A countdown of fact and funny until the big man arrives
You’d better watch out, you’d better not cry, Krampus is coming to town!
Yeah. Santa may be a bit of a softie (Does he ever follow through on that promise of coal to naughty kids?) but his evil partner Krampus sure as heck scares us into behaving ourselves. According to legend, this demon-type creature accompanies ol’ St. Nick punishing those Naughty List-bound kids. Traditionally, young men in Austria dress up as Krampus in the few few weeks of December, terrorizing children. We see him in the first half of the month presumably (hopefully) because the bad kids have gotten their shh together?
Does Krampus figure into your Christmas celebrations?
Advent candle photo by rabasz, Krampus photo by pixel0908 on Flickr
A countdown of fact and funny until the big man arrives.
Yeah, three days. How nuts is that? As nuts as Santa being used as pro-Union propaganda during the U.S. Civil War?
Nineteenth century editorial cartoonist Thomas Nast drew the first depiction of Santa with his sleigh in the January 3, 1963 edition of Harper’s. In the drawing, he’s handing out presents to Yankee soldiers.
A countdown of fact and funny until the big man arrives
Jingle Bells in space and the Santa Claus Plot: “Jingle Bells” became the first song ever to be played in space when astronauts Walter M. Schirra Jr. and Thomas P. Stafford reported back to ground controllers that they’d seen some sort of UFO. And then the ground controllers heard that familiar melody accompanied by sleigh bells coming from the space craft Gemini 6.
“We have an object, looks like a satellite going from north to south, probably in polar orbit…. Looks like he might be going to re-enter soon…. You just might let me pick up that thing…. I see a command module and eight smaller modules in front. The pilot of the command module is wearing a red suit.”
A countdown of fact and funny until the big man arrives
Anyone watch any number of showings of White Christmas on AMC this weekend? We tried, but fell asleep before Wallace and Davis and the Haynes sisters even got off the train in Vermont. (Don’t worry, White Christmas is a favourite and will be watching during a present-wrapping session or two.)
The titular song, as sung by Bing Crosby, is the best-selling record of all time. Irving Berlin wrote it in 1940, probably. Accounts vary as to when exactly he wrote it.
Oh, we owe you a fun fact, don’t we?
Influential choreographer Bob Fosse (Cabaret, Chicago) made dances for White Christmas, though he is uncredited.
A countdown of fact and funny until the big man comes to town
This year, were you to buy your true love all the items from the 12 Days Of Christmas, you’d be looking at spending $97,641.05 (US$96,824.29)
The cost of everything is up nearly 10 per cent from last year, according to the Christmas Price Index. While we’re not sure who really gives a flying fig about eight lords a leaping, we always figured three French hens would be rather reasonable – the hens are up 230 per cent this year! (Also, we don’t know what’s involved in these presents – how long do the drummers drum for? Is this a flat rate or are is the true love charged per drummer, per hour?)
