A renowned French short story of 1875, “Les trois basses messes” by Alphonse Daudet (1840-97), supposedly based on a Provençal folk tale. The seventeenth-century priest Dom Balaguère is so greedy for his Christmas réveillon feast of truffled turkeys, pheasant, peacock, eel, trout and wine that he falls prey to the tempting of the Devil and rushes through his performance of the required three masses. God then decrees that the priest shall not enter heaven until he has celebrated 300 Christmas masses in his chapel where for centuries his ghost haunts the altar.
An elegant reading of the story can be found by clicking on this link.
That story was delightful and Andy Minter’s reading was superb. (He’s read some books by Trollope on Libravox, and he’s always worth listening to!)
I included the tale in my collection of the world’s greatest Christmas stories.