Tag Archives: holiday horrors

Holiday Horrors: KRAMPUS!

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As I mentioned in a previous post, the American version of the Santa story has been sanitized a little bit. Most of the legends/backstory we think about when we think about Santa come from Germanic folktales. And like most things with Germanic origins, the earlier incarnations are pretty terrifying. Think the fairytales of The Brothers Grimm, or David Hasselhoff.

The Santa Claus of old folklore is similar to the one we know. He puts presents and treats in the stockings of good kids. But he is also trailed by a trickster demon who punishes the wicked kids. In most tellings, this twisted creature’s name is KRAMPUS.

krampus.jpgWhat does KRAMPUS look like? A lot like that handsome devil to your right. He’s a goat-like monster, with cloven hooves, curly horns, and a terrifyingly long tongue. He carries around a switch, which he uses to beat naughty children. Sometimes, he’s depicted wielding a chain instead (yikes). He also carries a basket, in which he deposits especially bad children, in order to carry them back to Hell (double yikes).

In the 19th century, Krampus was so popular that holiday greeting cards featuring him were sent all over Europe. Most of them had the ironic/ominous message Gruss vom Krampus (“Greetings from Krampus”).

Some of these cards showed Krampus as mischievous, like this one, which has him stealing oranges from little kids. Some showed him as being extremely violent. Some depicted him as a bawdy, satyr-like figure, as the lower-left card in this collage did. Some were just plain bizarre, like this one that shows Krampus all decked in leather, driving a motorcycle, while a passive St. Nicholas rides in the sidecar.

Lest you think this is a relic of simpler times, know that in parts of Europe, people still dress up as Krampus every December 5. They create elaborate demon-masks and roam the streets with chains and other noisy things. Their goals are two-fold: 1) to scare people; 2) to get shit faced. It’s sort of a holiday mashup of Halloween and St. Patrick’s Day. (The Morning News has an interesting description of Krampustage from an American’s perspective, which you can read here.)

For some reason, Krampus got airbrushed out of American Christmas traditions. My guess is because he’s terrifying. You won’t find too many references to the child tormentor in our Yuletide fare, although he was referenced on a recent Colbert Report, and seen in the Christmas mini-episode of The Venture Brothers.

So if you dread heading to your folks’ house and drinking too much egg nog, just know that it could be worse. You could have been brought up to know that on Christmas Eve, you might get presents, or you might get dragged to Hades by a fiendish goat-man.

Holiday Horrors: Rudolph’s Shiny New Year

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I once again stand by my contention that the original Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer is “an unbridled triumph”. The same can not be said for the cheapy CGI sequel I shall not mention by (confusing) name again. But that wasn’t the first piece of Rudolphiana that failed to make the grade. Sadly, even some of the official Rankin-Bass follow-ups were not up to the bar set by their masterwork.

Witness Rudolph’s Shiny New Year, an odd duck of a holiday special produced by Rankin-Bass in 1976. Worst holiday special ever? No, not even close. It has much of the charm and spirit that made the original Rudolph so great. I hesitate to say it’s even bad. But it is weird. Really, really weird.

rudolphsnewyear.jpgIt starts out simple enough. Rudolph, just back from his triumphant sleigh ride around the world, is asked by Father Time (voiced by Red Skelton) to locate Baby New Year, who ran away after constant taunting about his big ears.* Unless Baby New Year can be found in time, it will remain December 31 forever!

* The guys at Rankin-Bass really had a thing for protagonists who were teased to the breaking point. I’m betting there were a lot of club foots and lazy eyes in their development department.

Anywhoozle, if you’re already on board for talking, flying reindeer and Baby New Year, this is all pretty straightforward. Unfortunately, the special takes a sharp left turn in to Crazy Town shortly thereafter.

Rudolph embarks on his quest, not accompanied by Hermey, but by General Ticker, a clock shaped military man who only speaks in rhyme. He searches for Baby New Year in The Archipelago of Last Years, which is where each year gets its own island once it’s ended. He winds up on a caveman island, a colonial America island, and a medieval island which, inexplicably, is filled with storybook characters. At some point, Rudolph is joined by a Ben Franklin lookalike (who’s called Sev, for some reason) and Big Ben, a whale with a huge clock in his tail.

Oh, and Rudolph is being pursued by a giant buzzard named Aeon who wants to capture Baby New Year so he won’t die when the year ends, because of some sort of not-well-explained time/space technicality. How’s that make you feel about the holidays, kids?

If my descriptions seem vague and not fleshed out, it’s because the same can be said of this special. It’s like Rankin-Bass took a million different ideas, put them in a blender, poured this goop out onto a piece of paper, and called it a script. I’ve seen Rudolph’s Shiny New Year several times, and I still don’t quite understand what it’s about. Or who it’s meant for. Or where I am, really, as I’m watching it.

Although I do applaud Rankin-Bass for their aggressive darkness. You might expect to a special called Rudolph’s Shiny New Year to be more festive and cheerful. Instead, you get a stop-motion version of Fellini’s Satyricon.

If you really want to delve deep into its nuances, Progressive Boink did an almost scene-for-scene deconstruction of its weirdness a few years back, which you can peep here. But be warned: THERE ARE SOME THINGS YOU CAN’T UNSEE, MAN!

Holiday Horrors: “Cherry Cherry Christmas”

It appears today’s scheduled Holiday Horrors post is experiencing technical difficulties. In the meantime, please enjoy this pinch-hitting horror. For other Holiday Horrors posts, click here.

I hate to pick on Neil Diamond, but…Actually, scratch that. I don’t hate to pick on Neil Diamond at all. He’s kinda ridiculous, in a way not totally unlike another of my favorite giggle targets, Danzig. He has that perfect blend of theatricality and self-importance that I really admire in a figure of mockery.

Having mentioned Neil’s rendition of “The Little Drummer Boy” (and his Christmas special) in a previous post, I figured that was enough Diamond bashing for one holiday season. But then my cousin hipped me to another one of his Christmas tunes. I am so glad he did, because this is a goldmine (if goldmines contained rich veins of turd instead of gold).

It’s called “Cherry Cherry Christmas”. Perhaps you’ve heard Neil’s smash 1970s hit “Cherry Cherry”. When I first heard Neil Diamond wrote a song called “Cherry Cherry Christmas”, I thought it might just be a repurposed version of the earlier tune. You know, with the lyrics altered slightly. “She’s got the way to Yule me!”

But it’s not. And amazing as this might sound, you’ll wish it was once you hear “Cherry Cherry Christmas.”

I didn’t even know what to say the first time I listened to it, because I didn’t really know what I just heard. Did Neil Diamond just take the title of one of his biggest hits and slap it on a holiday song? One that doesn’t sound anything like the original?! One that namechecks other songs of his? And not just a few times, but constantly throughout the song?!

Seriously, can you imagine anyone else doing something like this? Of course you can’t. Only Neil Diamond has the sheer balls and lack of shame to pen and perform a song in which he wishes everyone a Neil Diamond Christmas.

To really appreciate its grandeur, you need to break it down piece by piece.

Start: Swelling music, jingle bells, flutes, glockenspiel…oh, this is going to be a soft, sentimental Christmas song. That sounds nice…

0:13: Wish you a very merry, Cherry Cherry Christmas/And a Holly Holy holiday too…That is the first line of this song. These are the first words you hear in this song. Look, this tender holiday-themed music isn’t to get you into the Christmas spirit. It’s to get you to check out the remastered Neil Diamond back catalog, currently on sale at Amazon, iTunes, and Best Buy.

If Neil had done this as a rollicking, tongue-in-cheek holiday song, it might have worked. Might have. But The Jazz Singer would have none of that. No, his song about how everyone should have a Neil Diamond Christmas is very serious and can only be appropriately expressed through the use of harp and a 40-piece string section.

0:45: After a bunch of oppressively dumb lyrics (and another shoutout to one of his own compositions, “Song Sung Blue”), Neil ends the first verse with these words: You’ll have a very merry, Cherry Cherry, Holly Holy, rock n’ roll-y Christmas this year. Just a reminder: Neil Diamond was born in 1958. He is not 6 years old, as these lyrics might indicate.

1:11: Feels like pretty amazing grace/If you know what I mean…No, Neil, I haven’t the slightest idea what you mean. Unless you’re referring to the song “Pretty Amazing Grace” off of your 27th studio album, Home Before Dark, which I’m sure can be picked up at Borders and all fine retailers at a reasonable price.

1:29: In a world of make believe, I’m a believer/And I believe in things not always understood…Did you know that Neil Diamond has a wonderful plan for your life? He’s so magical, he can even reference songs he wrote for others but never recorded himself!

2:03: Let’s raise a Christmas toast of red red wine/We’ll even sing “Sweet Caroline”/While the whole world sings along…It take a special kind of man to not only reference two of his own songs in one verse, but insist the entire world will be chanting one of them in his honor to celebrate Jesus’ birth. Is that because Jesus’ mother’s name was Caroline, or because he’s a Sox fan?

2:13: Cue the sax solo from “Just the Way You Are”!

2:44: Makes you wanna have a very merry/Holly Holy/Cherry Cherry/Christmastime the whole year long…Sorry Neil, I think in such a world, the survivors would envy the dead.

3:20: He ends by yelling out CHERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE! Because if you’re gonna write a Christmas monument to yourself, the time for restraint has long since passed. You go out with a bang, not a whimper. VERY CHERRY NEIL DIAMOND-MAS IN BLUE JEANS, EVERYONE! AND A HOT AUGUST NIGHT TO YOU AS WELL!

Congrats, Neil Diamond. You’ve written the most self-serving piece of Christmas dreck ever. You may collect your prize from the bursar.