Hello again, Story Club members.

I'm Ivy, your ghostly host with the most and keeper of the strangest,

spookiest tales on earth.

Today is another Ivy's chilling tale, but it's not any ordinary tale.

This story comes to us from one of our listeners in Australia named Harriet,

and it's called The Haunted Nutcrackers.

Oh, the holiday season, a wonderful time of year,

full of merriment, joy, family gatherings, feasts, happiness,

coziness, and of general good cheer. But in this household, it was also a time of fear and terror,

for something terrible was going to happen. But we'll get to that later. For now, things were joyous

and fun. The house was decorated with twinkling lights. The aroma of gingerbread filled the halls. It was such a light and happy time. Harriet loved it all so much. Christmas was truly her favorite time of the year. In fact, it was everyone's favorite holiday, even Harriet's poodles, Penny and

Chester, and her cockatiel feathers. Feathers could even trip out the tune of jingle bells.

But this Christmas was different, because Harriet's aunt had decided to bring two new items

into the family home. She had been gifted to very ornate, very ancient-looking nutcracker dolls from an old

family friend. The nutcrackers were a bit worn. Their once bright uniforms now faded and shipped,

but they had a certain charm that Harriet found enchanting. Her mother carefully arranged them

along the mantelpiece, their wooden faces frozen and eternal stern expressions.

One was for Harriet, and the other was for her baby sister Violet.

Now, on that night, the night before Christmas, as the house settled into silence and everyone went to bed,

Harriet had trouble falling asleep.

Her excitement for Christmas and curiosity about the new Nutcracker dolls kept her wide awake.

It took hours, but she finally drifted off, dreaming of sugarplum fairies and the Christmas ham

...