Have a Freaky Christmas

[angilasman]

Enjoy Austria's Krampus parade on Youtube!

www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WLnl5ZWG4tg


Reminds me, as a MST-fan, of the fact that the Mexican Santa Claus movie really captures so much Christmas freakiness (of course there needs to be a devil in a Christmas movie!). I'll probably write more about that when I watch the episode in the next week.

[caucasoididiot]

Dec 14, 2011 14:19:56 GMT -5 angilasman said:

Enjoy Austria's Krampus parade on Youtube!

www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WLnl5ZWG4tg

You sure that isn't George Lucas' re-edit of The Star Wars Christmas Special?

[mummifiedstalin]

Dec 15, 2011 9:44:43 GMT -5 @caucasoididiot said:

Dec 14, 2011 14:19:56 GMT -5 angilasman said:

Enjoy Austria's Krampus parade on Youtube!

www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WLnl5ZWG4tg

You sure that isn't George Lucas' re-edit of The Star Wars Christmas Special?

[GodoHell]

Neat video. I was in Graz once--but it was in August, so none of this fun.

I would have no problem seeing this kind of celebration run from Halloween all the way to Xmas day.

[reaperg]

That's from Douglal Dixon's "The New Man", am I right?

So if you haven't seen Anthony Bourdain's "No Reservations" holiday episode yet, it aira again on the Travel Channel tomorrow. Krampus, the Vegan Death Metal Chef, Norah Jones, Tony's midget "son," a self-effacing Samantha Brown, and Christopher Walken cooking an octopus. Just a whole lot of surreal hilarity all around.

[mummifiedstalin]

If you haven't seen this, you should:

[nondescript spice]

i had to bump this because it is the source of my holiday wallpaper. it's a great, folksy way to alarm my co-workers every year.

[Frameous]

[mummifiedstalin]

Dec 7, 2012 16:21:29 GMT -5 nondescript spice said:

i had to bump this because it is the source of my holiday wallpaper. it's a great, folksy way to alarm my co-workers every year.

Enjoy this while I go dig up more cards and scans:

www.cracked.com/article_18928_the-12-most-unintentionally-disturbing-christmas-ads.html

[Frameous]

My favorite Holiday picture:



A Moe Szyslak Christmas.

[mrsphyllistorgo]

Ahh, Christmas! Time to terrorize the living hell out of my neices and nephew! I'm all the way across the country, they can't stop me! They each get a dead bird card with "Which of you is next?" written inside.

[crowschmo]

Dec 6, 2010 9:56:53 GMT -5 mummifiedstalin said:

Santa apparently used to use women rather than reindeer. I think the expression on the front girl's face just screams Happy Holidays!

I think the one seated is actually a woman dressed as Santa. Form and features look kind of feminine and looks like (s)he? is wearing a wig.

I was in a gift shop and one of the things they actually sold were figurines of dead birds. I was wondering what the hell was up with that.

Well, I guess we still don't know for sure.

[mummifiedstalin]

I think I solved the dead bird mystery. If I'm right, it relates to an old Celtic ritual that's still practiced in parts of Ireland and coastal Europe. It's often referrEd to as the Wren Boys or the Wren Dance. I haven't found a good explanation of WHY, but here's the WHAT:

In past times, an actual bird was hunted by Wrenboys on St. Stephen's Day. The captured wren was tied to the Wrenboy leader's staff pole. The captured wren would be kept alive as the popular mummers' parade song states 'A penny or tuppence would do it no harm'. The song, of which there are many variations, asked for donations from the townspeople. Often, the boys gave a feather from the bird to patrons for good luck. The money was used to host a dance for the town, held that night. The pole, decorated with ribbons, wreaths and flowers, as well as the Wren, was the centre of the dance

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wren_Day


And the Santa as a woman in costume looks very possible. That almost makes it weirder.

[mummifiedstalin]

I've really gotten into this in the last couple of years since I got the book I mentioned at the beginning of the thread. I now have many more books and a few friends have sent me actual holiday cards they've found. So I suppose I'm not an official collector of Christmas oddities.

Here are a few choice ones:













And then there's this one:



It's not particularly striking at first glance. However, something about the whole thing just strikes me as sinister. You've got a masked harlequin either conjuring or conducting a pudding and a floating bottle of champagne, both with legs but no arms. The pudding is bear a standard. And they're dancing (?) for a simultaneously bored, confused, and shocked Father Christmas who, for some reason, is sitting in either a dilapidated drawing room or, perhaps, a tent. But the whole thing just bothers me in some way I can't quite describe.

So many more. I'll post a few every day or so for FESTIVE!!!!!'s sake.

[afriendlychicken]

Dec 10, 2012 20:32:47 GMT -5 mummifiedstalin said:

I think I solved the dead bird mystery. If I'm right, it relates to an old Celtic ritual that's still practiced in parts of Ireland and coastal Europe. It's often referrEd to as the Wren Boys or the Wren Dance. I haven't found a good explanation of WHY, but here's the WHAT:

In past times, an actual bird was hunted by Wrenboys on St. Stephen's Day. The captured wren was tied to the Wrenboy leader's staff pole. The captured wren would be kept alive as the popular mummers' parade song states 'A penny or tuppence would do it no harm'. The song, of which there are many variations, asked for donations from the townspeople. Often, the boys gave a feather from the bird to patrons for good luck. The money was used to host a dance for the town, held that night. The pole, decorated with ribbons, wreaths and flowers, as well as the Wren, was the centre of the dance

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wren_Day


And the Santa as a woman in costume looks very possible. That almost makes it weirder.

Here's The Chieftain's doing a version of the wren song: