It’s nearly Christmas, and I don’t know about you, but the older I get, the faster December seems to go by. As a fan of scary movies, I often appreciate the darker, scarier side of things, and Christmas is no different. For years now, I’ve loved the legend of Krampus.
For those of you who don’t know the legend, Krampus is a half-goat, half-demon companion to Saint Nicholas from Central European folklore. You can read more about Krampus here:https://www.britannica.com/topic/Krampus, but the short of it is this: Saint Nicholas comes bearing gifts for good children, Krampus is the counterpart who brings punishments to bad children.
While we could dive deeper into the philosophy and theology of gifts and punishments embodied by these two characters, I want to keep my analysis at the surface.
It’s easy to love Good Saint Nicholas, the benefactor of children in Turkey, but I find it interesting that there is also a darker spirit that embodies punishment. In a way, it seems almost fitting – if we are to be good to receive good gifts from Saint Nicholas, it only makes sense that being bad would elicit a punishment from his demonic counterpoint.
I can easily separate the value of folklore in celebrating the season and helping to keep kids in check, but this Christmas, I find my mind wandering to the darker side of Christmas.
As I looked at my busy calendar, filled to the brim with many good things, I felt joy, but also a deeper sense of fatigue. This bubbled up as I walked through Westroads Mall this weekend. Surrounded by the bustle of the season, I felt a sense of loneliness in the busyness of the shopping center. All around were people who are struggling to make ends meet, consumed by the stress of the season, people far from family, and people celebrating their first Christmas without a loved one.
Amidst this, the bright signs of the commercialism of Christmas overflowed, calling to mind the question of Krampus. If Christmas is a time to celebrate the greatest gift to humankind in the incarnation of Christ, why do we bring our own punishment to the table?
Why do I find myself snapping at loved ones, overwhelmed with commitments, and wishing for the season to be over and for life to return to normal?
Maybe the punishment Krampus is bringing me this year is the lack of focus on the reason we celebrate Christmas…
A Profitable Read 