Zombies and Christmas? A Holiday Trend? - November 7, 2010

I was looking around book sites today for more mash-ups and twisted histories when I noticed what may be a trend - zombie Christmas stories. I've no idea why zombies and Christmas go together. Perhaps after all the shopping, wrapping, unwrapping, celebrating, and eating folks feel a bit zombie-ish? Is it that zombies just want to enjoy the holidays also? Or is it simply funny? What do you think?


It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Zombies!
A Book of Zombie Christmas Carols
by Michael P. Spradlin

Fresh brains roasting on an open fire . . .

Outside the temperature's dropping. The snow is falling, blanketing the world in white. Sleigh bells are jingling. Soon it will be that most wondrous time of the year!

That time of flesh-devouring zombie horror!

Yes, Christmas is on its way—and all the little boys and ghouls are dreaming of stockings filled with candied eyes and bleeding body parts. You'd better watch out! Santa Claws is coming to town—and he knows who's been naughty, who's been naughtier . . . and who'll taste best with a nice glass of Chianti!

In celebration of this merry macabre season, we present a peerless compendium of more than two dozen of the most soul-stirring, brain-boiling carols composed specifically for the decomposing. Holiday favorites such as “I Saw Mommy Chewing Santa Claus,” “Deck the Halls with Parts of Wally,” and “We Three Spleens” are guaranteed to lift the spirits of the lumbering, shuffling undead and their temporarily still breathing meals-to-be. So put down your gore-splattered baseball bats and raise your voices in song! And sing loudly—to drown out all the screaming.


The Zombie Night Before Christmas
by Clement C. Moore and H. Parker Kelley, Dominic Mylroie (Illustrator)

Why worry about the Grinch when you've got ZOMBIES on the attack! Their prey? America's best-loved Christmas poem. Get ready to have a holly jolly zombie holiday with this monstrously funny mash-up that subverts all that tiresomely good Christmas cheer. Clement C. Moore's verses are tweaked and twisted, turning a once-cozy fireside read-aloud on its (now brainless) head. To complete the sacrilege: hilarious renderings of zombie stockings (undead legs!) hung by the chimney with care, and St. Nick attempting to repel a full-out, flesh-devouring zombie attack. One thing's for sure—Santa and his eight tiny reindeer will never be the same!

I am Scrooge: A Zombie Story for Christmas
by Adam Roberts

Marley was dead. Again.

The legendary Ebenezeer Scrooge sits in his house counting money. The boards that he has nailed up over the doors and the windows shudder and shake under the blows from the endless zombie hordes that crowd the streets hungering for his flesh and his miserly braaaaiiiiiinns!

Just how did the happiest day of the year slip into a welter of blood, innards and shambling, ravenous undead on the snowy streets of old London town?

Will the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future be able to stop the world from drowning under a top-hatted and crinolined zombie horde?

Was Tiny Tim's illness something infinitely more sinister than mere rickets and consumption? Can Scrooge be persuaded to go back to his evil ways, travel back to Christmas past and destroy the brain stem of the tiny, irritatingly cheery Patient Zero?

It's the Dickensian Zombie Apocalypse - God Bless us, one and all!


Christmas is Dead: A Zombie Anthology
Anthony Giangregorio (Editor)

Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house, not a creature was stirring, not even a . . . zombie?

That's right; this anthology explores what would happen at Christmas time if there was a full blown zombie outbreak.

Reanimated turkeys, zombie Santas, and demon reindeer that turn people to flesh-eating ghouls are just some of the tales you will find in this merry undead book.

So, curl up under the Christmas tree with a cup of hot chocolate, and as the fireplace crackles with warmth, get ready to have your heart filled with holiday cheer.

But, of course, then it will be ripped from your heaving chest and fed upon by bloodthirsty elves with a craving for human flesh!

For you see, Christmas is Dead!

And you will never look at the holiday season the same way again.


Christmas is Dead...Again: A Zombie Anthology
Anthony Giangregorio (Editor)

Christmas is upon us and the dead are walking!

Zombie Santas, undead elves and living dead reindeer are just a few of the holiday characters you will find in this merry anthology.

Have you been naughty or nice this year?

Well, that's up to Santa Claus to decide.

Just pray he leaves you a stocking full of coal and doesn't gut you and eat your insides instead!

For you see, Christmas is Dead. . .again!

And the holiday season will never be the same again.


The Undead That Saved Christmas
Lyle Perez-Tinics (Editor)

The Undead That Saved Christmas is the heart-chilling anthology with stories across the spectrum of holiday mythology. The perfect stocking stuffer that doesn't include a box of shotgun shells or a macheté, The Undead That Saved Christmas brings together various talented authors and artists from Great Britain, the United States and Ireland.

Stories include The Magic of Christmas, by Rebecca Besser; Santa Claws is Coming to Town, by Calvin A.L. Miller II; Night of the Frozen Elf, by Richard S. Crawford; And to All a Good Fright by Stacey Graham; and many others. The anthology also includes rich illustrations by David Naughton-Shires, Jason Tudor, Chris Williams and more. Another thing to expect in this anthology is a fun collection of holiday zombie-themed poems and carols. And to wrap things up there is an awesome assortment of original comics, from Mike Schneider, Nate Call, and many others.

Proceeds from the sales of The Undead That Saved Christmas benefit the Hugs Foster Family Agency (hugsffa.org) and will help them give their foster children gifts this holiday season.

The Undead That Saved Christmas has a Facebook page here.