafted witchy playlist?