Scary stories come in all shapes and sizes to be shared around the campfire. One of my favorites is the Short Scary Story with a Funny Ending - I tell it way too often, pretty much whenever I'm with a new group of campers. The Purple Gorilla tale is one of the most popular campfire stories among the youth that I normally camp with and it gets told over and over. That's what you need to be prepared for, a good story will be requested practically every time. You'll get tired of telling it before the campers get tired of hearing it. Finding just the right scary stories to tell for a particular group can be tricky. You don't want them too scary but not too tame either. It's a good idea to have a selection memorized so you always have a couple ready that the group hasn't heard. If you have a long camp with a few evening campfires, you can tell campfire stories of a theme, such as the Medicrin.

One of the challenges with telling a great scary story is that you'll always be asked (and expected) to tell more. Be sure to encourage others to share their tales also so it doesn't become a one-man show entertaining the masses. A campfire should be a time when many different people contribute, kind of like a potluck. Of course, some of the campfire stories won't be so godd, but the different story tellers are what make it fun. Rehearsing your story a few times and having the words memorized is key because the story is really in the telling and the animation you bring to it. I hope you enjoy sharing these scary stories and please send me your favorite to share if it is not listed here yet.