His autobiographical sketch describes a Christmas tree through his own boyhood remembrances. He gives many detailed descriptions of its ornamentations, smell, and nostalgic meaning. He exclaims, “oh, now all common things become uncommon and enchanted to me. All lamps are wonderful; all rings are talismans” (291). Dickens sees Christmas as a magical and nostalgic holiday; a holiday celebrated by all. For the other articles published in the issue, Dickens recruited contributors to describe experiences of Christmas in British colonies like India and Australia:  exotic locations where magical things happen.

For Dickens, Christmas is not only a magical holiday, but also a community holiday where family and friends gather and share. He declares, “and I do come home at Christmas. We all do, or we all should” (292). The return to family and one’s roots seems to be a theme that echoes throughout Dickens' Christmas tales and echoed in future Christmas numbers. Describing this time with family he recalls, “there is probably a smell of roasted chestnuts and other good comfortable things all the time, for we are telling Winter stories – Ghost stories, or more shame for us – round the Christmas fire” (293). This theme of telling stories around the fire, especially ghost stories, resonates throughout the Christmas numbers.

After this first experiment in dedicating a weekly issue to Christmas, Dickens endeavored to separate the issue from the weekly.  Each of the following years, Household Words published a special “Christmas Number.” The first of these appeared in 1851, for 2 pence, and was around 35 pages long. Owing to its success, in 1852, the price was raised to 3 pence where it remained until the termination of Household Words. According to the Dictionary of Nineteenth Century Journalism, a regular weekly circulation of Household Words ranged around 40,000 copies. However, the Christmas Issues sold 100,000 copies or more and provided the additional advantage of increasing circulation of the weekly publication every spring.

Such a tradition would not be complete without a ghost story, provided in the 1852 issue by Elizabeth Gaskell. Before reading Gaskell’s story, in a letter to Wills, Dickens observes, “it is long” (93). It certainly is the longest addition to the Christmas issue, but an addition that Dickens felt worthy of entry, with some hesitation. The “Old Nurse’s Story” revolves around a nurse being left in charge of a baby after its mother dies. The nurse and the baby relocate to a wealthy relative of the baby, in a brooding, dark, and mysterious mansion. The mansion contains many objects, which raise the sensationalist spectacle of the story, “we could manage to see old China jars and carved ivory boxes, and great heavy books, and, above all, the old pictures!” (13). The objects described seem to be oriental and magical. Old pictures often dredge up memories of the dead, literally as proves to be the case in this story. Making reference to the time of year where the dead are thought to rise, the nurse notes, “as winter drew on, and the days grew shorter, I was sometimes almost certain that I heard a noise as if some one was playing on the great organ in the hall” (14). Although her companions balked at her reports of mysterious music, her premonitions of hauntings prove a reality, for everyone in the home. The hauntings seem to be, as with Dickens' hauntings, a philosophical reminder of the bad deeds of the past. Gaskell’s story remains one of the best examples of a Gothic ghost story. However, upon his initial reading, Dickens felt the ending could have been edited to better effect. In a letter to Gaskell on December 1, 1852, he writes “I send to you the proof of ‘The Old Nurse’s Story,’ with my proposed alteration. I shall be glad to know whether you approve of it" (340).  Gaskell heartily rejected his proposal for the ending, which eliminated the ability of everyone to see the specters, limiting their view to only the nurse and the child. This ending would seem more reminiscent of Dickens' own ghosts, being only viewable to the character who needs to see them. As he confirms in his letter to Gaskell’s rejection, “I don’t claim for my ending of ‘The Nurse’s Story’ that it would have made it a bit better. All I can urge in its behalf is, that it is what I should have done myself. But there is no doubt of the story being admirable as it stands…(342))”.  It was published in the Christmas number as it stood, allowing Gaskell’s contribution to the Gothic horror to be truly her own.