Charles Dickens used to put ghost stories into Christmas editions of his magazine "Household words" and as separate stories-within-stories in his Christmas books. I'm unsure as to whether he started that tradition or whether he continued an existing tradition. However, I think it's true that the "traditional" Victorian Christmas as we see it on cards, for example - the snow, holly, coaches, robins, fir trees, lamplit windows, ladies & gents strolling through snowscapes - is very much a product of Dickens' influence.