As the sun set on the tenth day, the dark of night crept in and with it: the krampus.
Now, before I go on let me preface this with a little disclaimer. Krampus is definitely not to be introduced to all children or in the traditional way (because old times were seriously terrifying with this kind of stuff ya'll!). Marshall is an October boy through and through. He is just naturally drawn to dark stuff. Tim Burton is his favorite along with Halloween and turning his sister's sweet lullabies into death metal jams. For a long time his favorite color was black, which was interesting, last year when one would see all the kids' colorful drawings displayed and Marshall's would stick out like a sore thumb being all black and dark blue. Where he got this is beyond me because Brad and I are not into metal or the dark and twisted. Nature over nurture at its best. So anyways, what I'm saying is that while this day may not be best for all kids- it's made for Marshall and with his limits in mind. Okay, now back to it:
Krampus was celebrated in many of the Northern European countries. Germany, Austria, Switzerland to name a few. He is a half goat, half demon monster that is, according to legend, the son of a Norse God. If a child is on the nice list he gets St. Nicholas and presents, if the child is on the naughty list he get the krampus and a birch switch. See, I wasn't exaggerating with saying it was terrifying earlier was I? Obviously we changed things up a bit!
First, I told Marshall about Krampus. I explained that it was all just pretend, that the krampus isn't real, and this was all just for fun. Mads loved the idea of it, especially after getting to listen to 'Krampus is Coming' a metal ode to the holiday beast- a special treat as we don't listen to too much metal in our house. Okay, okay... we don't listen to any metal in our house.
For some fun, we printed out a few [more kid friendly] pictures of Krampus and made it into a game. I made a little range with them as if they were on the alpine mountains that it is said they live on. Marshall used his snowball shooter- that the elves gave him last Christmas- to keep the monsters at bay.
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| Tough guys ready for krampus target practice |
We also played hide & seek as a family. Marshall sang "Krumpus is coming to get you" as he looked for us.
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| How many Dingmans can fit in a kids' tent? |
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| 3! |
As a little snack we made some deviled eggs, we thought it would be pretty fitting.
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| "What is that?!" |
To bring the night to a close, we made shadow monsters on the wall. While we played with the shadows I explained that that's why there's nothing to be afraid of in the dark. Those shadows that can be frightening are nothing more than object in between the light and wall- just like our hands making the puppets.
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| Krampus?! |
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| ...close, it's the other little monster |
The tenth day we tip-toed into the dark side of Christmas. Unconventional, but it worked out into a fun time and Marshall got to learn a bit more about the history and traditions of other countries and the holiday season. Today was about the naughty list but tomorrow will be making us feel pretty sweet! Stay on the nice list everyone.
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