Why do the television stations flood us with horror movies during the Christmas season?

Are you sure you’re not watching cable news?

Once upon a time, before cable and electric lights, winter was long, cold, and dark. The ground was too frozen to work on, and you couldn’t see board games after dark.

So people told stories. Lots of them.

And everyone knows that a good scare is a whole lot more entertaining than Uncle Jim-Bob’s 6843468435th retelling of that one fish he almost caught that time.

Over time, the tradition of the fireside ghost story fell by the wayside, enjoying a brief revival in the Victorian era (when Medieval traditions had a major fan club going), and then died out again, to be confusingly referenced in 1963’s “The Most Wonderful Time of the Year” with no explanation whatsoever.

A few years ago, I made it my goal to see as many versions of “A Christmas Carol” as possible. It was really interesting to see the different ghosts and the different ways the characters were portrayed throughout the last few decades of filmmaking.

Because people have the ability to choose what channel they watch and many people dislike the usual saccharine holiday slop.

To get you ready for holiday shopping of course, the horrors.

Nice, @Seek. The tradition of telling ghost stories at Christmas is an old one, but, like so many older traditions, it’s being forgotten in our time.

For the kids. Teen agers. The God father was on this morning. Now there’s a movie to baste a turkey to.

To get you ready for holiday shopping of course

Because, if you think about it, a lot about christmas is horrific.
Santa is spying on children all year long, all the time, including when they are naked. He is Also a slave owner, trespasser and product pirate.
Jesus is also a Zombie and when he returns, the vast majority of humans will be murdererd and then tortured forever.

It’s the Yin and Yang approach…something has to offset the happiness and love of the season.

A Christmas Carol doesn’t count. I’m talking about Freddy Kruger and shit like that. I don’t know…it doesn’t seem like it was always like that.

The Godfather TRAUMATIZED me when I saw at the local movie theater! I was only 13.

I thought they did it for the same reasons that they showed Christmas movies last July.

To shake things up.

You have to admit that there is a huge supply of treacly sweet Christmas crap being shown on Hallmark and WE and the commercial statements, so maybe having horror movies is OK…

TV programming isn’t about shaking things up. It’s about delivering to advertisers the largest and most receptive audience possible. Obviously programming managers and media buyers think this is what people want to watch; or, rather, what will garner the highest audience numbers in their target demographics, and hence the greatest revenues.

A lot of other films popped up as well. Gone With the Wind (5 hours with commercials), The Wizard of Oz, My Favorite Wife