What do you think of these two spooky holiday traditions?

Who said your holiday season can’t be a healthy mix of merry, bright, scary, and dramatic? After all, ‘tis the season of whatever traditions you want. So, while you’re shopping for some last-minute finds for the horror lover on your shopping list, how about delving deep into two spooky origin stories that might be suitable additions to your current holiday traditions?

Celebrate Krampus instead

While jolly, old Saint Nick is a holiday icon for some, that doesn’t he is the only magical figure that parents can use to convince their children to behave throughout the year. In fact, countries like Germany, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovenia, and Hungary, use Krampus to keep kids in line for Christmas. And yes, we’ve got Krampus decorations.

Krampus is a half-demon, half-goat anthropomorphic creature who scares children who have been caught misbehaving. Rather than receiving coal in their stockings for being bad, Krampus takes a more devilish approach by going village to village and tormenting bad little children by beating them with the birch branch he carries. They are then taken to his lair to be tortured and drowned. The worst part is they will ascend into hell to be punished for eternity by the devil himself.

Yes, we know this tail is a little dark and twisted, but since you’re fans of all things horror, shop our assemblage of Krampus decorations to spark a new excitement for the holidays.

Hide yo’ brooms

While today’s holiday traditions consist of decorating a tree, going caroling, or visiting vibrant markets, there was a time where Christmas was seen as another time of year (aside from Halloween) where the veil between the spirit world and human world was thin, making it easy for supernatural beings to pass between the two. This is a popular belief for the people of Norway. However, if you want to prevent witches and evil spirits from trespassing in your home, we recommend hiding their primary mode of transportation…brooms! If you want to shake things up tradition-wise, be sure that you find a great hideaway to make their travels less convenient this Christmas eve.

Have you heard of either of the above Christmas alternatives? If there was one we missed, please drop it in the comments section below.