Christmas bells, candy canes, and hot cocoa by the fire - that’s the idealized American Christmas scene. Our traditions are designed to give everyone in the family the warm fuzzies and in America, the worst thing that could ever happen at Christmas is a lump of coal in your stocking. 

But this isn’t the case in the Old Country. Europe is the source of many of our grim fairy tales and even Christmas has its own unique cast of monsters. Tales of cannibalism, horse skulls, slaves, and worse all make an appearance in the holiday traditions around the world. Today we’re exploring the yuletide lore that your parents definitely didn’t tell you before bed. 

That’s what you're in for today on Impolite Society.

Sources:

https://www.slate.com/articles/life/holidays/2011/12/zwarte_piet_holland_s_favorite_racist_christmas_tradition_.html

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0015587042000231264

https://www.medievalists.net/2019/12/the-yule-cat-of-iceland-a-different-kind-of-christmas-tradition/ 

https://witchlike.wordpress.com/2020/01/05/frau-perchta-witch-of-twelfth-night/

https://www.wales.com/about/culture/mari-lwyd

https://medium.com/@jahernandez_writes/the-tale-of-p%C3%A8re-fouettard-66260dc44890

https://www.visiticeland.com/article/meet-the-icelandic-yule-troll-family

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIXscGcdGyk 

https://www.americanacademy.de/attacking-zwarte-piet/ 

https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/12/22/572569325/caga-ti-a-catalan-log-that-poops-nougats-at-christmas

https://people.howstuffworks.com/culture-traditions/holidays-christmas/pooping-man-catalan-nativity-scene.htm

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