For our last post of the year – a curated list of previous articles on the Secret Library Leeds about all things Winter and Christmas. Plenty of reading material here to get you through the next two weeks! We shall return with our regular programming in the first week of January. Season’s greetings to all our readers!

Secret Library Advent Calendar
One article per day, December 1 – December 24, all based on our Library collections, and all celebrating the magic of Christmas and the holiday season

The Ghost Stories of Lord Halifax
Spooky stories collected by Charles Lindley Wood, the 2nd Viscount Halifax and an avid collector of ‘true’ ghost stories

Have Yourself A Merry Library Christmas
In which we shared a very special Christmas Carol from the Local and Family History Department

An Armley Ghost Story for Christmas
Self-explanatory…read it if you dare!

Christmas and New Year in the Territorial Hospitals, 1917
How wounded soldiers spent the festive season in Leeds

Chicks, cigars and wine-drinking toddlers: A Victorian Christmas
Tales from the ‘Victorian Scrapbook’ held in our Art Library

Christmas books
Some suggestions from our Central Library stock. Might help answer some furious arguments around the Christmas dinner table

The Dancing Phantoms
More Christmas ghost stories…this time from Potternewton

New Year, Old Leeds
An extremely brief snapshot of the New Year period through the last century in Leeds, culled from our Leodis archive of historical Leeds photos

The First Leeds Panto?
When was it – and what was it?

Tales from Leeds Pantomimes
Further anecdotal history from the rich history of pantomime in Leeds

‘Xmas at the Libraries’
Festive performances by Leeds Libraries in years gone by

Chilling Memories
A look back at some of the Leeds’ cruellest winters

‘O Come All Ye Faithful’: Leeds Catholics in the Central Library Collections
An article which begins by exploring the Leeds connections of John Francis Wade, composer of ‘O Come All Ye Faithful’

Slightly Spooky
Real-life tales of haunted houses!