Darkest Christmas: December 1942 and a world at war

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They know from my demeanour what I’m gonna tell them. I tell them and they dissolve in tears, “no it can’t be true” they say, like they always do. “I’m so sorry, there was nothing we could do, he didn’t suffer”. I look at my watch, 8.55pm. How long is this going to take, I’m late for my hot date. So it’s a joy for those of us who like a bit of pagan magic with our mince pies to see two examples enjoying a revival, on stage and through the power of social media. Le Père Fouettard means “The Whipping Father,” and you can probably guess what he does. This French/Belgian character accompanies Saint Nicholas, whipping the children who weren’t nice. Released as just a song before it was a hit TV special, Frosty the Snowman has become a beloved Christmas character. Unfortunately, Frosty the Snowman comes along with the idea that Snowmen are actually alive, and children still have to watch them all melt every spring.

Bizarre Christmas Traditions - Factinate Disturbing Facts About Bizarre Christmas Traditions - Factinate

As if they Yule Lads weren’t creepy enough, Icelanders also tell children about their horrifying mother Grýla. She’s a hoofed half-ogre, half-troll who’s covered in warts and has large, terrifying horns. She gets her children to snatch bad boys and girls from their homes at Christmas so she can cook and eat them. This story was so terrifying to Icelandic children that the government eventually had to ban using the story of Grýla and the Yule Lads as an intimidation tactic to make children behave.

Just as my psychiatric career was born out of the toughest time in my life, my football club have come from seemingly hopeless despair to be the richest club in the world sitting 3rd in the premier league this Christmas. Just as my emotional life seemed washed up on Christmas Eve 1986, the darkest hour was just before the dawn. I’ve been married to my hot date for 32 years. SantaCon’s reputation might not be sparkling, but it was enough to inspire people in Philadelphia to start their own annual Santa pub crawl: The Running of the Santas. And just like SantaCon, it involves thousands of Santas getting together, getting drunk and wreaking havoc across the city. On the bright side, the Running of the Santas raises money for several local charities. We kept the card and a carbon paper copy (younger readers ask grandad) went to the GP, and we gave a copy to the patient. To this day, next to people who dress as Santa, you can find others dressed as Le Père Fouettard, complete with the whip, threatening French and Belgian children.

Dark Christmas: Seven seasonal monsters from myth and legend

Sources: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 32, 33, 34, 35, 36, 37, 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46 The family arrive in A&E and are shown to the “crying room”. It’s my job to tell the family that Daddy won’t be home for Christmas. Nativity scenes seem like a pretty standard Christmas tradition, but in Catalonia they’re a little… different. Specifically, they feature a character called a caganer. There’s no good way to say this: caganer means “defecator,” and in the scenes they’re squatting, with their pants down, with a pile of poop on the ground beneath them. Seriously. At the same time, Christmas 1942 saw the injunction of 'good will to man' distorted in ugly and callous ways. At Auschwitz, SS guards played cruel games with their prisoners. In Berlin, the German heart of darkness, Propaganda Minister Joseph Goebbels spent time with his family while still buried in feverish fantasies about the Jewish world conspiracy. I understand how hard it is for NHS staff this Christmas. We have 3 kids and 2 of them are junior doctors on the front line. Their workloads are overwhelming, and I can see them developing the character-armour and detachment from people required to survive.

7. A Whipping Good Christmas

There are some positives in contrast to 1986; my recent blood results from the DGH were available on screen to my GP and not held up by the postal strike, my CT scan appointment at the cancer centre was confirmed by text and again the results will be on my care record in near real time. Probably the newest tradition on this list, Elf on the Shelf is based on a children’s book published in 2005. This small elf doll appears in different places in the house, spying on events and making sure children are good. The elf never moves if children are watching it, and if it’s ever touched, its magic will disappear forever. For many, this is a fun new Christmas delight, but you can’t deny there’s something creepy about the elf’s motionless eyes staring at you from all over the house. Eartha Kitt made the song “Santa Baby” famous in 1953, and it’s still a Christmas classic today. But if you take a closer look at the lyrics, the weird mixture of children’s traditions and the sexualization of Santa is more unsettling than charming. Did you think that the Yule Cat sits on your lap as you open gifts, playing with the wrapping paper and contributing to the overall atmosphere of cozy Christmas hygge? Wrong. The Yule Cat is terrifying.