If your Ouija board spells out C-H-R-I-S-T-M-A-S, you must have asked the question, “What holiday has replaced Halloween as the one with the most sales of Ouija boards?” It’s true – Google reports that sales of the board are up 300 per cent this year and supplies may be sold out before December 25th.

The sales jump is due primarily to the popularity of the recent horror film, “Ouija.” Regardless of the cause of this increase in demand for the most popular scary board game (at least until someone invents “Spooks and Adders” – Kickstarter project anyone?), it’s scaring exorcists, paranormal investigators, religious leaders and probably Santa’s elves too. Peter Irwin-Clark, a Church of England vicar, warns parents to cross Ouija boards off of their children’s wish list.

It’s like opening a shutter in one’s soul and letting in the supernatural. There are spiritual realities out there and they can be very negative.

Paranormal investigator Darren Ansell says he “wouldn’t touch an Ouija board with a barge pole” because of experiences like this:

I’ve witnessed tables walking down the hall on their own with just fingertips touching them.

Someone who looks like Santa and doesn’t believe Ouija boards have any supernatural powers or links to the underworld is James “The Amazing” Randi, who attributes its popularity to the ideomotor effect. In his tests, Randi blindfolded Ouija users and they spelled out nothing but gibberish. Randi’s “Million Dollar Challenge” remained unrewarded – now THAT would be a nice Christmas gift.

Randi Claus

What do you think? A Ouija board under a Christmas tree with an angel on top and a Nativity scene underneath is pretty creepy, sacrilegious to some and definitely an oxymoron, but is it evil or dangerous to people (not to mention the tree)? Amazon, which delivers most of them (to the relief of Rudolph), and Hasbro, which is the largest manufacturer of the boards, don’t seem to be afraid. Neither do their stockholders. Perhaps that is the real evil.