It’s the Holiday season and St. Nick’s Day was just this past weekend on Saturday, December 6th. Wendy Lynn is on vacation, so Mike brings his sister, Allison Jornlin, from Milwaukee Ghosts, again for a discussion on one of the less famous European Yuletide traditions, Krampus, the Christmas Demon . They begin with a discussion of Saint Nicholas traditions in their family and heavily German Milwaukee and discuss how they used to get coal in their stockings if they were bad.

Then they get into how really naughty kids used to get into trouble and that’s with Krampus. A Satan-like figure with cloven hooves who carries a bag of switched to whip bad children, in addition to an empty sack that is for kidnapping naughty kids and dragging them to Hell (and eating them alive), he is a traditional Christmas character in the Alpine countries. They talk about Krampusnacht , which is a traditional festival that will take place the night before St. Nick’s Day, where men dress up as the Christmas demon and drunkenly run through the streets. Parents not only encourage this behavior, but it’s also tradition to give the wild men alcohol as well. Chicago had their first adult-themed Krampusfest this year.

Next up, Allison and Mike go into the Pagan traditions of Europe and how they influence modern Christian holidays as well as linking him to the “European Wildman”, animism, and Voodoo. They also go into how the tradition of dressing up as a monster when the Summer ends and the nights come earlier comes all the way from Samhain (where our modern Halloween evolved from.) The ancients thought of the time between the Autumnal Equinox and the Winter Solstice as a time when the walls between this world and the netherworld were thinned and spirits could pass in and out, they could walk among us. That’s why they dressed up as monsters and evil spirits, so those monsters and evil spirits wouldn’t bother them. They compare this to Shaun of the Dead and The Walking Dead , which use those very same themes.

Also, they talk about Krampus’ appearances on American television over the past few years with spots on Grimm , American Dad! , Supernatural , as well as his own film, Krampus: The Christmas Devil. They finish up with discussing the weird Krampus Christmas cards that Europeans have sent over the past couple of centuries and some great Krampus gear that you can get!

Links:

Chicago Krampusfest

National Geographic,  “Europe’s Wild Men”

Top 5 Krampus Appearances in Pop Culture

Some awesome classic Krampus postcards

Cool Krampus Schwag!

Welcome to see you on the other Mike, where the world

of the mysterious collides with the world of entertainment.

A discussion of art, music, movies, spirituality, the

weird, and self discovery. And now,

your hosts, musicians and entertainers who have their

own weakness for the weird, Mike and Wendy from the

band, Sunspot. Hey, guys.

Mike here, and today I am once again hanging

out with my sister, Al Freak. Sorry.

Allison Jorlin from Milwaukee Ghosts.

And, since it is December, which means

it's it's the holiday season and I am with family.

I thought we could talk a little bit today about

Christmas. I mean, Saint Nick's Day was

just on Saturday. And,

Allison, do you remember Saint Nick's Day? I do. It was one of one

of my favorite times a year. I used to love to, hang

up the Christmas stockings and it was always, you

know, just a lot of fun to get up and and, climb on to

the fireplace and pull down your stocking and and see what

what treats were left behind. Yes. No. I I really enjoyed Saint

Nick's Day to do. And so if you guys don't know I

mean, everybody knows about Santa Claus, and but but

Saint Nicholas was more of a tradition coming out of, our

German heritage when we grew up near Milwaukee. So

Saint Nick would, you'd put up

a stocking and then he would leave little gifts for you.

So Saint Nick would just leave little stuff for you, and our mother used to

say that Saint Nick snuck in through the keyhole. And that's

how Saint Nick got in. He didn't come to the chimney like Santa

Claus. And then you'd be like, well because if you're

a kid, when you read A Night Night Before Christmas, you're like,

well, they talk about Saint Nick like he's Santa Claus. And so then this would

be another difficulty for parents to be like, well, Saint Nicholas isn't Santa

Claus. Saint Nicholas is saint is his own guy.

Right. And and is actual,

an actual Catholic saint? Mhmm. No. Saint

Nick is an actual Catholic saint. And, no. It was it was that

was always an extra fun thing. Always an extra fun

thing unless we got coal.

Yes. Because if if you were

a naughty little child, as I often was,

the only thing that would be in your stocking would be coal.

So Cold, dark, cold. Yeah.

So that that was the thing. Santa would I mean, Santa almost never

brought anything that he I he never brought us anything negative or anything. You know,

Santa was always he was always good cop. You

know, Saint Nick was allowed to bring us coal. Saint Nick was allowed to

let us know that we'd been bad that year.

And and in our tradition, Saint Nick would just I mean, he would

just bring you coal if you'd been naughty, but we should

go back a little bit further to the other German traditions

because there's a character that a lot of Americans don't know about, isn't there?

Yeah. Yes. So seeing Nick had a

devilish companion. He he's known as the the Christmas

devil, actually, or the Christmas demon, Krampus.

Yeah. The fact that there is a Christmas demon,

they they don't talk about that when they you know, Coca Cola doesn't have like,

they have plenty of Coca Cola Santa Clauses. They don't have, like, Coca

Cola Krampus. I mean, they should have Coca Cola

Krampus, which is he's the Christmas high fructose corn

syrup. That's right. No no,

Mexican Mike for you. You're getting you're getting the evils of corn

syrup. Yeah. That's right. Full on Krampus. You're getting right.

You're getting a Christmas present for your butt.

So but I mean so in the in the old, like, the

it comes from an Alpine Christmas tradition. I

mean, Saint Nick number 1, Santa Claus doesn't come on the

25th December on Christmas Day. Santa Claus or Saint Nicholas

comes on December 6th, which was Saturday,

December 6th, Saint Nick's Day. I didn't get any coal. I didn't get any coal

in my stocking this year. Did you? That's good. And and also

the Friday before then or or this this year

was Friday, December 5th

is Krampusnacht, the night of Krampus. Don't

you love things in German? I do. They just sound

freaky. They sound so much more horrible. It's like kapasnacht.

Right. It's Mike,

Mike know, Mike, that's that's when something horrible is gonna

happen to you, when the Christmas devil comes to

your house. And so, the

idea is that Krampus, you know, comes to your house

and then gives you a little, like a little a pop quiz

on your catechism, pop quiz on your I guess we'd call it Sunday

school here. And, Krampus

gives you a pop quiz. And what happens, Allison,

if, you don't get Krampus's questions

correct? Well, possibly one of 3

punishments. Krampus is always pictured

as carrying around a switch, which

he he would use to beat children. Yes.

If you were naughty, if you did not know your

catechism. So, but this was the the

least the least of your troubles because also

would, be pictured carrying a basket,

a very large basket on his back or a sack

like Saint Nick's or or like, like, Santa

Claus's, big sack except Kravis's

sack was empty. So no

presents no presents in Krampus' sack. Right? No. No. No. No.

It's a it's a particularly wide sack, used to

collect all the naughty little hellions.

And so he puts he stuffs the naughty children in

there. So Krampus is a Krampus is a

kidnapper. That's right. He kidnaps you. It's the Christmas

kidnapping. Yeah. He just stuffs you in in in the sack.

And so then 1 of 2 things could happen he would

either dump you into the river

or, he would drag you back to hell with

him and eat you alive. Oh, so you could be eaten

by Krampus. That's right. You you know, I think that's what happened to

all those people on the Mississippi River, up here in Minneapolis and in La

Crosse and something like that. They say it's a serial killer. I think it's

Krampus. It's it's really Krampus. Yes. Well, Krampus is is

pictured as as a demon. He has

very prominent horns. He's very hairy. You

know, he's very much, like a goat man, I guess you would say,

in in appearance. Okay. So

would you say that Krampus has a certain relation

to pagan traditions

from Europe? Yeah. I I would say so. I

mean, I I think a lot of our holiday traditions grow out of

paganism and and this is one that's been largely for the cotton

although it has been you know the the tradition of

Krampus has been gaining lots of popularity. I I

mean, there are, there used to only be Krampus,

parades like in Germany and in Austria, but, you know,

now we're seeing, Krampus events, pop up,

around the United States too. Well, there was a Krampus event in

Chicago on Friday, I believe, and

I'm just looking into it. So I'm going next year. I am

definitely going. Oh, yeah. You got I mean, the Krampus Fest sounds like a

sweet party, but this is the they have a kid

friendly event, 1 in Chicago, but this is the one that's

this started this year is not is not kid friendly.

It's the whole, Krampusnacht, and,

they had craft beer, Krampus themed art exhibits, a switching

station where partygoers can get spanked by beasts

clutching birch sticks. I've I've been to parties

like that before. The switching station no. That's that's real

Christmassy. I bet you have.

And so here's the the the guys that put it on said, we're

mostly inundated with Santa Claus and commercialism and consumerism

and a lot of that Christmas mumbo jumbo. Krampus is a tongue

in cheek way of taking a tradition of making children afraid to do bad

things and reclaiming it as adults.

So, oh, and there also was a salsa truck. So that this

sounds like a big right. Let's let's reclaim Christmas

with a salsa truck and craft beer. Actually, I think that sounds like a great

way to reclaim Christmas. Kind of a fusion a fusion event.

Yeah. I think, but I mean so we're having Krampus

knocks in the United States now. But when you

know, and I I think it goes back a little bit

to kind of the traditions of,

pagan Europeans who would dress up as, like, wild

men, you know, dress up as bears and things like

that, as a way, like,

to ensure a good harvest for the next year. You know, they they

would go through these rituals, and and so Krampus,

you know, I think kinda comes out of that, that

that primal European wild the

Neanderthal. Right? The primal European wild man that they used to dress

up Mike, because on the Krampus night parade and

stuff, like, these guys had rusty chains and switches, and

they'd run around the town and scare kids and then have drinks with the kids'

parents. Right. So this is just Mike,

and and you can imagine it too because And it still goes

on it still goes on today in Germany and Austria.

Right. But you can just imagine, like, the kind of a party where it's

like, we don't care what you know, it's Mike, it's Krampus night, man. This is

our night, baby. And they just put on costumes, get

wasted, run around, scare kids, and,

I mean, just turn it, you know, turn it into a giant public nuisance and

act, you know, and I just think that's

a that's a fun way to act like,

some of those pagan gods. So so you're

aspiring to that, Mike. That's what it sounds like. I'm thinking Yeah. Love love in

your heart for Krampus. I hear it coming through. You got to because I think

that, that's just part of the number 1, it might be part of the male

psyche, but number 2, it might be part of the human psyche

of that, this uncivilized

character that exists, this this side of humanity that

exists that's completely uncivilized. Think about,

Dionysus, you know, the satyr who I mean, very

much like Krampus, very much like the Very goat

Mike. Very goat like, very much like the traditional

Christian devil. I mean, and for a reason too. I

mean, when the Christians are trying to convert,

you know, people who you know, they wanna have Dionysian parties. You know, they wanna

have Bakkenals. Right. And they just wanna

wanna cast all, responsibility

aside. And and so, you know, the Christians can

kinda they can they can take some of those rituals

as as the early Christians were so good at doing, as every religion is

probably good at doing once it takes over for the old one. It

has to, assimilate some of the old

rituals into the new theology.

You know, the the new thing, because people need to have that some kind of

familiar. I mean, you know, in modern culture, our most

you know, the the assimilating the old, the

old religion into new is probably most prominent to us

because we understand it in voodoo. Right. You know, the the

the mixture of Catholicism and African animism

and and things like that. But, I mean, animism,

which is so we should explain animism for the kids.

Okay. You know? Right? Well, no. Alright. The idea that there's a

spirit in everything. Mhmm. That that's what

my definition would be. Does that match with your definition, Mike? Absolutely. I

mean, that that is the idea of animism that, you know,

there is a soul I mean, not not in the

traditional maybe Christian soul of heaven and stuff like that, but there is a

soul to every living creature. Ever I mean, it's the stones

and the rocks and, the water and

animals, and that's where a lot of folklore and stuff comes

from. When you're when you're thinking of,

you know, if you think about folklore, think of, you know, like Brer Rabbit or

something like that, and you give, a soul, a

spirit to an animal. Right. And and I

mean, that that, religious, tradition of

animism. I mean, you know, when you're looking at

it, you know, from a a postmodern viewpoint, I

mean, there is a lot in,

animism that, you know, I think still resonates today.

And we could we could really have a whole show

about about voodoo, and I I think we should. There will be a whole show

about voodoo and animism and the whole thing. I just I just wanted to connect

it to bringing bringing Krampus, the Europe

you know, like, the European wild man, guys dressed up like bears,

guys going crazy on a Friday night and acting stupid and everything

just to let, you know, just to, let some steam out in the wintertime.

Right. And well, and it's the connection the connection with the wild

as you were saying or to, you know, a way to let

out the the human dark side just a little

bit, you know, not letting it have full reign, but, you know, giving

it a holiday. So so it can, you know, just wreak a little

bit of acceptable havoc, but not really

hurt anyone. But, you know, the other thing I'd like

us to touch on is is that, you know, the

Krampus celebration, is really part

of I would think a larger phenomena

that that starts with you know what we know now as as

Halloween, but which had its Celtic roots

in in the celebration of

Sam, which was was to

celebrate the dark part of the year, to celebrate,

the harvest. And also When you said Samhain, you

mean Samhain. Right? Oh, yes. Yes. Well

well, that's that's how, some people pronounce it. Right. For

you for you Danzig and Ghostbusters fan, Sam Hain is what we're talking

about. That's right. Yeah. So so the way that, the correct

pronunciation is Samhain, but I don't you spell Mike Sam Haines sure but

anyway so so in this tradition,

what the the ancient Celts would do is, you know, they'd

celebrate the harvest, they'd have, bonfires,

and, I believe probably also sacrifices as well. Sure.

But you know one of the things that we have retained for

our Halloween tradition is

the idea of of dressing up in costume, dressing up

as demons because in the dark part of the year,

when it it it does, begin, you

know, after the autumnal equinox, when when the

dark does take over and it is for for

longer hours of the day, it is dark than

light. You know the idea was that that the underworld

was was coming up or, you know, the the veil between,

our world and the afterlife was becoming thinner.

And and so creatures could come through.

Demons could come through, and and they would walk among us. Well, the

idea is if you dress up as a demon, then they're not

gonna know that that you're really a a a puny scared

human. Yeah. They're gonna think you're one of the brethren. And that's that's

a funny thing, Allison, because for anybody that watches the

TV show The Walking Dead, part of the, you

know, part of what they do in The Walking Dead sometimes

is if you cover yourself in zombie

guts, you can walk among the zombies and they

can't smell your aliveness. So

that's that just really reminded me. Mike, we see that, and now that's

the most popular scripted drama on television. I can't first of all,

I can't believe a zombie show is the most popular script, you know, drama on

television. I know. And that which is fantastic in its own right. And and

there shows up and down. It's it's it varies in quality. But one of the

things is is that if you cover yourself in zombie guts and the you can

walk among the zombies, and they can't tell. Kinda like if you ever seen the

movie Shaun of the Dead. Yes. Well well, they didn't

exactly, I don't They didn't cover themselves. Shaun of the Dead. They didn't

have to exactly cover themselves in guts. They just walked around

imitating zombies, which is is funny. Is it was the hilarious

part of the movie. It it was. But the but the thing is is that

that idea of dressing

like the enemy, the other, the, you know, dressing like the monster and

then the monster thinks you're one of them, That goes back

1,000, you know, tens of 1000 of years, that tradition and stuff. So we

see that in stuff now. We have a laugh and Mike, oh, the monsters are

stupid. But we've been thinking of of about this

for all of recorded history, you know, and and and longer.

Right. So that that just made me laugh and it's Mike that's exactly

when people thought that monsters could come through and the veil

between this world and the next was porous.

Right. And that leads that that period of the of the year,

though, leads up to the winter

solstice December Wendy. And

then after this the summer 21st, it starts getting lighter

again, but really you know between the

autumnal equinox and the winter solstice

that is your dark part of the year. So it's not

unusual for Wendy you look back in the history to see

that, you know, even during, you know, the turn of the century,

it wasn't uncommon for people to dress in

costume during the Thanksgiving holiday and

go out and drink or treats Mike we

do during Halloween. So, I mean, that's

really interesting to to see that that tradition

of Halloween, which we now limit to,

October 31st, you know, really extend

beyond into that whole dark part of the year. And we'll

and we'll talk about that again. We'll have a whole episode on the Christmas tradition

of Christmas ghost stories, and where, you know,

Dickens got the idea for the Christmas Carol, and and that'll be its

own separate episode. But that Yes. It's getting ghost

stories. Yeah. Let me just say one more thing that because I love ghosts.

So, yeah, with, with the Christmas

carol, that's a holiday tradition.

You know, Charles Dickens developed that

story during the Mike, during in Victorian England

when it was traditional or at Christmas time to tell

ghost stories. And that's why Christmas Carol

is a ghost story because, again, it's that dark part of the year.

Something that we now reserve just for October 31st

actually went on from the autumnal equinox

all the way through until the winter

solstice, when it started after that to get a little bit

lighter every day. Yeah. I mean and so

so Krampus and and Krampus knock and and that sort of

celebration, is part of that. Now Wendy we're talking about,

the world being dark for a certain part of the year,

I think we'd be remiss if we didn't discuss that Krampus in

Iceland had 13 brothers.

Oh, I did not know that. Yeah. So, no.

The Icelandic Krampus was even more terrifying

than the usual Krampus because he had a whole bunch of brothers. And

that's probably because Iceland is dark, I mean, for

a good good portion of the winter Mike. I mean, they

they get I don't know if they get to a point with 24 hours at

night, but I know they get really close.

So, I mean, when I was in when I spent some time in Iceland, there

was 4 hours of darkness or less. You know, I'm pretty sure

it was right around a little less than 4 hours of darkness. And that's because

you went during the summertime. Right. So imagine in the wintertime when there's only

4 hours of light. Ugh.

Yeah. That's that's gotta be nasty. So, I mean, Krampus is

kinda picking up in American society today. Number 1, because you

can find out about him on the Internet. But Krampus has not been

ignored by pop culture at all either.

So, I mean, now that we we we are inundated with supernatural TV shows,

it really is an embarrassment of riches compared to I love

it. Compared to 10 years ago I mean, 20 years ago after The

X Files, we had a lot of great paranormal TV shows. I feel

like in the seventies, there were some great paranormal TV shows, but there was a

you know, there was a drought for a good long while. Yeah.

And, of course, they're a vary in quality. For every cold check to

Nightstalker, there's a Oh, come on. That's a classic Mike. I know. That's

what I said. For every cold check, the Nightstalker, there's a Baywatch Nights.

Oh. Oh, I forgot about Baywatch. How did you forget about

it's the it was the Hoff versus like, it's the Hoff

versus the the the other world. You know, it's the Hoff.

I got a date with YouTube. I'm gonna be watching that tonight. Yes.

Yes. Baywatch Nights on YouTube. You're gonna have to find it. Krampus never

appeared. On Baywatch Nights that I know of, but

Krampus definitely appeared on a show that you enjoy

Yes. And that's grim. Yes. And and it's

interesting because, that that, that show

has a lot of Germanic influence. What's called

it's called grim. Yes and and you know the

grim you know the the idea of the grim

fairy tales being based on reality and then grim's being,

these protectors or in the past, you

know more like a chop your head chop your head off

first, ask questions later sort of group. But,

now now very cool and enlightened and and have

and have, some of these, so called monsters as friends

because, you know, some of the monsters are cool. So, Grim, check it out.

So they but Grim So Krampus did appear on the Christmas

Devil appeared on Grim in last year. Okay. And so you can probably

find that on Hulu or something like that and check it out. If you wanna

get into that show. It's a it's a good paranormal show.

Krampus is also an American Dad this you know, last

year. Do you ever watch American Dad?

I'm not a big fan. I'm not a big fan of, of the

set. Oh, it's I mean, I know. He heart he hardly has anything to do

with that show anymore. Alright. Well, he's very, very talented,

but also very, very, crass. Oh,

yeah. Yeah. Well, it can get a little much for

me, but American Debt, I think, is, I I only catch it every once

in a while, but it's probably my favorite of those

shows. I mean, number 1, because they

have an alien that lives with him. I mean, the idea that the dad works

for the CIA and he still you know, he stole an alien from Area 51

and brought him home, Okay. Alright. That's huge. It's

one of the ways that makes American Dad fun. Plus, they had these

mind control experiments, and he brought home a goldfish

that has the brain of a East German,

Mike, I I forget not like an Eastern, a weightlifter or something like that

from the eighties. So there's an evil goldfish that

talks and just says mean things in a German accent on the show.

So they bring in all these ideas of the CIA has done, you know, the

way the CIA has experimented on aliens and mind control and things like

that. And so those are Okay. Well well, that's fun. I like that. And so

I enjoy that part of American Dad, and I think it's pretty clever. Plus,

if Patrick Stewart, you know, if Patrick Stewart appears on the show

regularly as Roger's boss, I'm sorry, Stan's boss. And,

I, I always enjoy a little bit of the captain, in

my life. That's right. Make it so, Mike. Make it so. That's correct.

So but krampus minstrel krampus was the name of the episode,

and he was in the holiday special,

after, he had stolen Stan's

son because Stan's son was bad. And Stan and Roger, the alien,

had to go to the North Pole to rescue him, and, that was fun.

Now now this is a show I don't watch very much,

but I know it's really popular. It's gotta be in the 10th season or whatever.

It's Supernatural. Oh, yeah.

I've I've watched a few episodes. Yeah. So it's They had Krampus on

there too? Yeah. They had Krampus in the 3rd season, to investigate a

series of people who were disappearing up their chimneys.

And so, supernatural hunted down the the

brothers Sam and I wanna say Sam and

Dean. I wanna I was Sam and Dean. I was gonna say Sam and

Dave, but I'm like, no. Sam and Dave is saying soul man. This is not

it's not those things. Sam and Dean hunted down the

Christmas devil. You can find that a very supernatural Christmas.

And then it's Awesome. I'm gonna check that one out. Yeah. And, in

2013, they made a movie called

Krampus the Christmas Devil. And,

that looks like no. I don't know if Krampus the Christmas Devil looking at it.

I don't know if it ever was shown in theaters. It doesn't look like the

kind of film that that made it out, was a great film. It's a

holiday classic. Right. And I Silent Night,

Deadly Night. I think, right, I think of movies like It's a

Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, Santa Claus versus

the Martians, Silent Night, Deadly Night, and Krampus, the Christmas

Devil. That's right. So, in this

in this track released in 2013, it's about a local

police officer who's gonna track down a child abductor. But

instead of being the usual, you know, crazy child abductor,

molester kind of guy, it's Krampus the

Christmas demon. So Krampus the

Christmas Devil is just a little something for your holidays. So maybe

it's a new classic you can watch with your kids every year.

That's right. That might be something Something's gotta get them to

behave. Right? Right. Maybe Krampus will do it. Well, I, you know, I

really like the fact. I mean, there's ticket.

There's so much fun that has like Christmas, I I I

enjoy Christmas too. You know, I'm I'm kind of a cynical bastard sometimes,

but I I enjoy Christmas, I enjoy holidays, I enjoy people

doing something fun and different and and having and having a festive

atmosphere, And the fact the fact

that that we've been doing this for centuries, and and now, obviously,

it's it's very commercial for the past 150 years or so, and and

Christmas drives, I mean, a good portion of our retail economy.

I completely understand that. And so

having Krampus as part of Christmas as a

commercial holiday doesn't really work, you know, because if your

kids I don't think so. If your if your kids are bad, you don't buy

them iPads. Just a couple more things on Krampus because, I just I

love looking at pictures of them. And and we'll we'll put some of these things

in the show notes so you can enjoy a little Krampus in your life.

Europeans exchange Krampus greeting

cards. Right. So they

greetings from the Krampus.

And so, they sent little, you know,

little cards with Krampus, Mike, I'm looking at one right now,

and it's Krampus Tully who looks like Pan, Tully looks like the

devil. You know? Right. The Goatman the Goatman of Christmas. The Goatman

of Christmas, the Christmas demon is spanking a kid who looks like

the little Dutch boy, and it's it's a greeting card from

1900. Can you imagine sending that? Like, hope your you know,

greetings from the Krampus. Hope your kids are behaving this year.

He's often featured looming menacingly over children,

sexual overtones. He's pursuing buxom women in

some of the I didn't know about that. Well, Krampus is you know,

think about the the boys on Krampusnacht. I

guess. That's right. I mean, Krampusnacht is the is the wild man.

I mean, think about Pan or Bacchus. I mean, that

was wild human that was the human id.

Right. Or the the satyrs, the Greek satyrs. Right? Yeah. I mean,

they were the wild man. There was I mean, in Northern Europe

and stuff like that, they dressed as bears instead of goats,

but that doesn't, I mean, that doesn't change that there were these

completely uncivilized people, and

that we were acting like them and, you know,

using them to scare our kids. Yeah. These these characters that

represent a part of the human psyche. And,

yeah. I mean, there's even, like so during

a which is Oh, the parade.

Yeah. You know, that's the run of the celebrants dressed

as Krampus, and they're all boozing up beforehand.

And so it's customary to offer someone dressed as Krampus

schnapps, which is fruit

brandy if you guys haven't tried it yet, and it's depending it could be

disgusting, could be good. But, anyway, so these guys so you see a

Krampus or whatever after the parade and stuff when they're running around scaring your

kids, shaking rusty chains, and taking the switch to your

boy, after he finishes abusing your child,

you're supposed to give him some schnapps. Right. And don't forget

all the swag that you can buy. I'm just looking

now. There's, Krampus greeting cards. My favorite,

though, is you can even get a Krampus

creepy Krampus sticker book with 72 reusable

stickers. Oh, man. Yeah. Perfect for all your

naughty girls and boys. That is. I mean and just

Krampus is just I mean, we used to get a little bit of coal in

the stocking when we were bad, but I'm just glad I was not

shoved into a sack and dragged down to hell.

Yeah. We both could have been. We deserved it, Mike. I totally

deserve I deserved it today. That's right. So,

anyway, thank you for joining me today, Allison. I'm

glad, you know, we could talk a little bit about Krampus and the family and

everything like that. And, if people wanna find out any any

more about what you do and any kind of stuff about Milwaukee

ghosts, where's the place to go? Well, as always, it's

been a pleasure, bro. And you can find out more information

about local ghost stories at milwaukeeghosts.com.

Alright. Thanks a lot, Allison. We'll talk to you soon. Bye bye.

Hi everybody. It's Wendy just dropping in to say thanks to Mike and Allison for

the great discussion. It really got me in the holiday spirit

and I'm going to make darn sure that I behave myself so that Krampus

character does not stop by my house. I also

wanted to let you know that you can find the episode show

notes at othersidepodcast.com/13.

That's the number 13. For today's song, we

have a Sunspot original holiday track where

a robot Krampus makes a visit in the middle. This

is Digitalistic Christmas.

We beat your mail. We watch your posts.

Process your tweets.

When Sano makes his list, it's our data

Thank you for listening to today's episode. You can find us

online at othersidepodcast.com. Until next

Mike. See you on the other side.