The Chilling Echoes of Winter: Three Christmas Haunts
The biting chill of December, the soft glow of festive lights, and the expectation of holiday cheer often mask the darkness that lurks in the quiet corners of the world. What follows are three chilling accounts from people whose Christmas season was irrevocably marked by fear, suspicion, and terrifying encounters with the unknown.
The Unseen Companion of the Quebec Woods
For the clarity of this story, I must mention that I have a hearing disability that has made me hard of hearing. I know that there are some things in life that I’ll never understand, but I still look back on this experience wondering what could have happened and what I should have done differently.
This all happened around a year ago. The holiday season had just rolled by, and I was settling down from traveling and all the get-togethers with family and friends. I live in a small suburban neighborhood that borders a forest in southern Quebec. It’s a quiet area, as most of the residents are familiar with each other, which I honestly kind of prefer as it adds a warmer atmosphere.
Around winter, I like to take my dog, Monty, on walks in the local forest. He’s a Rottweiler-Husky mix, which is perfect for me since I enjoy going for runs from time to time. The forest has several trails, none of which are challenging for non-hikers.
I remember it being an afternoon. I had just finished having a late lunch and decided to burn the calories on a walk with Monty. As usual, my dog goes ballistic when we turned the corner on my street towards the forest entrance.
It was relatively cold for a February day. A fresh blanket of snow lined the paths overnight, creating this nearly blank canvas. As usual, I let my dog off the leash so he could run around. There were a few yellow patches along with some bootprints in the snow, which signaled to me that several people had already taken their dogs out earlier. Most people like to go on walks before noon since the sun tends to set around 4:00 p.m., so I didn’t expect to see anybody out at that time.
After walking for around 30 minutes, we came to a fork in the path. I noticed that one of the paths hadn’t been walked yet, so feeling semi-adventurous, I decided to take it. I have a pretty concrete memory of the trails, so I knew exactly where I was going. The trail led to a clearing, which was great since I wanted to check out the native birds with the binoculars I had gotten for Christmas.
I remember scanning the surroundings until I saw a strange shape along the tree line in the distance. When I focused my binoculars, I saw a blue tarp and what looked to be a makeshift shelter. As curious as I was to check it out, it was getting dark, and I wanted to get home.
Turning around, Monty and I started walking back. As usual, he ran up ahead, but something seemed off in his behavior. He was much more alert and was sniffing the trail more than he normally would from what I observed in the past. When I looked down at the trail, my eyes widened. There was a set of footprints in the snow, much larger than my own. I remember turning my boots over out of sheer confusion to compare them to the ones in the snow. The prints were different, which left me with even more questions. There were no other forks in the trail, so whoever took it had to have passed me at some point. I figured they must have passed me while I was using my binoculars. At the time, it seemed like the most logical explanation, so I tried not to overthink it.
At this point, it was significantly darker outside, but I could still make out my surroundings. As we were walking back, Monty stopped abruptly and started barking relentlessly in my direction. As I turned around, that’s when I saw him.
There was a man, probably around 6’4″, wearing charcoal-colored snow pants and a white camo jacket, only about a meter away from me. He didn’t make any movements towards me. He just stood there with his hands in his coat pockets. I didn’t recognize him from anybody in the neighborhood, so I assumed he must have been a hiker or someone from out of town. He looked like he was muttering something to me, but I couldn’t read his lips due to the lack of lighting and not knowing if he was speaking English or French, which are the two commonly spoken languages in Quebec. I felt like an idiot at that moment for not bringing my phone with me. So, I ended up trying to communicate with him that I was hard of hearing and that it was getting late.
I got back home around 4:30. By then, it was completely dark out. I remember following my standard night routine, not really thinking much about the encounter. But in the middle of the night, something happened that still shakes me to this day.
I woke up to Monty licking my hand, which is something he usually does to get me out of bed in the morning. I tapped my phone to check the time, and to my surprise, it was 3:00 a.m. I noticed a message from my neighbor asking if everything was all right, which, if I’m being honest, confused me at first. The message was a few minutes old and asked if everything was all right since Monty had been barking like he was possessed.
I looked up from my phone to see that Monty was no longer in my room. I walked downstairs to find him barking hysterically at the patio door. As I approached the door, I struggled to see anything with my vision still blurry. I tried to focus my eyes when the motion sensor light turned on. At that moment, my heart sank. The man from the forest was standing there in my backyard.
I didn’t think twice to process any more questions. I stepped away from the door and texted 911. I don’t think I’ve ever texted 911 faster than I did that night. I ran up to my room with Monty and grabbed the machete from under my bed. I’m a shorter woman with a background in martial arts, but I know damn well that the best move in a fight is to not fight at all. I sat there in my room guarding Monty and myself until the police came.
With my heart beating out of my chest, I sat opposite from the door with Monty by my side. It didn’t last long until Monty sprang up and started barking violently at the bedroom door. My hands were sweating profusely as I watched a shadow cast in from underneath the door. The movement in front of the nightlight suggested the man was seconds from breaking into my room. Those had to be the longest minutes of my life as I anticipated the door handle turning or the door completely breaking in. Luckily for me, it never did.
When the police arrived, I explained everything to them while they searched the property. The glass on the patio was smashed completely. But besides that, nothing was missing, and everything was still relatively the same. The police found the gate in my backyard open. It leads to the forest, which is where they believe the man disappeared to. I let them know about the shelter I saw in the woods the day before.
I took Monty and some of my belongings to stay with a family friend for a few days while I got the patio door fixed. I never got a follow-up from the police after the incident, but ever since that day, I decided to stick to roads when walking my dog, not trying to think too much about the incident.
The Digital Decoy and the Christmas Terror
My name is Ember and I’m a 16-year-old girl who lives in Illinois with my younger sister, Kate, who’s 15. My dad works for a deforestation group about 30 minutes from our house.
It was a normal morning on December 5th as my sister and I were getting ready to go out to the movies. We decided to go watch a somewhat new horror movie, Terrifier 3, which had some Christmas stuff included in it. We all knew it was 18+, but nobody paid much attention. Plus, we looked older than we were anyway. We made our way to the movies and easily got in thanks to our appearance.
However, halfway through the film, as everyone was anticipating the next scene, my phone buzzed loudly enough for the whole theater to hear, which really killed everyone’s vibe as they all turned toward me with annoyed looks. My sister and I scurried out until I tripped, which was embarrassing enough.
After we exited the theater, I checked my phone to see who called me. It was my dad. But instead of calling back, I received a text message that said something like, “Hey, would you mind bringing me some lunch since the small cafe in the woods is shut today?” I looked over at Kate, and she looked at me confused, but neither of us second-guessed the message since it seemed normal.
We arrived home, packed some food for him, and took my car downtown to the woods. I’ve always loved that place and never felt uneasy there because it was large and secluded. The scenery was amazing with a hill that led down to a lake perfect for fishing and photos.
After a while, Kate and I got out of the car and we walked down the path through the woods. I took out my phone to call my dad, but he didn’t pick up. Confused, I looked over at Kate, who was just as confused as I was. Why wouldn’t he respond when he just called us at the movies? I decided to message him instead, reminding him that we were at the woods to give him his lunch.
After a few moments, I saw the three little dots on the screen appear, showing he was typing. He responded by telling us to walk down the small hill and wait for him at the lake, which we followed.
The sun was slowly setting since it was winter, so sunset came much earlier. The sky had a beautiful radiant orange glow over the hill and down the mountain. Snapping out of my thoughts, Kate pointed down to the lake where a man in black was sitting on the deck by the water with his back to us. We guessed it was our dad.
We walked down a bit more and stopped a little behind him. I called out his name, but he didn’t move. Kate grew uneasy, and her attitude made the scene even more eerie. I slowly pulled off the hood he was wearing and revealed a man who definitely wasn’t our dad. Kate and I shrieked as he turned around and began waving my dad’s phone around like a maniac, smiling like he was happy to see us scared.
I blurted out asking why he was using our dad’s phone, but he didn’t respond. Instead, he lunged and grabbed Kate’s arm as she screamed. Luckily, I was strong enough to pull her away, and we started running as fast as we could. The adrenaline pushed through us so much that I had never seen either of us run that fast. Behind me, I heard stomps getting closer, so I knew we were being chased. I didn’t dare to turn around.
Finally, we reached the car. I slammed the door shut and locked it as the man came to my window, then crouched down out of sight as I reversed and sped away back home.
When we got home, my dad and mom were there. We arrived panting out of breath and explained the whole situation to them. My dad was furious and said his phone had been stolen while he was working, so he decided to come back home. He said the man must have taken his phone and messaged us.
My dad called the police and filed the report. They used the IMEI number to track the device, which was still on the deck by the lake, and they returned the phone to my dad. They said there wasn’t much they could do since the phone was already found. I thought this was the end of it, but I wouldn’t be telling this if it was.
Six hours later, around 1:00 a.m., I got an unknown message that said, “I like that your house is lit only by your bedroom TV.” I immediately went cold and pale. I paused the TV and heard rustling outside my window. My room was on the second floor.
I shut my phone and listened. Slowly, I peeked through the blinds and saw the man smiling with a gun pointed at my window. I screamed and pulled away as glass shattered everywhere across my room. My parents ran in, followed by Kate. I screamed for them to crouch and told them the man was outside with a gun. When my dad went to check, the man was gone.
Then we heard another loud bang and more glass breaking downstairs in the kitchen. We ran and locked the bedroom as Kate called 911. My mom hugged us as we cried in fear. Throughout the whole situation, I kept wondering how he knew where we lived.
A few moments later, the police arrived and searched the whole house, but nobody was there. Kate and I explained the situation again, and one of the officers said they should check the car. Surprisingly, a small AirTag was found on my tire, which explained how the man knew where we lived and why he crouched before I sped out of the woods.
The police told us they would patrol the streets and do everything they could to find the man. A few months later, he still hadn’t been found, but he never returned, which I hope it stays that way. Me, Kate, and my parents are still traumatized by the situation, but mostly I felt stupid as the older sister for not being alarmed when the person didn’t respond to calls and only responded through texts. All I know is that I’ll be more careful and never go to secluded places again, especially when I’m responsible for someone else’s safety.
The Twisted Yuletide Gift
It was 2021. One word to describe my day: hectic. Work was a show. This was prime COVID time, so I was working from home. I was supposed to be meeting with my extended family upstate, and I ended up finally getting off a nearly three-hour Zoom meeting for work a whole hour and a half after everyone else had already arrived at my parents’ house. And that didn’t include the next two hours or so the trek up to their house would take me. I filled up two cups of coffee in my kitchen to take with me before leaving. God knew I’d need them.
The second I opened my front door, I realized this drive would be more of a show than I had originally thought. The snow and wind had already picked up since earlier that evening, and the streets were barely even plowed. The ground had at least two feet of snow already, and it was supposed to snow like this for a majority of the night. I had to be driving under 25 on most residential roads. My car at the time was also a really old, crappy Hyundai, which wasn’t ideal for extreme weather conditions at all. It didn’t have anti-lock brakes either. I’m a fast driver, though, so when I got on the highway, I raised my speed to 70, which was probably a lot faster than safe for the conditions.
I finally arrived at my parents’ house around 9:00. They had begun dinner without me, but thankfully weren’t too far along. A few drinks and gift sharing later, I started to lose track of time. I got so caught up in seeing my relatives I hadn’t spoken to in a while that I ended up basically forgetting I still had to drive home, even as most of my family had started to leave.
Once I finally got in my car to leave, it was past midnight and at least another foot of snow had accumulated on the ground. I was buzzed, but I figured I was sober enough to drive home—not that I condone drinking and driving at all. I was tired and simply wanted to get home.
As I was heading towards the highway, I realized the roads were completely dead. I made the grave mistake of raising my speed to 40 down one particular road because as I began to approach a bend in the road, I realized my car had gone into a skid. I tried not to panic, as this wasn’t the first time I’d skidded. I started to steer into the skid and downshifted. But as I got even closer to the curve and my car still wasn’t slowing down, I started to panic. My car went straight off the side of the road and into a tree, and the airbag deployed. I was momentarily in shock from the force of the impact. But thankfully, I was relatively unscathed.
My car was ruined, though. The whole hood was buried in a bank of snow surrounding the tree I hit. No chance I was pushing it back onto the road or anything like that.
The first thing I did was phone my roadside assistance company, and they said they’d send a truck to my location. But because of the horrible conditions, it could take up to 40 minutes for the truck to reach me. I was on a deserted road surrounded by forest and no houses for miles in either direction. So, I decided to also call my parents and ask one of them to drive over and wait with me. My dad said he’d get in his car and drive over. So, then I hung up and waited.
As I was sitting there, I began to hear something over the sound of the wind howling outside. There were undeniably footsteps in the snow. I couldn’t tell exactly from where, but they sounded somewhat distant.
I opened the driver’s side door and stepped out, looking over the roof of my car. I wasn’t hearing footsteps anymore. Instead, I was hearing some new sounds. It was kind of hard to describe, but it sounded like some kind of wet slurping. I looked over to where I thought the sound was coming from, and I could see some movement by the tree line. It was dark as hell, though, but I was pretty certain I was looking at a person.
I called out, “Hello.” The sound stopped, but no one called back. I sat there for a few more seconds awkwardly, but no one ever responded or appeared to me. I couldn’t see any more movement either. I was officially freaked out, so I got back in my car and locked the doors.
What couldn’t have been a whole minute later, I heard footsteps in the snow again outside. Then I heard something hitting the passenger side window, like a rock or something was thrown at it. I couldn’t see out the passenger side window because it was covered in snow, or any of the windows for that matter.
Once again, I opened the driver’s side door and stepped out of my car. Checking my immediate surroundings, I made a disturbing discovery. There were bootprints in the snow circling all around my car and then leading away from my passenger side door into the woods. I felt sick to my stomach. I also noticed there were drops of blood in the snow.
I opened my driver’s side door and then grabbed my 9mm out of the glove compartment. Clutching it in my right hand, I began to follow the prints leading into the woods. At that moment, I was convinced someone out there was with me. As I followed the prints, the drops of blood began to grow larger. It looked like someone had been bleeding profusely.
And then I saw some dark mass lying in the snow just past the tree line. I couldn’t tell what it was. I was just praying it wasn’t a person. I took out my phone and enabled the flashlight. It wasn’t a person. It was a dead deer, seemingly slaughtered by some larger predatory animal. The stomach was ripped completely open, and shockingly, the deer had been completely decapitated. I swept the flashlight over the surrounding few feet, but I didn’t see the head anywhere.
I decided this was getting too weird for me, and I started heading back to my car. I got back to my car and opened the driver’s side door, and as soon as I did, it was all I could do to keep myself from vomiting on the spot.
Lying in the driver’s side seat of my car was the severed head of a deer, placed on the seat as if it was looking right at me.
I booked it out of there and made it a few minutes down the road before headlights appeared in the distance. I ran towards the car, waving my hands and shouting like a madman, still holding my handgun. Thankfully, it was my dad, and he stopped the car and asked me what the hell I was doing. I got in the passenger seat and explained everything to him. And I kid you not, he literally didn’t believe me.
I felt more comfortable going back to my car with my dad now. So, he drove the two of us over there and we got out. The footprints were still all around my car, but the deer head was gone. All that remained was a large spot of blood on my driver’s side seat. I think once my dad saw that, he started to believe me. The deer corpse was also gone. All that remained were drag marks in the snow.
The tow truck finally showed up and he towed my car. My dad asked me if I wanted to call the police, but honestly, I just didn’t have the energy to file a police report. I was exhausted and just wanted to go to sleep. I figured calling the police wouldn’t accomplish jack anyways.
So, that’s my story. I have no idea who was in the woods that night and what they wanted. Maybe they were just trying to scare me. Or maybe they had worse intentions.
These three harrowing accounts serve as a stark reminder that sometimes the most terrifying moments happen when the world is draped in the false tranquility of the holiday season. The vast, secluded woods, the deceptive simplicity of a text message, and the dark, snow-covered roads all provided the perfect backdrop for fear to take root.
Would you like me to find some information on self-defense options for individuals with hearing disabilities, based on the first story?
