Christmas horror

terrorizing Ebenezer Scrooge]]
**Christmas horror** is a fiction genre and a  movie genre. It combines stories with a Chrismas theme with horror stories. 

## Origins and history 
Since prehistoric times, there were celebrations of the winter solstice in Britain. The genre blends into these traditional celebrations.''* *Hollywood Reporter'' said it was part of an early tradition of associating the death of winter with the coming rebirth of spring, citing Shakespeare's 1623 ''The Winter's Tale* as a precursor to the genre.  Dickens also wrote other ghost stories with holiday settings, such as the 1866 "The Signal-man". In 1954 the American EC Comics published an edition of *Vault of Horror* titled *"...And All Through the House"'' which featured a killer dressed as Santa.

Horror was present in Christmas-themed movies from the early 1900s. Early examples of the modern Christmas horror genre in film are 1971's *Whoever Slew Auntie Roo?* and the 1972 *Silent Night, Bloody Night*. According to Stephen Thrower it is generally regarded as an influence on the 1978 *Halloween*. The genre faded for a few years. There were more  slasher films in the late 1970s and early 1980s . It was revived by *Gremlins* and *Silent Night, Deadly Night*, both in 1984, and revived from the late 80s through at least the late 2010s. The settings are Christmas-themed. Common motivers include snow, nicely decorated homes, building and streets and twinkling lights. This is done to make people experience a sense of peace, before telling a story which makes them feel afraid.

*The Hollywood Reporter* speculated that the genre's appeal was a reflection that "Christmas isn’t the happiest time of the year for everyone" and that it provided "a means to conquer and control some of the less delightful aspects that seep into the holiday".

Matthew DuPée, author of *A Scary Little Christmas: A History of Yuletide Horror Films*, wrote that filmgoers "seeking an exhilarating alternative to the sickly sweet, feel-good Christmas movies found on the Hallmark Channel" explained the genre's popularity. Six versions of the television commercial for the movie were submitted to the Motion Picture Association's advertising code administration before it was approved.

The movie also was unusual in that it fully integrated Christmas, and in particular Santa Claus, into the plotline. According to *Fangoria* editor Michael Gingold, the movie, "in scene after scene, demonstrates a hatred for Christmas".

According to *Going to Pieces: The Rise and Fall of the Slasher Film*, a 2006 documentary, the movie "became the flashpoint, igniting protests across the nation". The film was released in the East Coast and Midwest in November 1984 by TriStar Pictures, but the protests and their national coverage led to the film's removal from distribution a week later. Some theaters continued to run it, including in Buffalo and Boston.The movie was eventually rereleased by Aquarius Film Releasing with promotional materials that focussed on the film having been so outrageous that "parents everywhere" had "tried to ban it" and no images of Santa or references to Christmas.

## References 
## Books 
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