Holiday Spirits at Ghostlight Ensemble

During the long nights of midwinter, join Ghostlight Ensemble and the Driehaus Museum once again by the fireplace(s) as we return to the Victorian tradition of telling ghost stories at Yuletide.

If you missed last year’s one-night event, Holiday Spirits: A collection of Victorian Yuletide Ghost Stories returns to the Driehaus Museum this holiday season for two performances.

Adapted by Ensemble member Maria Burnham, Holiday Spirits is a multi-story and multi-storied immersive, site-specific adaptations of classic Victorian ghost stories. Three distinct stories will unfold throughout the museum. Limited seating will be provided but audiences should be prepared to move with the actors as they uncover these otherworldly visitors.

During the Victorian era, newspaper and magazine publishers printed ghost stories during the Christmas season for chilling reading by the warming fireplace. The most famous example of such tales is A Christmas Carol, but Charles Dickens did not invent the Victorian Christmas ghost tradition — he was just the one to recognize its potential for commercial success.

Join us this winter by the fireplaces of the Driehaus Museum's Nickerson Mansion, completed in 1883, as we meet the holiday spirits of Christmases past.

The show takes place at 6 p.m. on December 11 & 12, 2025 at The Driehaus Museum (40 East Erie St., Chicago, IL 60611).