The Haunted Season: Pagan Christmas and the Spirits of Midwinter By Lilly Ryan

Long before Christmas lights and songs filled the winter air, the dark heart of December belonged to fire, fear, and the unseen. The Haunted Season reveals the forgotten origins of Christmas and the spirits that still move through the snow-covered nights.

Discover the hidden world behind the modern holiday:

• The ancient fires of Yule and the sacred rites that celebrated the rebirth of the sun • The Wild Hunt and its spectral riders sweeping through the frozen sky • Krampus, Perchta, and other winter spirits who judged the living at the year's end • The Roman Saturnalia, a festival of chaos, feasting, and inverted order • The transformation of pagan rituals into Christian celebration and how those echoes still shape Christmas today • The folklore of midwinter magic from offerings and omens to protective charms and household rites

Drawing on verified historical, folkloric, and archaeological sources, this book explores how ancient Europe faced the darkness with courage, celebration, and sacred fire.

The Haunted Season restores the true balance between joy and dread, warmth and shadow. It is Christmas as the ancients knew it - holy, haunted, and burning with the spirit of the longest night.