Invoking the Creepmas Spirit and Summoning the 13 Days of Creepmas

Merry Creepmas, all you naughty boils and ghouls! Today marks the start of 13 devilish days of Creepmas, when we creepy kooks inject some Halloween into the holidays and make it a spooky season, filled with good cheer fear!

On this first day of Creepmas, we must recite the annual Creepmas invocation, calling forth the spirits of the season to kick off the 13 Days of Creepmas. Join me in reciting a short Creepmas poem by co-founder of the event, Chad Savage (artist extraordinaire and owner of Sinister Visions and Cult of the Great Pumpkin):

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How will you be celebrating Creepmas this year?

13 Days of Creepmas: 7 Macabre Books to Add to Your Creepmas Wish List

Looking for some unusual, strange, and macabre books this Christmas? I hope you are, because I have hand-picked some that are sure to send shivers down the spines of their lucky readers! I've picked a variety of books, some which are new, while others have been lurking in dark corners for years, but all are the perfect spooky antidote to the holiday cheer that seems to be infecting everything.

31 Days of Halloween: Three Little Ghostesses

Art by Kristy Tracy 

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When I was younger, I remember having a book about three little ghosts that really enjoyed toast. I was obsessed with that book, but I don't know what became of it. I think it may have been an old nursery rhyme book, but I can't remember exactly. I've scoured the web for it (I remember the accompanying pictures of the little ghostesses on postesses enjoying toastesses), but didn't have any luck.

13 Days of Creepmas: Christopher Lee Narrates Tim Burton's Original Nightmare Before Christmas Poem

The beautiful animation video with horror legend Christopher Lee reciting Tim Burton's original poem of The Nightmare Before Christmas has been making the rounds lately (even though it was released in 2008), but it definitely deserves to be reposted, especially during Creepmas celebrations!

The Nightmare Before Christmas originally started as a poem written by Burton in 1982 while he was working for Disney. It eventually inspired the feature-length film we all love today. You can check out the original animation and poem as recited by Mr. Lee below!

If this isn't the epitome of Creepmas I don't know what is!

13 Days of Creepmas: The Gothic Night Before Christmas

I am sure you are familiar with Clement C. Moore's Christmas poem, 'Twas The Night Before Christmas, which most of us can recite at least part way through. The poem has been altered and parodied in hundreds of different ways, from books like Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas to pretty much any holiday movie. And now I've finally found a gothic parody of the poem!

I'm not sure who the author is, and the website hasn't been updated since 2006, but this is one of THE BEST gothic parodies of this poem I've ever read! I hope the author doesn't mind me reposting, because this poem really bears sharing!

Check it out below!

'Twas the night before Christmas, and all through our house
was blasting the "St. Vitus Dance" by Bauhaus;
Torn fishnets were draped on my forearms with care,
And two cans of Aquanet applied to my hair;
My thoughts were of graveyards, and horror and dread,
Black visions of pain and despair in my head;
And Bianca, whose face was as pale as the moon,
Had thrown up her arm for this evening's swoon,
When out by the gravestones there came such a clatter,
I sprang from the coffin to find out the matter.

Away to the window I flew like a ghost,
Expecting to find a dark devilish host.
The moon on the breast of the uncaring snow
Threw ominous shadows on objects below,
When, before my tormented eyes did traverse,
But a gorgeous black Crane & Breed carved-panel hearse,
With a gaunt, shrouded driver, who filled me with fear,
And eight skeletal creatures that might have been deer.
More rapid than vultures his coursers they came,
And his deep Andrew Eldritch voice called them by name;

Now, Murphy! Now, Morgoth! Now, Torment and Woe!
On, Dreadful! On, Lovecraft! Mephisto and Poe!
To the top of the gravestones where fog wisps its breath!
With a weight on my soul I consign you to death!

As dead leaves that before hellish hurricanes fly,
When they flutter like giant bats' wings to the sky,
So up to the crypt-top the coursers they leapt,
While dearest Bianca, like death, still but slept.
And then, to my horror, I heard on the roof
The clicking and scratching of each bone-white hoof.
As I drew in my arm, and was whirling around,
Down the ebony chimney he came without sound.

He was clad all in black, and he looked oh-so-goth,
A billowy ensemble of crushed velvet cloth;
His boots were knee-high, quite buckled and zipped,
And the Spandex and fishnets 'round his legs were ripped.
His eyes glowed with bluish fire, deathly and cold,
A black eye-liner'd face neither youthful nor old.
A broad lipless mouth drawn with torment and hurt,
And his sorrowful face was as white as my shirt.

A smoldering cigarette tight in his grasp,
Its smoke curling eerily 'round his cloak clasp;
His gaunt frame was topped with long ebon hair,
And a sharp scent of brimstone and cloves choked the air.
His arms were outspread in the shape of a cross,
And I quailed when I saw him, feeling sorrow and loss;
He narrowed his eyes with a twist of his head,
And I felt the full weight of his angst and dread.

He spoke not a word, but went straight to his task,
Left some Dead Can Dance CD's; before I could ask,
A single tear fell across his aquiline nose,
And then, like an angel, up the chimney he rose;
He sprang to his hearse, to his team he then hissed,
And away they all drifted like early dawn's mist.
But I heard him intone, ere he vanished from sight,
"Gothic Christmas to all, and to all a good fright!"

31 Days of Halloween: Dark Poems of Autumn, October and All Hallow's Eve

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The name - of it - is "Autumn" -

The hue - of it - is Blood -

An Artery - upon the Hill -

A Vein - along the Road -

Great Globules - in the Alleys -

And Oh, the Shower of Stain -

When Winds - upset the Basin -

And spill the Scarlet Rain -

It sprinkles Bonnets - far below -

It gathers ruddy Pools -

Then - eddies like a Rose - away -

Upon Vermilion Wheels –

-Emily Dickinson

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Fancy returns, and now she thinks of bones

And grinning skulls, and corruptible death

Wrapp'd in his shroud; and now fancies she hears

Deep sighs, and sees pale sickly ghosts gliding.

-William Blake

from "Fair Elenor"

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The skies they were ashen and sober;

The leaves they were crispéd and sere -

The leaves they were withering and sere;

It was night in the lonesome October

Of my most immemorial year.

-Edgar Allan Poe

from "Ulalume: A Ballad"

It's Halloween! It's Halloween!

The moon is full and bright

And we shall see what can't be seen

On any other night.

Skeletons and ghosts and ghouls,

Grinning goblins fighting duels,

Werewolves rising from their tombs,

Witches on their magic brooms.

In masks and gowns

we haunt the street

And knock on doors

for trick or treat.

Tonight we are

the king and queen,

For oh tonight

it's Halloween!

-Jack Prelutsky

from It's Halloween

 Illustration from Arnold Lobel from Jack Prelutsky's 

Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep

There's a house upon the hilltop

We will not go inside

For that is where the witches live,

Where ghosts and goblins hide.

Tonight they have their party,

All the lights are burning bright,

But oh we will not go inside

The haunted house tonight.

The demons there are whirling

And the spirits swirl about.

They sing their songs to Halloween.

"Come join the fun," they shout.

But we do not want to go there

So we run with all our might

And oh we will not go inside

The haunted house tonight.

-Jack Prelutsky

“Haunted House” from Nightmares: Poems to Trouble Your Sleep

Trick or Treat
Smell my feet
Give me something good to eat!

31 Days of Halloween: Welcome to October Country

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October Country

...that country where it is always turning late in the year. That country where the hills are fog and the rivers are mist; where noons go quickly, dusks and twilights linger, and midnights stay. That country composed in the main of cellars, sub-cellars, coal-bins, closets, attics, and pantries faced away from the sun. The country whose people are autumn people, thinking only autumn thoughts. Whose people passing at night on the empty walks sound like rain...

-Ray Bradbury, The October Country

Welcome to October Country and to The Spooky Vegan's 31 Days of Halloween! I've got tons of wonderful posts to share with you this October, including visits to pumpkin patches, recommendations for films, books and music, vegan recipes, poems, videos, photos, costumes and so on! Keep checking back every day for new posts!

Happy October!

Book Review: Oddities of West Blankshire

When I received Dan Holst Soelberg’s illustrated book, Odditites of West Blankshire: A Book of Odens Grebal, it immediately put a huge smile on my face. You see, the book contains short, witty and often morbidly funny two-line poems accompanied by beautiful black and white illustrations. For an Edward Gorey/Charles Addams fan such as myself, Oddities and its Victorian characters coupled with its dark humor was exactly my cup of tea!

READ MORE at FATALLY YOURS