Yule Monsters and Good Saint Nick

It’s that time of year when you might spy Santa’s sleigh sailing through the air. But are there any darker spirits afoot? Tonight we’ll discuss the legend of Krampus, the Yuletide evil man-beast who comes to punish the wicked. Along the way, we’ll also look at Santa’s origins in St. Nicholas of Myra.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
It's that time of year when you might spy, Santa's
sleigh, sailing through the air,but are there any darker
spirits, a foot tonight we'lldiscuss the legend of Krampus,
the Yuletide evil man beast whocomes to punish the wicked along
the way.
We'll also look at SANAS originsand St.
Nicholas of Myra.

Speaker 2 (00:23):
Hey there, Jen.
Jen, how are you?
I'm actually doing really well.
How about you?
I'm doing great.
It's Wednesday.
Yes, it is.

Speaker 1 (00:29):
It is.
And it feels like this week isgoing really fast and that means
we only have what, two and ahalf more weeks until our winter
break.
I can hardly wait.
Yeah.
What are you going to do?
What are you going to do on yourbreak?
I don't have any plans otherthan just staying home and
relaxing pretty much what we'veall been doing, but that'll be
really nice.
I don't, I don't have any planseither, but Mardi thinking

(00:51):
about, you know, what we'll doon Christmas Eve and Christmas
day, mainly thinking about whatkind of food I'm going to make.
I'm looking forward to ourfriends, giving that we've
decided we're going to have, andin July, that will be amazing.
Do you think we'll be able toget together by then?
I think so.
Yeah.
We're hopefully going to bevaccinated by then.
So it's going to feel so good tolike, just all be together.
Like to have friends in thehouse again will just be the

(01:13):
best feeling.
Um, December is a good month.
I just wish we would get somesnow.
I would love a good three feetof snow, but speaking of snow
and a movie, um, I watchedKrampus for the second time this
weekend and I love the snow inthat movie.
I mean, it's, it's the otherkind of thing where it's almost
suffocating the wholeneighborhood.
There's so much snow and it's sowintry, but it looks like heaven

(01:34):
to me.
I watched the two last weekend.
Did you?
I watched the woman's ToniCollette and that's the one I
watched and the guy who was fromparks and rec who played Ben?
Yeah, I liked him.
I think he's really cute.
I'm excited because we aregetting our Christmas tree
tomorrow night.
I can't wait.
You're getting a fresh one,right?
We are.
We are.

(01:54):
Um, I know you think that Ishould take my husband to a
place where he can chop it downand feel really mad,

Speaker 2 (02:00):
But I don't, I don't know where that is

Speaker 1 (02:01):
Around here.
So we're just going to go wherewe always go to this nursery
that has, you know, they havereally nice trees and they're
really nice there.
And, um, so we're going to pickit out and I think we're going
early enough that we will have areally good selection.
So I want to get a really bigone this year, just because
everything else sucks when aswe'll have like this big
gorgeous tree.
So I guess we should talk aboutwhat we're drinking.
And I have to say, I have like,literally have like one sip left

(02:24):
in my glass.
It's really sad.
Um, because it's maybe the bestdrink that I've made in a long
time.
Can I tell you what it isplease?
So it's a peppermint Patty,which is one of my favorite
candies, by the way.
I love do you, you don't likemint.
I don't think I would like it ina drink.
Well, I never thought I was afan of sweet desserty drinks,
but so this is a peppermintPatty martini, and it has equal

(02:46):
parts of Godiva, chocolateliquor, some creme de mint.
And then the other part that youput in is half and half so equal
parts of that, shake it with iceand a cocktail strainer and just
pour it into your glass.
And I garnished it a little tinywedge of peppermint patties.

Speaker 3 (03:01):
It was so it's so delicious and it's super
Christmas-y.
What was the first ingredient?

Speaker 1 (03:06):
Um, the Godiva liqour the chocolate liquor.
Um, it's really, really good.
I think you could really getdrunk on these without realizing
what you were doing

Speaker 3 (03:14):
After your, your, you had several undrinkable drinks,
right?
Or a couple undrinkable drinks.
I E yeah, I had one that wasjust awful.
It was,

Speaker 1 (03:23):
I hate a lot of money.
Like I spent$75 at the liquorstore for the ingredients and I
make it and I can't even drinkit.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (03:29):
The worst drink that I made was unfortunately, it's
my favorite drink right up therewith a French 75.
I love my ties.
You do love though.
When I made it, the ingredientsstarted to separate from each
other.
Wasn't it kind of like abrownish color too.
I am.
I had to write down myingredients because there were

(03:49):
so many because you're drunkbecause I'm drunk.
I told you, you're

Speaker 1 (03:53):
The queen of making drinks with tons of ingredients.

Speaker 3 (03:56):
This has a ton in it.
And I haven't had one in a longtime.
This is the most ingredients.
I think I've made a drink with,well, what is it?
So I'm having a zombie.
It has light rum, dark rum,orange carousel, OJ, passion,
fruit.
It has lemon Grenadines andbitters.

(04:16):
Oh my God.

Speaker 1 (04:17):
That is a lot of ingredients.
Now, when you say passion,fruit, do you mean juice or like
liqour

Speaker 3 (04:21):
Ideally you would make your own passion fruit
puree, but since, I don't know,but where the hell do you buy a
passion?
Per se?
Since I don't know where the toget passion fruit, I don't order
it through Amazon.
It's infused with passion fruit,but it's basically sugar.
It's really just sugar.
Is this glossiness.
It might've been responsible forthe terrible by Thai, but Oh,

(04:43):
and then also I forgot you canfloat one 51 on top of it, which
I tried.
No.
What does that does that vodka?
It's either one 50 or one 51again, excuse me.
Cause I've I finished him as hisguns draws.
I'm drunk.
It's a high proof rum.
Oh.

Speaker 1 (05:00):
And it floats on top.
How interesting.

Speaker 3 (05:02):
Ideally it floats on top, but mine kind of partially
on top of a flop, but I tried,you should try to light it on
fire and see what, how I didn'teven think about that.
I'm going to try that.

Speaker 1 (05:16):
Well, don't really know.
Don't really do, I'm do ittonight.
I was not serious.

Speaker 3 (05:21):
I told you, I said no .

Speaker 1 (05:23):
If you do, you need to get the fire extinguisher
handy.

Speaker 3 (05:26):
For sure.
I hadn't eaten dinner tonight.
So I had to eat some crackers.
It's not serving me.
Well, let's put it that way.
You need to eat something to eatsomething.
I have, have maybe a quarter ofmy drink left, but it's diligent
.
I don't have any, and I'm.
I'm about it.
Your husband make it.
I yelled for him and he's hedidn't answer.

(05:46):
I think he went on a wonder.
Why upstairs answering youeither.

Speaker 1 (05:54):
Yeah.
So we ha we've had our drinks,at least I've I've had, you're
still working on the rest ofyour, so do you want to jump
into tonight's story?
And this is, this is our holidayepisode.
So we're going to both kind of,who's starting.
Am I starting?
Yep.
You're starting.
You're

Speaker 3 (06:09):
Talking about me.
What do you mean having too muchto

Speaker 1 (06:11):
Drink?
Oh, I thought that went rightover my head.
All right.
So tonight we're going to betalking about some Yuletide
monsters and I'm going to startout talking about Krampus.
The history of Krampus is reallyhard to pin down like his
origins.
I just wanted to throw out therethough.
My husband had started callingme Krampus, like around my peak,

(06:33):
because I'm a real, like, I'm areal joy to live with and I'm a
monster as well.
We haven't been cramped as he'sreally, he's really scary.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (06:41):
He is really scary.
And also wanted to mention too.
We're going to end on a goodnote with

Speaker 1 (06:45):
Nicola.
So yes, and I don't thinkKrampus is all bad.
I mean, I hate children Krampus.
Isn't the nicest to kids.
So I, I feel like Krampus and Iare on a good understanding.
So a lot of what I'm going to betalking about tonight is from a
book that I found calledKrampus.
It's got the longest titleKrampus in the history and lore
of the mythological figure whopunishes children during the

(07:06):
Christmas season is not thecraziest title it is.
And it doesn't have an author.
It says it's by Charles rivereditors.
It was, it was one of thosebooks that like, they print it
after you buy it.
Have you ever gotten a book likethat?
Like it's only printed onto me.
And so it'll have the date aslike the copyright date or the
printing date in it.
So I don't think it's on thebestseller list, but it was very

(07:28):
informative.
I have to say, I learned a lotabout Krampus in it.
Krampus.
He's also referred to as theChristmas devil or the demon
anti Santa, his origins are hardto determine, but he definitely
comes from Europe and probablycentral Europe, especially the
mountainous regions where thename originates.
It could be from the middleGerman word Corolla, which is

(07:48):
meaning it means claw or in thissounds a bit more likely to me,
it could be from a word calledcrampin, which is a Bavarian
word.
That means something that'swithered or lifeless.
So something, something dead.
So I thought that was cool.
Krampus might be abastardization of the Norse
goddess hella.
She also goes by hell, but I'mjust going to call her hella.
And she's the Norse goddess ofdeath.

(08:09):
And she's supposed to be theyoungest child of Loki.
Who's the God of mischief andfire.
And she's an interesting goddessbecause she has she's Chris
split in some accounts, shesplit down the middle in
another's like she split fromtop to bottom.
And when I say split, I meanthat like her upper appearance
is really beautiful.
And then her lower half isdisfigured.
Oh, I thought you meant like,like she's not in two pieces,

(08:31):
but it's just the two, the twosections of her appear very
differently.
The upper half is apparentlybeautiful.
Like she looks like a youngmaiden has flowing blonde hair
really gorgeous, but her lowerhalf, not so hot.
So she, um, she has rotting legsand they're decaying and like
worms are crawling in and out ofthem.
So pretty gross, like aroundwhat time period was, I mean,

(08:55):
this is from Norse mythology.
So that's, pre-Christian I'msure.
So hella is said to have beendisfigured by her father and how
that happened is that she waspart of this awful ritual.
And I don't know what he wastrying to do, like what he was
trying to summon up or what hewas trying to do with this
ritual.
But he took her any bound her byher limbs and half submerged her
in the water and just left herthere for days.

(09:17):
God, when low-key comes back toget her, she's basically at the
edge of death.
So he gives her this heat, tilther head back and he administers
this potion that revives her.
So she's among the living, butthere's part of her that's
forever.
Like her lower half iscompletely atrophied and Rodan.
And so she becomes kind of this,this liminal figure, this
goddess of the underworld andshe's the queen of hell Haim,

(09:40):
which is the North realm of thedead.
And it was said that she lovedto eat the souls of those people
who are bad or wicked.
When you say Norse mythology,Norse, meaning from like Norway
and the Scandinavian countries.
And a lot of this I'm I knowyou're such, you're so enamored
of Iceland and really want to gothere.
A lot of this mythology is a lotof Norris mythology.

(10:01):
I don't know, probably becausepeople from Norway and the
Scandinavian countries went overand settled Iceland.
I think I don't my history.
There is not the greatest.
You'll see a lot of likeNorwegian legends or I'm sorry,
Norse legends in, um, in Icelandto the reason I tell you about
hella is because some originstories suggest that Krampus is
the son of Hela.

(10:21):
And then I did read somewherethat there was another, um,
belief that maybe he is herromantic concert.
So maybe he's like her boyfriendor something.
He's the person who brings herdrinks.
So one night, each year,according to this mythology on
the coldest winter day, Krampuswas allowed to leave the
underworld of eternal colddarkness and mist.

(10:42):
And he would leave theunderworld to come up to earth
and search for wicked children.
You know, I was thinking aboutthat and it kind of parallels
Santa who wants

Speaker 4 (10:49):
Might a year, right.
You know, one night a year,usually.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (10:52):
Cold night it's December.
Although he goes all over theworld.
So I guess some places are hot,but Santa leaves his realm of
the North pole to deliver gifts.
But two good kids, you canalready start to see how Santa
is kind of like the other side.
So the other person that I wantto talk about in relation to
Krampus is somebody called[inaudible] and I hope I'm
pronouncing that correctly.
It may be perked up, but I'mgoing to call her purse.

(11:14):
We hear drumming.
So you don't care.
So some of what I read said thatshe, that Krampus might be a
descendant of her and she was ashapeshifter and she had two
forms.
And this is, this is kind oflike, um, frown, frown,
something, no hella.
So th what I'm about to tell youabout for our purchase sounds a
lot like hella.
So she had two forms and one ofthem was a lovely maiden.

(11:36):
And then the other one was ahideous crone.
And she also apparently had onereally oversized foot.
I don't know what that's about,but I think that it is very
randomly random.
So she was very concerned thatpeople celebrate her feast day
and she would get really off ifyou didn't.
So if you didn't set aside workand, you know, engage in

(11:58):
frivolity on her feast day, um,she would get really.
And what she would do is shewould slice, open your stomach,
pull out your guts, and then,then the hole to the hole in
your gut, she would fill it upwith straw and garbage.
And then I guess, so you backup, but that was what you got.
She, um, she was scary.
So she, she expected you torefrain from work on her feast

(12:20):
day, but every other day you hadto work really hard or she would
punish you.
So she, he was real dead really.
Um, and one of her nose wasbroken stone and one of her
worst punishments was reservedfor children who lied.
So she would take shards ofglass.
And can you guess what she didwith them?

(12:41):
Put it in their mouth.
Yeah.
So she sliced out their tonguesbecause they told a lie.
On the other hand, if you were agood kid, you might get a silver
coin left beside your pillow.
So you paid to be good.
Like God, some people think thatKrampus actually originates from
Purchas.
And I'm going to try topronounce this shown Preston and

(13:03):
Shia perished.
And those are her Phantomentourage of beautiful souls.
Those are the shown person andthen ugly souls, which are the
Shia Kiersten.
Um, so Krampus was one of theugly songs sadly for him.
And if you look at his picture,you'll, you'll see that
reflected in how he's portrayed,but the ugly souls were those
people who were unbaptized.
And I guess that would be mecause I've never been baptized.

(13:26):
And they appear as monstrouslyHarry, and they have rows of
sharp teeth, a human torso andthe legs of a horse or a goat.
So Persha, and then herentourage of souls, she would
sweep into the human realm twotimes a year.
So once was during the 12 daysof Christmas, and then once on
her feast day, which we'vealready talked about how
important that day was for her.

(13:46):
I actually don't know what daythat is.
I better well find out becauseif I don't observe it, then I
might get my guts know, let meknow.
I will, because I feel like weneed to observe it this year.
So some people suggest that, um,Pusha and Krampus are romantic
partners.
I think I said earlier thatKrampus and hella might be, but
that's not right.
I was, I was confused.
So Krampus might be like her,her man, her.

(14:08):
Yeah.
So Krampus, his feast day iscoming up.
Do you know, do you actuallyknow the date?
It's really soon.
Can you guess December six wasyou're so close.
You're so close, but you'reyou're wrong.
And so Krampus is going to getyou because it's December 5th.
Oh, okay.
And some people say that Krampusmay also owe his origins to
something called the wild hunt.

(14:30):
I don't know if you came acrossthat in any of your reading, but
with the wild hunt.
Yeah.
With an age, with any age withinH 10 within eight, during the
wild hunt, apparently fairieselves and spirits, all of whom
were led by Oden, who, I don'tknow how to describe Odin,
except he's the Norse equivalentof Zeus.

(14:51):
He's the big honcho head honcho.
So they would come into thehuman world.
And this was a really scary timefor regular humans, regular
mortals.
So it was best to stay inside.
You know, you cover the windowswith a black cloth because
they're actually, they'relooking for souls and they can
suck out your soul.
And if they do that, then you'dbe damned forever take part in

(15:13):
their processions.
So in order to kind of confusethem, people would engage in
what was known as Mummery.
Now, my first experience withMummery was when I lived in
Philadelphia, because they havesomething called the Mummers.
And have you ever heard of them?
No, such a Philadelphia thing,but I'd never heard of it before
I lived there.
Mummers like, they dress up andreally fantastical costumes and

(15:35):
they do this crazy, like almostlike a strut thing.
And they all marched together,but marching is the wrong word
for it.
Like they would be in parades,but they do these crazy dances
and it's just, it's got like awhole history and it goes back
really far in the idea was thatyou dress up in costume, you
chant you dance.
And you're basically trying tocamouflage yourself from the
spirits or the gods.

(15:55):
Now what this reminded me ofwhen I read it, I don't know if
we have any listeners out therewho watch or used to watch the
walking dead, but there's thisscene early on in the series
where Glenn, one of thecharacters, I remember this
vividly, he's stuck in thiswhole hoard of zombies.
Plenty of that.
Your drinking is on beachtonight.
His only thought about how hecan save himself and not be
attacked and eaten is to despisehimself as a zombie.

(16:17):
So he pulls out there's somebodywho's dead or something.
And he pulls out like theirentrails and like drapes, the
large intestine, the smallintestine around his neck and
like covers himself and likeblood and guts and then kind of
lurches around, like, he's oneof the zombie hoard and they,
they totally miss it.
Like they think that he's one ofthem.
So that's how he survives.
So that's kind of when I thinkof the Mummers, that's kind of

(16:40):
what they're doing.
They're trying to pretend likethey're one of these bad
monsters, so that there'll beleft alone by hella by Krampus.
Yeah.
Well Krampus.
And then also all these soulsthat are coming to earth from
the wild hunt, it's kind of aMotley crew.
So some of the costumes peoplewould wear, they would do old
man winter.
Um, they would dress up as thehorned goat and then later
Krampus and then even Santa orSaint Nicholas, this is kind of

(17:03):
cool because the practice isstill ongoing.
So Mummery still happens inEurope and then increasingly
here in the United States.
And there's something called,um, I'm going to talk about it
later, but it's called Krampusloaf, which means the Krampus
run.
And I'll tell you in a littlebit what that means or, or what,
what, that's all about.
One cool thing about Krampusthat I read is that in some

(17:23):
versions he's missing his earsand that's related to a belief
that he was born that way.
And the reason he was so evilwas because he couldn't hear the
screams of his victims.
I have how it's reallyfascinating.
That's to me, that's basicallysaying like, he's so mean
because he doesn't have empathy.
Now, some Wiccans say thatKrampus is the offspring of the
horned God of the witches.

(17:44):
And I read a little bit aboutthe horned God, and apparently
he predates Satan and he wasconsidered the Lord of life
death in the underworld.
And he was always crowned at thewinter solstice.
So really he's, he's the figureof, well, it says he's the Lord
of life and death, but I thinkof him because he, he comes
about a winter that he's got ofthat dead time of year.

(18:04):
If you've seen the movieKrampus, you'll remember he's
portrayed, he has all thesechains around him.
And I thought that was, that waskind of interesting.
And I read, read a little bitabout the chains, but before I
go into that, something thatmade me think of was one of your
favorite books, which is aChristmas Carol, right?
You love that book, but Marley,he has those chains around him.

(18:25):
And I thought, Hm, is that kindof out of the Krampus lore?
Maybe there's so much overlapbetween a lot of these things
there really is.
And that's, that's why it's sofun.
But it's been said that thechains could be a Christian
overlay, so that like Christianlore was put on top of this
pagan lore.
And the idea of the chains wastrying to bind the devil.
But other other sources say thechains are actually related to a

(18:46):
pagan initiation, right?
So who really knows what themeaning of the chains or the
Roman conquests in the fourthcentury meant that more Germanic
tribes were being converted toChristianity, but there were so,
so Krampus kind of took a hitduring that time.
You know, the, some of the oraltradition died out as
Christianity took over, butthere was still some holdouts.
So especially villages that werefar apart, you know, that were

(19:09):
way out in the wilderness thatnot everybody was converted.
And so the Krampus Lorissurvived and was passed down
orally, um, different regions.
I said that cramp has comes fromreally central Europe.
So I'm trying to remember allthe countries.
So like Southern, I thinkSouthern Germany, parts of Italy
that, that sort of border on theAlps parts of Switzerland.

(19:30):
And then the Czech Republicthink even Romania, I feel like
I'm missing a big one, but Imight come across it later.
So these are the areas and alsoNorway, different regions kind
of describe Krampuses appearanceand backstory differently.
So there are a lot of differentregional variations, but what
did he look like?
So if you haven't seen a Krampusfigure, if you haven't seen the
movie think of like, kind ofthis animal human hybrid, is

(19:52):
that, why is that how you woulddescribe him, John?
He looks, I guess you could sayhe looks like a humanoid, a bit
of a humanoid, I guess.
Yeah.
Like in very, with an emphasison kind of animal, like, like
he's covered in fur.
He super hairy in his first kindof matted.
He has cloven hooves.
He's got really long claws.
The upper half of his body looksmore human.

(20:13):
Like he's got this broad chest,but his face is totally animal.
So he's got like this pointedchin kind of like almost like a
goat looking kind of face.
His mouth is all snarly.
He's got yellow eyes usually.
And then he's got these bighorns or antlers, but one of the
most notable things aboutKrampus is he's got this really
long tongue, almost like asnake's tongue.
And he can just like hurdle thattongue out and he can be, it's

(20:36):
really long it's it's like kindof lewd, actually a serpent.
It is like a serpent.
Yeah.
And apparently he would, um, hecould use the tongue to like
lasso children and like bringthem up to him.
Did you?
I thought that was crazy.
That would be horrifying.
Apparently has very bad, Iguess, dental hygiene, oral
hygiene, because he has badbreath.

(20:56):
And he slobbers, I guess, with atongue that long who wouldn't
slobber and other, other sourcessay that he smells like sulfur,
which we all know why that mightbe because it's related to hell.
Um, and he, he has that longchain.
Sometimes they're lost childrenwho were attached to the chain.
So that might be another reason.
You know, we were talking aboutwhether the chain was like a
Christian sort of addition, butit could just be a practical

(21:17):
thing.
Like he needs somewhere to putall these kids he's capturing.
So he just hooks them to hischain.
He also had Cal bells attachedto him.
And that was so you could hearthem coming.
I don't know why.
I mean, you would think he wouldwant to be silent, but I guess
he wanted more cow bell and hecarries Birch rods and an empty
sack or draws or reads well rodsor reads really either one, just

(21:39):
like basically big switches.
Like what my mom threatened towhip me with when I was a kid I
actually got whipped with.
Did you, well, I think the onlytime I got whipped, but I think
she used her hand was when I, Icrossed the street and I wasn't
supposed to she'd like whippedmy.
Well, she pulled my pants downand whipped me in front of all
my friends.
It was horrible.
Like everybody.
So my bare told me that one outof, I feel like I told you that

(22:04):
I got the switch when we wereall playing in the woods, it was
raining, but

Speaker 3 (22:10):
Like young, I don't know why we're allowed to go out
in the, in the woods.

Speaker 1 (22:15):
That's poor.
That's probably why you're introuble.

Speaker 3 (22:17):
Weren't allowed.
And we didn't come home when shewas calling us.
Oh no.
And she got a switch

Speaker 1 (22:23):
And we were in shorts.
So on your bare legs, when it'swet with a switch, that sounds
really painful.
Did you have marks?
I don't remember having marks,but you know, it was
traumatized.
So I don't know.
I'm still talking about it tothis day.
Yeah.
Well, I was traumatized too.
It was so embarrassing for mebecause your friends see that
kind of thing.
That CPS would be called today.

(22:44):
Exactly.
Can you imagine?
Absolutely God, we lived in, welived in the seventies, people
we grew up in, you're asked tospeak at times.
It's like a badge of honor forthe moms.
Um, so that sounds, I mean, notdescription of Krampus, I think
describes describes him prettywell.
Don't you think?
Yes, it does.

Speaker 3 (23:05):
Yeah.
We did a much better job than Iwould

Speaker 1 (23:07):
Have.
Oh no.
I mean, I was just going on whatI've read, but I think it sounds
like, for example, the images ofKrampus that I've seen are like
in the movie and stuff likethat, this is going to interest
you.
So over the years, apparentlythe way people have described
Krampus, like that half animal,half human figure has led some
sociologists to speculatewhether he was an actual

(23:27):
creature, kind of like a cryptidof some sort people are
actually, I guess there's a,there's some people out there
who think Krampus could be likean actual creature.
I don't think there are many,very many of those people, but I
found, I hadn't, that reallyshocked me.
I didn't know that I wouldn'thave guessed, but you only
watched the movie.
Yeah, same here.

(23:48):
Um, so during the slow season,Krampus would get really bored.
So sometimes he would try toentice kids in the mischief so
that he could punish them.
Exactly.
Exactly.
So you would be punishedaccording to your level of
misbehavior.
So the lowest punishment is whatyou got, which was spanking with
Birch huts.
And I read that there were somephallic overtones there.

(24:11):
My God, I know isn't thatdisgusting.
We feel dirty.
I shouldn't have that.
You shouldn't have that toyourself, the middle.
So repeat offenders.
So if you had gotten in troubleand you just didn't learn your
lesson, Krampus is gonna likelasso his big tongue out at you
and drag you into his bag andtake you to the underworld for

(24:33):
at least a year.
And until you learn your lessonand then you might get to come
back home until it's hellosholiday.
And then he St.
Brian brings you back.
Exactly.
That actually might be true.
Or[inaudible] I forget whichone.
Um, so the final punishment.
So this was for kids who were sobad that even their parents had
given up on them, like justdidn't know what to do with
them.

(24:53):
So he would pull you slowlyapart and devour you.
Sometimes he would eat theirtongue first, sometimes I guess
if he wasn't hungry or maybe ifhe, he ate what he wanted and
whatever was left, he wouldthrow you off of an Alpine cliff
sometimes would drown you.
And he would retrieve your soulwith a Pitchfork and put you on
a ghost train that was chuggingaway to the Lake of fire.

(25:14):
So that was like a SouthernBaptist sermon.
Actually, it really does.
It's so bad.
I mentioned that his feast dayis December 5th, but Krampus, I
guess, could be active anywherefrom late November until the
second week of December.
So he can walk the earth duringthat time.

(25:34):
So you need to be on your bestbehavior, at least, at least
until about December 14th.
I would say after that, he'sgoing to retreat back to his
Alpine cave for the remainder ofthe year.
So thank God we got out.
We got to try to be good peoplefor the next couple of weeks.
Yeah.
That's about 10 days maybe.
Yeah, we gotta be good for about10 days.
So no cussing Jen.
No F-bombs Oh, well I can'tpromise that that's not gonna

(25:56):
happen.
All right.
So there's something calledKrampus Nacht, which means
Krampus night or night of theKrampus and people settle in
that was on his feast day ofDecember 5th.
I so wish we were togetherbecause we could totally
celebrate Krampus knocked.
It would be so cool.
People would get together andthey would have offerings.
Um, you'd make like a big feastand gather around the warmth

(26:17):
from the Gulag and childrenwould leave baskets of food by
the hearts, along with alcoholicofferings.
And D can you guess what Krampushis favorite drink is?
Oh gosh.
Um, don't tell me, let me think.
It's um, is it like a beerDoppelbock what is that?
It's called Doppelbock toppleBach.
Is that like double brew orsomething?

(26:38):
Yeah, it was actually shops.
Um, that was his favorite.
His favorite thing.
He did have a refined palettefor such a monstrous guy, but
it's probably also because thepeople in that region, right.
The sort of Germany and Norwayand all those places, I think
they like shop because a lot ofshops comes from Germany.
So that may be why Krampus wouldcome.

(26:58):
And he would, he would like takeeverything you left for him.
But unlike St.
Nicholas, he left nothing inreturn.
He wasn't an.
Apparently it was enough that heloved the kids alone and
everybody was safe and sometimeshe would leave behind a single
Birch rod.
It was either, I guess, areminder to behave or some
parents made up to make theirkids behave.

(27:19):
Well, it's funny that you saythat because something I read
said that the Birch rod may havebeen the precursor to the elf on
the shelf, which makes sense ifyou think about it, right.
Oh, that's so funny.
I know.
I thought that was super funnytoo.
So on Krampus knocked'em adultswould dress up in Krampus
costumes and parade through thestreets of the village and they
would drink like booze wasflowing.

(27:39):
And that was the thing that wascalled.
I mentioned earlier, the KrampusLau for the Krampus run, um, it
may have been inspired bySaturnalia, which was a very old
Roman custom.
And then the feast of fools likeis in 12th night from
Shakespeare's 12th night.
And that was a tradition thatcontinued into the middle ages.
And the Renaissance it'sinteresting, that cramp is
knocked is it's on the Eve ofSaint Nicholas's feast day.

(28:02):
That's maybe why you said thesix.
Cause I think, yeah.
Yeah.
So it's, it's reallyinteresting.
They're so close together.
And it was common back in thesort of old ancient days to
celebrate with something theycalled Nicholas plays and those
plays would have both Krampusand Saint Nicholas, his, a
character now kind of gettinginto some of the Krampus versus

(28:22):
St.
Nick stuff.
I read the Krampus.
He's not so much like the antiSt.
Nick or St.
Nick's nemesis as much as he ishis compliments.
So where you have like SaintNicholas is in, you're going to
talk a lot more about him, butwhere he's good and he brings
gifts and, you know, seems to beloving.
Krampus is, is not, he takes, he, he comes and he takes, and

(28:42):
he's more associated with, withrevenge and things like that.
But in certain parts of theworld from, I guess this was
from the early 17 hundredsthrough really the end of the
20th century.
And maybe it's still going on insome little villages, both
Krampus and Saint Nicholas wouldvisit kids together about an
hour before their bedtime.
I guess that was, I don't knowif that was on Krampus knocked

(29:02):
or if it was Christmas Eve, I'mnot sure, but so St.
Nicholas would give the kidsthese quizzes where he'd quiz
them on their Bible trivia.
And while he's doing that,Krampus is like pacing around
and huffing and puffing and hischains and trailing his chains
and taunting the kids.
Like you don't know this, I'mgoing to drag you to hell.
And I read one of the quotesfrom the author is like, he

(29:23):
would say, Aaron, your responseand you shall be my prize for so
long.
I have yearned for a companionin hell.
And so like, you're trying toremember, like, you know, who, I
don't know Shaq was in the Bibleand then this creature's like
menacing you now, Saint Nicholaswould give the kid a little
piece of candy for each rightanswer.
But I mean, who really caresabout candy at that point?

(29:45):
So the intensity of how Krampuswould act would depend on and
keep in mind, like these arepeople dressed up in Krampus
costumes, right.
Doing this.
So when the kids got older,Krampus would be even more
intense.
So he would smash plates.
He might pretend like he'spicking a fight with the father
of the family, or he might makereally like sexual advances on,

(30:05):
on the women.
So like the daughters of thefamily or the mother.
Yeah.
Isn't that crazy.
It was crazy.
This just keeps getting worse.
He might even try to like pickup a child and like carry it out
of the house.
But people, parents thoughtthat, you know, these
frightening theatrics would helptheir kids develop into
disciplined law, abidingcitizens.
So they thought, you know, um,this was, this was good for

(30:25):
kids.
So in terms of Krampus and hispopularity, now there was, you
know, he, he hasn't reallybegun, I think, to gain in
popularity in the United Statesuntil fairly recently.
Well like 2010, something likethat.
But I don't know.
I don't think that's a hard andfast kind of thing, but it's
fairly recent until you,

Speaker 3 (30:44):
You told me a couple of years ago, or maybe it was
just last year that you'dwatched Krampus.
I didn't know what you weretalking about.

Speaker 1 (30:51):
And I don't think I heard about it.
I heard about it from a friendon Facebook, um, this crazy guy.
And he like, he posted these oldKrampus postcards because people
used to actually send Krampuscards.
They would, um, you know, in, inthe movie Krampus that bell says
Bruce farm Krampus meansgreetings from Krampus.
And a lot of the old postcardswould say that as well.
But there's a theory thatKrampus never really gained a

(31:13):
footing in the United Statesbecause of anti-German sentiment
following the second world war.
And of course, Sansa caught onbecause Santa was like a good
way to market things.
Like if you think of theCoca-Cola Santa and all of that.
So in the early 20th century,Krampus became more of like a
figure for adults kind of likeHalloween in some ways becomes
more, more for adults and hislewdness was emphasized and he

(31:34):
became part of the scene.
I was going to say, make a crackabout that.
It's yeah.
So actually, apparently, um,this, this actually was true and
there is one of the old Krampuscards, which shows Krampus,
spanking this very scantily cladwoman.
I think this was during like theearly, like the early 19
hundreds.
So around my end of the 1920sand until like sort of the Nazi

(31:56):
party starts to take over in thethirties, it was called the
Weimar Republic.
And this was really a floweringof pre-thinking and artists and
like all these artisticmovements.
And there was, you know, ifyou've ever seen cabaret,
cabaret takes, takes place.
I think during that time, we'rejust on the edge of that time.
And so there was a lot of likesexual stuff going on and like,
and these cabarets and all thiskind of exploration.

(32:19):
Um, so I think Krampus was, waspart of that.
He was actually outlawed byconservative political parties
in Austria at one point.
And then the Austrian Catholicunion wanted to do with Krampus
do away with him altogether.
Um, they felt deleted and thiswas just like a really bad
influence on people.
So they told people they shouldboycott any Krampus merchandise.
And that if you did play Santa,if you wanted to play Santa

(32:41):
Claus, you had to have a licenseto play Santa.
So this is the thing I'm mostexcited to tell you about all
around the United States andEurope.
Definitely in Europe, there'sthe Krampus knocked Krampus left
, you know, the Krampus runningall of that, where people have
parades.
And so people dress up likeKrampus.
Sometimes people dress up likethe other characters, like
there's Frau Perstas, there'sthe good souls and the bad

(33:03):
souls.
And would you believe thatthere's one in Richmond,
Virginia.
Really?
Yes.
It's called the RVA Krampusknock RVA, I guess for Richmond,
Virginia.
Yeah.
So when I saw that, I wasn'tsure it was Richmond.
And when I found out it was, Iwas like, yes.
So it's been going on since2013.
Yeah.
I was thinking next year we haveto go.

(33:23):
But if you actually go to it,like you can watch the parade
and then the walk ends up at apub.
I just think that sounds doesn'tit sound fun.
And apparently there's a lot ofshops.
Their website is really cool.
If you go to RVA, just look upGoogle, RVA, Krampus, Krampus
knocked.
So I just think these peoplesound like so much fun, a lot of
fun, a lot of fun.
And they also, they raise moneyfor really good causes.

(33:46):
So they raise money for, um,women, um, who are diagnosed
with breast cancer and, youknow, dealing with that.
And then for kids who are ill.
So they do like toy drives andmoney drives and, and all this
stuff.
So I'm going to end up with, soI think I told you everything I
know about Krampus, but I dowant to mention another figure.
And that is the UL cat.
And I don't know if people, evenfor him, Oh, I don't know if

(34:08):
people know about the UL cat.
Now he actually originates fromIceland and he is near and dear
to my heart because there areno, there are no like big cats,
you know, like Pumas or what arebig cats around here.
I'm trying to think, what dothey call those cats?
I saw one at Dollywood.
One time.
It wasn't a Bobcat.
It was the most exciting part ofmy trip and deli wasn't combined

(34:29):
.
Yes.
On the little cart, on the wayinto the park.
They like take everybody like onthis little tram into the park
and there was a slow pop catjust running along.
And that was like the highlightof my whole three days.
But anyway, so people think thatthe Yule cart is probably
modeled after a Norwegian forestcat, which are native.
I guess they come from Norway.
And I guess there are a lot ofthem in Iceland, but I have a

(34:51):
Norwegian forest cat Hugo.
I do.
And he's really, really bad.
So I think he's like, he's thewe've started calling him the
old cat now.
Totally suits him.
I'm afraid of him.
I didn't, I'm afraid of him too.
I didn't realize that he wasthat breed until you told me, I
think it was today, but, and youlooked him up or you looked up

(35:12):
pictures he's really, reallymean I'm afraid of him.
Well, he's huge for one thing,like he's just Norwegian forest
cats are really furry.
Like they've got this long fur,but he's just really, um, mean
built really solid.
And he is, he is mean, but he'sreally nice to my husband.
Like, he's so sweet to Brian,but he doesn't like me the only
time are you sure?

(35:33):
He doesn't like you?
I don't think he likes women.
He won't let me in the hallway.
Like when you have to go to thebathroom.
Yeah.
I can't walk past him or I'mafraid to watch to walk past
him.
Cause he's looking at me likejust do it, just do it.
That is too funny.
He's not a bad guy.
He's just, he's a complicatedbeast.

(35:54):
I think Krampus suits them.
I do.
So he's definitely the old cat.
Um, and the yolk had apparentlypulled phrase wagon.
Freya is what is she?
The goddess of, I think thegoddess of beauty and some other
things.
So he pulled her wagon throughthe sky and he would pray on the
lazy people.
And he was, he was very huge andvery vicious, much, much like
why you go?
Yes.
So the, your cat, he wants tosee you dressed in like crisp

(36:18):
new clothes because it wasapparently in the old days.
Um, if you were lazy, youwouldn't contribute to tending
the crops and processing thewool.
And that meant that you wouldn'tbe given a new suit of clothes,
but if you were industrious anddid what you were supposed to
be, the former would reward youand you'd get new clothes for
the new year.
And then the UL cat would leaveyou alone.
So basically if you're, ifyou're not wearing new clothes,

(36:39):
that means you're lazy, thenyou're, you're no good.
So the old cat is gonna, Iguess, just abduct you and he
would eat you.
And, um, he, it was said he wasthe pet of gorilla.
I hope I'm pronouncing that.
I think it's gorilla.
And she was the mother of theYule lads.
And I think you're going to talkabout them, but she would cook
and eat disobedient kids.
That was some of the stuff thatshe would do.

(37:01):
So with that, I'm going to, I'mgoing to throw it to you.
The first I had heard ofguerrilla was on the remake or
the Netflix version of Sabrina,the witch.
And they have a really goodChristmas episode that was out
last year.
And I'm going to watch it againbecause I just liked it so much,
but she was one of the maincharacters and it involved her

(37:22):
and the Yule lads.
So the Yule lads are 13, likeelfish type, I guess, creatures.
And they visit kids the 13 daysup until Christmas day.
But they all visit at the sametime or do they take turns?
They take turns and they haveweird names.
I can't even pronounce them.

(37:42):
But it's funny that you sayabout the names, because
somewhere in my notes, I have, Ihave like some of their names,
like what they translate intoand they're really weird.
Like one of them was, Oh, Idon't know, like pots look hot
liquor.
Yeah.
And there was another one, likesomething, yeah, there was one
that sounded kind of dirty.
I'm going to, I'm going to tryto find it.
And I'll, I know the one you'retalking about.

(38:02):
Cause I was gonna say about him.
Okay, good.
Then I won't look for it.
The window paper.
I think that was it.
Yeah.
Yeah.
When I heard that one, I waslike, Ooh, because you know,
that's one, uh, one of yourfears.
Yeah.
One of my fears is someonewatching me through a window.
Well, as you know, we're, we'reafraid of, we're afraid of a lot
of stuff.
We really are.

(38:23):
What are we afraid of?
So when I heard that one, I waslike, Oh my God, that's so super
creepy.
But what he does is the wood,the window paper, he looks in on
children to see how they'rebehaving.
And if they're behaving

Speaker 3 (38:36):
Badly, he'll go back until Grella and then she'll
come.
I don't know if she sends a Yoelcat or she comes herself and she
might come with him, takes thechildren and eats them.
Isn't that true,

Speaker 1 (38:47):
Caroline, can I just, I just have to jump in here.
First of all, I found out one ofthe other names, it's the
sausage swiper,

Speaker 3 (38:55):
But when I was growing up and many other people
can identify with this, my, mygrandmother,

Speaker 1 (38:59):
I called her my LA, she was from Switzerland.
I'm not Switzerland.
Jesus, I'm drunk.
She's from Sweden.
Excuse me.
And my grandmother is fromSweden, but she would say like,
she would say to me, like, it'dbe like the heat of July.
And she'd be like, I just saw[inaudible] looking in through
that window and he's watchingyou.
And it was really threateningand like really scary Santa.

(39:20):
Yeah.
She'd be like, he's watchingyou.
And he doesn't like what he seesor like, you know, in this
really threatening way.
And now that I think about it,cause you know, she was from the
Scandinavian country.
She didn't come to America untilshe was like 16.
She probably had heard some ofthese things.
So yeah,

Speaker 3 (39:35):
It makes me wonder about if she did never heard of
other than watching Sabrina andseeing the Yule lads.
I just thought that wassomething maybe they had made up
for the episode.

Speaker 1 (39:45):
Well, I guess, I mean, in, in Santa Claus, Laura,
I mean Santa is supposed towatch kids too.
Right.
I mean they say he knows ifyou've been nodding.

Speaker 3 (39:51):
Nice.
Yeah.
And then you also have elvesthat work on standards workshop.
So that's true.
Creepy little, these things justblend in and melt into one
another.
But yeah.
So you should watch the episode.
If you haven't seen it, watchSabrina.

Speaker 1 (40:05):
Do I need to watch the whole season to watch the
Christmas episode?
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (40:08):
Okay.
Don't need to watch the wholeseason.

Speaker 1 (40:11):
There's the whole thing, but I'm not sure I'm in
the like Halloween-y mood rightnow.
So I would like to,

Speaker 3 (40:16):
You just need to watch the episode.
It would be fine.
I think when I read today aboutthe window paper, I was like, Oh
my God.
That's

Speaker 1 (40:23):
Like the worst scary

Speaker 3 (40:26):
Peeping Toms back then.
But what I also read too, whichwas really interesting or I
found funny was that, um, andI'm drunk again and it's
alluding me.
Oh, I was going to say, you'redrunk again.
You're still drunk.
I'm still drunk.
I haven't sobered up in the 17hundreds.
He was the 17 or the 18hundreds.
Iceland passed a law where youcouldn't threaten kids with UL,

(40:47):
lads.
You could seize it.
Yeah.
You can't use it or you in anintimidating way.

Speaker 1 (40:53):
Oh my gosh.
Yeah.
That's fascinating.
So that was the 17 hundreds.
I'm surprised it was

Speaker 3 (40:58):
That early 17 or 18 hundreds.
Oh seven

Speaker 1 (41:01):
Two hundreds just seems like it was still like
kind of a, a rough time.
You know, that surprises me.
That's really interesting.

Speaker 3 (41:07):
So now that I've been, when I was reading about
that and I was thinking, God, Ithink I would really like to
study folklore.
Maybe I should go back toschool, but now I don't think I
should.

Speaker 1 (41:18):
There's actually something, um, called the
Colorado school of folklore thatyou can do some classes online.
I've thought about doing that.
So I'll send you some of thatinformation.
Yeah.

Speaker 3 (41:26):
Yeah.
It really, really kind of, I wasalways interested in folklore
anyway, but to me, really,really interested.
So yeah, it's so cool.
And there really was a SaintNicholas.
I mean, not a whole lot is knownabout him, but he lived in the
third and fourth centuries andthese are the various stories I
could have associated with him.

(41:47):
Well, one, he was born into arich Christian family and his
parents died at an early age.
So he inherited the money andwhat he did with the money is he
traveled all over the place.
And then he also following theteachings of Christ.
He was giving money away andbeing very generous with the
poor and people in need and thatsort of thing.

(42:08):
So being an actual person, I waslike a really good guy.
Yes.
So one of the stories associatedwith him is that, well, first I
want to say that after hetraveled, he came back to, um,
the region of Turkey that he wasfrom and that's Intellia Turkey
today.
And it's by the sea when hereturned, he was appointed
Bishop of Myra and that's alsoon the sea.

(42:28):
I think that's relatively closeby.
So he became a, he became aBishop and another story that's
associated with him, or I guessthe major story that's
associated with him is that hewas passing by a house one day
and he heard a father, veryupset talking to his three
daughters.
And they were upset because theydidn't have money for a dowery.

(42:50):
And that meant that they wouldbe, they would have to enter
prostitution.
So St Nicholas, what he did waswhat he was passing by.
I've heard red passing by windowor throwing this through the,
um, through the chimney.
I think I had read another placeor had seen one place for three
nights.
He dropped off or threw in likeone bag of money for each girl.

(43:11):
So the oldest got one on thefirst night.
Another one got money on thesecond night.
And then he tossed in money onthe third night.
So they didn't have to enterinto prostitution.
Another story that's associatedwith him is that an innkeeper
killed three boys and St.
Nicholas resurrected them.
I think I read that story too.

Speaker 1 (43:30):
Didn't he like, he'd cut them into pieces and pickled
them or something.

Speaker 3 (43:33):
Yes.
That was one story that hepickled them.
There was another story with himis that he reportedly saved like
three men who were falselyimprisoned and sentenced to
death.
So those are the three majorstories he's like immensely
popular.
That's even an understatement onthe world.
He's the patron Saint of Russia.
And then also grace he'sconsidered the patron Saint of

(43:56):
there's a lot of differentthings I'm mentioned, but the
primary one is sailors also havechildren.
Of course, I guess that's themajor one.
What about like maybe unmarriedwomen?
Um, I had seen prostitutes.
Oh wow.
There's a lot of differentthings that he's supposedly the
patron Saint of.
Yeah.

Speaker 1 (44:14):
That's funny that you he's patron Saint in Greece
because I feel like there's somany Greek men named Nicholas or
Nico, you know, that movie, mybig fat Greek wedding.
And she's like, he was my son,Nico, and my nephew, Nico, and
also Nika.
It's just like, they're allnamed and Nicholas.
I didn't think about that.

Speaker 3 (44:32):
That might explain it.
Yeah, it probably does.
Probably does.
So St.
Nicholas Day, it's celebratedthroughout the world and
especially in like Europe andBelgium and Germany and Eastern
France to name a few, um, inGermany, he's called Nikolaos
and in Holland he's he's calledcenter Kloss.
Cool.
And this is really, to me, thisis really, really strange.

(44:55):
I didn't know anything aboutthis, but so everybody basically
wants a piece of Santa wants tolay claim to Santa.
And just to give you an example,there's all this jockeying for,
I guess, to be able to claimthat you have Saint Nicholas's
remains.
So he was supposedly laid torest and Myra and the church
that was built for him wasdestroyed by an earthquake.

(45:17):
And so a new church was builtfor him and Demerara, which is I
believe, which is in the samearea as well.
It might be.
Denver might be the same as Myrato tell you the truth.
I'm not sure.
I can't remember.
Okay.
Maybe like the more modern nameof it or something.
So after the church burned down,a new one was, was built for
him.
And he became so popular that in10 87, Italian soldiers

(45:42):
supposedly stole his remains andthey took it to Bari Italy,
where there was a, where theybuilt a Basilica.
And gosh, you have Turkey saying, no, we still have his remains.
And you have Italy saying, no,we have his remains.
And also it might be, I don'tknow if Russia also lays claims
to having at least part of hisremains.

(46:03):
There's all these differentcountries that yeah.
Say that they have his remains.
And then also

Speaker 5 (46:09):
France also claims to have

Speaker 3 (46:11):
His remains as well.
And because of his generosityand giving gifts or providing
money for the girls' dowries,um, he's been associated gift
giving as magical gift giverstarted to be associated with
him by the 13th century.
And I guess with sailors, thereason why he's the patron Saint

(46:34):
is because sailors, um, if youthink about it, like his, the
story of Saint Nicholas wasspread to other countries
through, by sea, the ceiling,that sort of thing.
That's true.
Yeah.
So that makes sense.
So Santa came or Saint Nicholascame to, um, the U S from the
Netherlands.
And again, they called him likeCentre Klaus, and they brought

(46:56):
it to the new world colonies.
So that's where, yeah.
So it came from themfascinating.
And with Christmas celebrations,um, it was really frowned upon
around the 15th, 16th centurybecause of the Protestant
reformation.
So with the colonies, theydidn't celebrate Christmas,
outwardly those Puritans, theywere so, they were so boring.

(47:20):
They may celebrate it privately,but they didn't do publicly
until later it became moreacceptable to do.
So I think sometimes you couldactually be punished if you were
found to be celebrating.
Because with the, with thePuritans, I saw like Christmas
to be like the trappings andstuff of, of Catholics really.
And they were, well, they wereall about simplicity.

(47:42):
Right.
And having this is just veryaustere understanding of God and
life.
And so Santa Claus really, Ithink around what was it?
1823 the night before Christmas,or it was the night before
Christmas, that poem, he was theguy who wrote that Jed, um,
Clement, Seymour.
I believe there were two peoplethat I think there was some

(48:03):
controversy about who wrotethem, but we'll, we'll go with
climate.
I think limits sounds right.
So that's really, when Santareally started to take off was
with, um, twas the night beforeChristmas and early, like a
rendition of him, I believe forthat particular poem, he looks
more elfish.
I believe that's true.
He even refers to him as an elf.
I believe at one point in thatpoem.

(48:25):
And it wasn't until her right.
Jolly old elf.
I think he called it.
It wasn't until Nast that hestarted being portrayed, you
know, something larger than anelf.
And of course Christmas hasbecome commercialized, but I've
heard people say, well, Santawas made up by by department
stores or by companies while hewasn't, he wasn't made up by a
company.

(48:46):
Cause I remember when I firstheard that I was like, Oh my
God, really?
That's not true.
Totally false.
No, isn't that?
I think it's really lovely to,to know that, to know that this
folklore goes back so far, itdoes have its origins in
something real or something.
Don't let anybody ruin it foryou.
If they say that, cause it's nottrue.
Right?
Like, like my mom did when I waseight or something, she told me

(49:09):
he didn't exist.
Oh really?
She did.
Yeah.
We were having this conversationand she was irony and she's
like, well, you know, Santa, itdoesn't exist.
And I'm like, Oh yeah, yeah.
I knew that.
But inside, I was like, I don'tknow why, what did she tell you?
Not unless you weren't evensuspicious.
Where are you?
I don't know.
I think she just didn't want tohave to keep the secret anymore.

(49:29):
She didn't, you know, I thinkthat probably made everything
harder.
Cause she had to wait until Iwent to bed and put stuff under
the trees.
You weren't even questioning.
I wasn't questioning.
No.
My cousin believed in Santa, Ithink until she was like 12 and
that's a good, long time is agood long time.
Did you ruin it?
Did I slip for her?
12 year old thinks are stillSanta Claus.

(49:53):
I know that's a long time.
And then she goes, I thought so.
Oh, so she wasn't, she wasn'tupset then?
No, it just seemed like the, thebulbs started to fully go off at
that point.
So how did you, how did youfigure out that there wasn't I
figured out because my uncle whowas a fireman, he dressed up
like Santa Claus and I couldtell it was him.

(50:15):
Oh, okay.
But you couldn't when you werereally little kid?
No, I, no.
I believed it when I was likereally little.
Yeah.
I totally believed that.
Oh, it's the, isn't it the bestwhen you're little.
And I remember my brother, causemy brother's 10 years older than
me.
He used to say, now, if you, ifyou're

Speaker 1 (50:28):
Really, you know, quiet and you look out the
window, like you may see theGlint of Rudolph's red nose off
in the distance.
I really would think I would seeit.
You know, speaking to that, Iactually bought the rest of the,
um, Rudolph, the Red-Nosedreindeer characters.
Are you serious?
Oh my prospector.
I got him like, Oh, he's Jackhere.
Hold on a second.

(50:48):
Do you have Claire EES?

Speaker 6 (50:49):
I'm gonna get my wife to stay in the car thing.

Speaker 1 (50:55):
I just got a kick out of him.
That's great.
I like him to route off andlisten to him.
Like he sounds so whiny.
I mean, I was just so crazyabout this, but like he's a
whiner.
Hold on.

Speaker 6 (51:08):
Does any

Speaker 1 (51:10):
A little bit, but it's because of his nose.
Is, is he wearing his fake noseover his, for his red nose?
Well, first I have the Bumble.
So I've been playing with themtoday.
I mean, I've been working, but Ilike to have them out, but also
playing with your plane with myfinger rains.

(51:31):
Yeah.
That's awesome.
I cannot wait to put my stuffup.
I've ordered so much like crapand just, I love it is like
playing when you set it all outand I ordered some angels and
I've got these new Wiseman andI've got, Oh, I don't know,
Santas and snowmen.
And it's just so fun.
I got my it's like being a kid.
My, well, I have two old worldSandoz.
I have one that I just gotthat's um, he's dressed in like

(51:53):
blue garb.
I think he's more like, I lovedthat when you show me that
picture, he's in the other one.
I think it's arrived today, butI haven't opened the box yet.
But from the picture I got thisoff of eBay, it's like Saint
Nicholas wearing the Bishop hat.
That's so cool.
And now, you know, all thefolklore, but I didn't realize
that because when I first sawit, I was like, what is this?
Why is he wearing that hat?

(52:14):
And then that is so cool.
I started researching this.
I'm like, Oh, okay, now I getit.
Yeah, it's really cool.
So I'm really excited about allthis folklore stuff and it's so
fun.
So now I need to get youKrampus.
I'm just really excited or happythat Saint Nicholas existed.
I am too.
And I think the spirit, youknow, that spirit of gift giving
and caring and loving and that'sreally what it's all about.

(52:39):
And this has been really fun.
I'm sure there's a lot more onSt.
Nick.
I didn't do it justice, but Ijust wanted to hit some of the
major points and let everybodyknow that Santa lives Santa
lives, especially after we toldyou Krampus, just to be
completely inappropriate.
I'm going to end with a story ofthe boodle frown.
Okay.
Sounds like a good one.
I think because when I wasreading about this, I'm like,

(53:01):
Oh, I know what Jen would sayabout this, but maybe it's just
what I think you would say.
So there was this figure calledthe boodle Frau.
And I think this comes fromshe's it's loosely related to St
.
Luchea, but apparently she wouldcome and visit your house and
all these presents would fallout of her voluminous skirts
really?
And she's like super ugly.
And she would like inspect yourhouse to make sure it was clean.

(53:24):
Um, and if everything was inorder and if like you were clean
and your house was clean, thenlike all these presents would
drop out of her skirts.
And she would also drop turnipsand tomatoes and they would have
coins tucked inside.
Them sounds like a stripper.
What's it called again?
Boodle frown.
So B U D E L.
I don't know what the Germanword boodle means, but Frau of

(53:45):
course it's woman.
Um, I don't know what boodlevagina.
I should look that up.
Vagina woman, but China womenwith all the presents falling
out of her, her giant vaginaFrau that might be, have to be
what I, what I referred to abit.
I know I couldn't, I couldn'tnot mention her.

(54:11):
She was, she cracks me up toomuch.
I love it though.
He did too.
I know this is so fun.
I'm definitely, definitely readyfor, I don't know for Christmas.
And I feel like there's likesomething to celebrate almost
every day in December.
I mean, a lot of these old, um,St.
Lucy's day, I think is the 13thof December.
So like all this stuff is just,you know, all those great lore

(54:32):
and the solstice.
Yeah.
Which is the 21st.
And Robert Burns supper.
When is that?
When is January?
I think is January.
January.
Good times ahead.
I think here's to 2021.
I don't have any left of mine.
I don't have anything left in mydream.
I have like a tiny little like,like, um, I don't, it's not a
morsel cause he can't callliquid a morsel, but it's like a

(54:53):
tiny drop.
I'm going to like cramping.
My cramp, his tongue Disgustinglike a brutal frown.

Speaker 2 (55:06):
I can't

Speaker 1 (55:07):
Believe you just said that mine was delicious.
Thank you to everyone wholistened.
The best thing you can do tohelp us grow is to like review
on subscribe on iTunes and evenbetter yet tweet about us or
post about us on Facebook.
Tell your friends if you thinkthey would like us and have a
good night.

Speaker 2 (55:53):
[inaudible].