K.A.C. 2013 - T - 18 ...

     Yep, this little charmer is part of Christmas, too! Each year I find some new mythological horror from the Krampus Files to bring to light. This year we go to the land of Greece, where you will find the Kallikantzaros (also known as the kallikantzeri) - malevolent goblins who step up the whole mischief game during this time of year. Hey, anybody can run off with bad children (right, Krampus?) - these bad boys play for keeps! Let's have artist Christos describe the hellion he painted (and grew up with) at left:

     "When I was a little child, my grandmother used to tell me stories about some creatures that appear in our world from time to time. The legends and the beliefs of every place always have a dark and mysterious tale to narrate. The curiosity for every eerie thing made me feel that I craved for such stories, even though, to be honest, I was afraid of them :D . In Greece there are certain beliefs about some creatures that appear in our world on Christmas day and live among us for the next twelve days. These creatures are called Kallikantzaroi(goblins). It is said that at the rest of the year the Kallikantzaroi live under the surface of the earth and try to cut the big tree that holds it, in order to fall down. With axes made of wood and stone the Kallikantzaroi hew the tree that holds the earth, but before they cut it, Christmas arrives and they forget their task so they ascend on the earth, in order to peeve the humans and do various mischievous things by sneaking in their houses through the chimneys. The Kallikantzaroi are creatures of the night and during the day they hide from the sun, because they fear it. When the twelfth day arrives, January 6th(Epiphany), the Kallikantzaroi return to their subterranean location, but in the meantime the tree has become the way it was before, so they have to cut it again from the start."

     You can find more of Christos' fine art here: http://christos62.rssing.com/chan-4639699/all_p1.html

     Should you be unfortunate enough to have an outbreak of Kallikantzaroi in your house this holiday season, don't worry - we've got that covered, as well! Here (from the 1950 Ideals Christmas issue) is how to get rid of them:

     "The peasants call upon the priest to make them disappear until next year. A cross, entwined with sprigs of basil, is dipped into a copper vessel of Holy Water, and then each room of the house is sprinkled. 

     To further assure that those mysterious beings will not appear, old leather shoes, saved throughout the year, are burned, and the odor is believed to chase away the mischief-makers."

     And your friends, relatives, mailmen ... the list goes on and on!

     Our goblin friend is also the cause for delayed gift-giving, just one of the odder traditions around the world:
  
     "Christmas traditions vary from culture to culture. Finns often visit saunas on Christmas Eve, while Portuguese revelers hold a feast on Christmas Day for the living and the dead (extra places are set for the souls of the deceased). In Greece, some believe that goblins called kallikantzeri run wild during the 12 days of Christmas, and most Greeks don't exchange presents until Jan. 1, St. Basil's Day. Thanks to their geographic location, most Australians and New Zealanders enjoy Christmas on the beach or at barbecues. Spain, meanwhile, hosts the world's largest lottery." (Courtesy Time Lists)

     Which leads us directly to our next topic tomorrow - check back then!

K.A.C. 2013 - T - 19 ...

     Now THIS is more like it! The pic at left has everything you would want in a Christmas photo - beautiful girls, wooly sheep and gigantic camels! Ummm .... 

     Bear with me, we're getting to it. This actually IS a Christmas tradition, believe it or not. If you live in New York City or have visited there during the holidays, you may have seen the Rockettes Christmas Spectacular at the Radio City Music Hall. But here's what you DON'T know about it:

     "Since the Great Depression, the Rockettes have shared Radio City Music Hall with live farm animals — from camels to donkeys to sheep — to stage a live nativity scene for its annual "Christmas Spectacular." But the world saw its first living nativity in 1224, when St. Francis of Assisi re-created the birth of Jesus to explain the holiday to his followers. During that first display, the manger was also used as an altar for Christmas Mass." (Courtesy Time Lists)

    
Speaking of nativity scenes leads us to our main point of today's article - the Christmas Star or Star of Bethlehem, as it is more commonly known. I had an idea for this column regarding the Star (which led me to do more research on it) and came up with some fascinating facts. For example: 

     - The Star is only mentioned in one of the four Gospels (Matthew, in case you're curious).  

     - There have been a number of books and scientific theories floated as to what the Star may have been. They range from comets to novas to (the most likely) a rare conjunction of planets. However even here you hit a snag, as scholars have long debated the actual birth date of Jesus. December 25th is the commonly celebrated date, but there is an ongoing debate that Jesus was actually born in the Spring and the December 25th date was used by early Christians to replace the Roman festival of Saturnalia. 

     - If none of the scientific reasons work, many turn to the religious, with theories ranging from the Seventh-day Adventist, who say it wasn't a Star at all, but a "distant company of shining angels" to the Mormons who believe the Star was seen that night not just in Bethlehem, but completely around the world at the same time (think on that one for a while) to the most wild theory of all (courtesy of the Jehovah's Witnesses) that the "Star of Bethlehem is seen as a product of Satan, rather than a sign from God, since the star led the astrologers to Jerusalem where they met King Herod's plan to kill Jesus." (Awake! July 8, 1994, pp.6-7 / www.watchtower.org)

        
     Which (finally!) brings us back to what prompted all this to begin with. In November 1951, Arthur C. Clarke published his short story The Star (cover seen at left). I read it in a science fiction anthology paperback in the summer of 1973 and never forgot it. I could put up a file of the story itself, but found something even better - an audio recording of the story - take a listen!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ecTy12XpX58

     The story was anthologized a number of times in different collections and on December 20th, 1985, it was dramatized on the remake of THE TWILIGHT ZONE. To read about the making of it (and see the actual episode), direct your attention to the Regulus Star Notes site below:

http://regulus-starnotes.blogspot.com/2011/12/star-or-arthur-c-clarke-meets-new.html

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     That's it for today ... join us tomorrow for more fun!    

K.A.C. 2013 - T - 20 ...

     Today we celebrate our K.A.C. mascot, KRAMPUS! Why? Because all over Europe, today (December 5th) is the Eve of Saint Nicholas, also known as Krampus Night or Krampusnacht. He was the star of our very first entry on November 12th, 2009, and has been haunting these pages ever since! His tale has been told and re-told across the Continent and slowly but surely he has made his presence known here in America. This year the Big K. has come on with a vengeance - check out this recent article from The Atlantic (with GREAT pictures)!

http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2013/12/krampus-saint-nicholas-dark-companion/100639/

     

      The busy one has been stuffing naughty children into his sack for a LONG time - how long exactly? Per Wikipedia: 
     

“The history of the Krampus figure stretches back to pre-Christian Germanic traditions. He is sometimes said to be the son of Hel, from Norse mythology. He also shares characteristics, including goat-like ears, legs, feet and feet, with the satyrs and fauns of Greek mythology. The early Catholic Church discouraged celebrations based around the wild goat-like creatures, and during the Inquisition efforts were made to stamp them out.

But Krampus figures persisted, and by the 17th century Krampus had been incorporated into Christian winter celebrations by pairing them with St. Nicholas.

Countries of the former Habsburg empire have largely borrowed the tradition of Krampus accompanying St.Nicholas on 5 December from Austria. However, in the Czech Republic and Slovakia the mythological figure (called čert) evolved from the Slavic demon chort and although nearly the same in appearance, it comes from a tradition distinct from that of Alpine nations.”

     

      And just to show HOW popular he is becoming in America, our favorite stocking (well, sack) stuffer is now available on ... appropriately enough, this great stocking! :) It's available from Archie McPhee at http://mcphee.com/shop/krampus-stocking.html for only $12.00!  That should keep the kiddies in their place! :) Also, there's one more Krampus item that is so amazing, we are giving it its own space in a later article ... bear with us, it's worth the wait! 

     Now I know what you're thinking, "Yeah, yeah, so there's a stocking and an article - Big Deal! It's not like American kids have ever really heard of him!" Wrong again! Most kids do know about him, as he has worked his way into different comics, books and TV shows (such as The Colbert Report, The Venture Brothers, American Dad and Scooby Doo)! Here's a clip from that:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SKAM8u_GfFA

     We'll leave you today with this audio tidbit: Tales of the Krampus ... listen and learn!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zpT4vvz2fTM  

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     More tomorrow!

K.A.C. 2013 - T - 21 ...

     Every year we here at the K.A.C. cover the annual showing of the most bizarre Christmas trees to make the rounds - and this year is no exception! Before we get to that, however, here is today's trivia bit that answers HOW these piney protagonists got their start as our holiday centerpieces:

      "Even before the arrival of Christianity, Germans decorated evergreen trees to brighten the dark, gloomy days of the winter solstice. The first "Christmas trees" appeared in Strasbourg in the 17th century and spread to Pennsylvania in the 1820s with the arrival of German immigrants. When Queen Victoria married Germany's Prince Albert in 1840, he brought the tradition to England. Eight years later, the first American newspaper ran a picture of the royal Christmas tree, and Americans outside Pennsylvania quickly followed suit." (Courtesy Time Lists)

     The picture at left is that of "the Queen's Christmas Tree", with a few changes. As Wikipedia points out: 


     "A woodcut of the British Royal family with their Christmas tree at Windsor Castle, initially published in The Illustrated London News December 1848, was copied in the United States at Christmas 1850, in Godey's Lady's Book. Godey's copied it exactly, except for the removal of the Queen's tiara and Prince Albert's moustache, to remake the engraving into an American scene. The republished Godey's image became the first widely circulated picture of a decorated evergreen Christmas tree in America. Art historian Karal Ann Marling called Prince Albert and Queen Victoria, shorn of their royal trappings, "the first influential American Christmas tree"^. Folk-culture historian Alfred Lewis Shoemaker states, "In all of America there was no more important medium in spreading the Christmas tree in the decade 1850–60 than Godey's Lady's Book". The image was reprinted in 1860, and by the 1870s, putting up a Christmas tree had become common in America."

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    Fast forward to today and if you can stack it, you can turn it into a Christmas tree (of sorts). Case in point? This stuffed salamander tree at the Kyoto Aquarium in Japan. Just start with the larger ones at the bottom and circle around to the top with the smaller ones - voila!


     Perhaps you're more of a DIY type of person. Then these 26 Alternative Christmas Tree Ideas might be more up your alley, with everything from the Upcycled Pallet Tree to the HDTV Tree, there's something here for every budget. Word to the wise: be careful putting too many lights on the Cardboard Tannenbaum! 

http://www.trendhunter.com/slideshow/alternative-christmas-tree-ideas 

    

Finally, my vote for most novel tree of the year goes to the Eco Christmas Tree out of London. Looks like any other tree, right? Until you glance to the right ... what are those? A new type of Dalek? Nope, they are what powers the LED lights on the tree itself ... Brussells Sprouts! 1000, to be exact. Read about the whole experiment here!

http://www.trendhunter.com/trends/eco-christmas-tree

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     More tomorrow!

K.A.C. 2013 - T - 22 ...

     Hop aboard the Reindeer Express! Continuing our thread from yesterday regarding Santa and his sleigh, today's trivia concerns that red-nosed rascal Rudolph! Everybody knows the Gene Autry song by heart (and if you don't, just turn on the radio and wait a few minutes - it is played ALL THE TIME during the Christmas season!), but do you know how the red-nosed rangifer tarandus originally came to be? Would you believe as a store ad? Sad, but true, as the following item from Time Lists tells us: 

     "Like the Energizer Bunny, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer got his start as an advertising gimmick. A copywriter named Robert L. May first created the merry misfit in 1939 to lure shoppers into the Montgomery Ward department store. Frosty the Snowman and his famous corncob pipe couldn't escape the clutches of the advertising industry either; a whiskeymaker in 1890 used Frosty's likeness to showcase an entirely different kind of holiday cheer. Once Prohibition ended, the chain-smoking snowman quickly became the go-to guy for alcohol ads, appearing in posters for Miller beer, Jack Daniel's, Ballantine ale, Rheingold beer, Schlitz beer, Schenley, Oretel's lager beer, Chivas Regal scotch, Fort Pitt pale ale, Mount Whitney beer and Four Roses."

     Did you also know there were not one, but two sequels to Rudolph's story? In 1947, Robert May wrote Rudolph's Second Christmas, which went unpublished until 1991 when it appeared with the name change of Rudolph To the Rescue. In 1954, May wrote (and had published) Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer Shines Again.

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And speaking of the Red-Nosed One, we once again turn to our friends at How Stuff Works to explain exactly HOW this whole 'glowing nose' effect is pulled off ... and WHY Rudy is the only one who has it!
Check it out!

http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/family/rudolph-red-nose-reindeer1.htm

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     Join us again tomorrow as we explore another first, the earliest Christmas tree (along with some current photos of modern trees where people should have left well enough alone)!

K.A.C. 2013 - T - 23 ...

    

     Welcome back! Let me give you a behind the scenes look at how some of these K.A.C. entries come about. I always start with the idea of highlighting some aspect of Christmas or the season and begin to research it to find some interesting tidbit about it. Today my mind turned to Santa's sleigh. Now (kinky reindeer aside) I had always thought that Santa and his sleigh went together like PB & J, bread and butter, Krampus and bad children ... well, you get the idea. Turns out that was not always the case!

     I figured after so many repetitions of Clement Moore's 1823 poem 'Twas the Night Before Christmas (or to give it it's proper name A Visit From St. Nicholas) that this is where the whole "Santa and his sleigh" came from - not so! It came from a source even older than the poem (and from a friend of Moore's), writer Washington Irving. As Time Lists explains:

     "The author best known for creating the Headless Horseman also created the iconic image of Santa flying in a sleigh. In his 1819 series of short stories The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, New York native Washington Irving described a dream in which St. Nicholas soared across the sky in a weightless wagon. The stories became so popular, they spawned a Christmas revival of sorts in the States, and even Charles Dickens is said to have credited Irving's work for inspiring his classic holiday tale A Christmas Carol."

     So now you know ... and now I'M sitting here thinking of how with one jot of his pen, we could have wound up with the 'Headless Santa' instead! :)

     ************************

    

But what about the sleigh itself? Surely there's been some improvements made to it in almost 200 years? Funny you should ask! The good folks at How Stuff Works has the answer for you ... Santa's done a LOT of upgrading over the years and they break down for you just how he does his magic on Christmas Eve (hint: think Antimatter Propulsion Units and Nanotechnology) - go see! 


    http://people.howstuffworks.com/culture-traditions/holidays/santas-sleigh1.htm 

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     We'll continue this topic with a look at what happens should his souped-up sleigh break down - Plan B: The Reindeer!  Join us tomorrow!

     

Welcome to the Kitschmas Advent Calendar 2013 !!! T - 24 Days ... and Counting !!!

     Hello again, boys and girls, and welcome to the 2013 edition of the K.A.C. !!! For those of you new to all this, see my Conjure Cinema entry from November 11th, 2011 (to see what you're about to get yourself into). For the rest of you, our annual Christmas Countdown begins today! 

     What with all the economic cutbacks each year, we here at the K.A.C. were forced to let most of our helpers go and only kept our two BEST workers (pictured at left) - they have consistently shown the standards of taste and quality (note I did not use the word "good" in that sentence) that you have come to expect from us year after year! Here is a nice candid shot of the boys perusing the piles of junk ... er, "quality material" ... to keep you amused until the Big Day! 

     We're starting on December 1st this year (yes, I'm well aware the K.A.C. has gotten shorter over time) because I'm usually swamped with everything going on at this time of year and I thought it would be more appropriate to get our calendar in line with traditional advent calendars (which start on this date). So tell your friends, tell your family, tell your neighbors - the K.A.C. is underway for another year! Let's open up our first door and see what today's "gift" is, shall we?

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           Why not get an early start on sending out your Christmas cards AND horrify everyone you know by sending them the 'American Christmas Devil' card? Complete with an amazing anatomical breakdown including "fat man face", "stomach prince" and (my personal favorite) "celebration bowels" (click on the card to see it in ALL its glory). The whole story behind these crazy kaiju Christmas cards (and how to order them) can be found at the Paper Pushers
site below:

http://www.bradmcginty.com/?p=1366 

     Remember: Are Your Greetings Seasoned?

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     I thought I'd do something different with the K.A.C. entries this year and have a bit of Christmas trivia every day. Growing up in Boston, I have fond memories of going downtown once a year to see the amazing animatronic holiday window displays in the Jordan Marsh and Filenes department stores. From there it was time to walk through The Enchanted Village and then off to see The American Christmas Dev ... er, Santa Claus. I thought as a kid that Boston was the heart of Christmas celebrations and that it had always been like that in my hometown ... far from it, according to this snippet from Time Lists:

     
     "From 1659 to 1681, showcasing one's holiday spirit in Boston could cost you a fine of as much as five shillings. That's right — Christmas used to be illegal. It's somewhat surprising, then, that the same puritanical minds also created the first American batch of eggnog at Captain John Smith's 1607 Jamestown settlement. (The word nog comes from the word grog; that is, any drink made with rum.) Christmas was so inconsequential in early America that after the Revolutionary War, Congress didn't even bother taking the day off to celebrate the holiday, deciding instead to hold its first session on Christmas Day, 1789. It took almost a century for Congress to proclaim it a federal holiday."

     For more on this topic, read the short article "When Americans Banned Christmas" here: 

      http://theweek.com/article/index/222676/when-americans-banned-christmas

     Well, THAT ended on a rather cheery note, what? I promise to do better as the countdown continues - so join me again tomorrow and every day through the month of December as the K.A.C. snowball rolls out of control!