Winter Wonders and Christmas Customs: Creepy Legends

By Austin Price, Staff Writer

Alright, as we come to an end of these wild Christmas traditions, we will wrap things up with some scary stories and creepy Christmas legends. Why, you may ask. Because the true meaning of Christmas is not to show your love for one another through acts of generosity and kindness. No, the true meaning of Christmas is to focus on superstitious rituals and cult-like ideals. Here we go. 

According to Smithsonian Magazine, “the most famous Christmas story is a ghost story. Charles Dickens’ ‘A Christmas Carol’ was first published in 1843, and its story about a man tormented by a series of ghosts the night before Christmas belonged to a once-rich, now mostly forgotten tradition of telling ghost stories on Christmas Eve. Dickens’ supernatural yuletide terror was no outlier, since for much of the 19th century, was the holiday indisputably associated with ghosts and specters.” 

While Charles Dickens may have been the one to reintroduce our love of ghosts, ghouls, and all things creepy during the most magical time of the year, ghost stories were originally developed as a form of entertainment throughout the cold, dark winters, prior to the discovery of electricity. “The long midwinter nights meant folks had to stop working early, and they spent their leisure hours huddled close to the fire,” says Tara Moore, an assistant professor of English at Elizabethtown College, author of “Victorian Christmas in Print,” and editor of “The Valancourt Book of Victorian Christmas Ghost Stories”.

While scary stories shared during the Christmas season started as oral performances, they become a documented tradition, thanks to the development of the steam-powered printing press during the Industrial Revolution that made the written word more widely available. Industrialization not only provided tools to distribute spooky stories, uncertainty during the era also fueled interest in the genre, says Brittany Warman, a folklorist specializing in Gothic literature and co-founder of The Carterhaugh School of Folklore and the Fantastic. Interest was driven, she says, by “the rise of industrialization, the rise of science, and the looming fall of Victorian Britain as a superpower. All these things were in people's minds, and made the world seem a little bit darker and a little bit scarier.”

Now that we know how creepy Christmas stories were shared, let us explore some of the different tales that were told. By far the most famous Christmas ghost story is that of Charles Dickens’ 1843 novella “A Christmas Carol,” which recounts the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, an elderly miser who is visited by the ghost of his former business partner Jacob Marley and the spirits of Christmas Past, Present and Yet to Come. After their visits, Scrooge is transformed into a kinder, gentler man. Because of these frightening, supernatural, and paranormal visits, Scrooge is able to defeat a lifetime of selfishness and the worship of money to become a new man with an entirely new outlook on life. He learns how to be patient, kind and generous.

To read the full story, go to: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/46/46-h/46-h.htm

The next Christmas ghost story is “Oh, Whistle, and I’ll Come to You, My Lad” by M.R. James. This 1904 ghost story follows a Cambridge professor on holiday in the town of Burnstow. While exploring some Templar ruins, he comes across an old bronze whistle. That night, he blows the whistle and experiences visions, among other supernatural occurrences. These unusual interactions give the professor a new look on life as he ponders his actions and his beliefs. 

To read the full story, go to: https://gutenberg.ca/ebooks/jamesmr-ohwhistle/jamesmr-ohwhistle-00-h.html

Our final Christmas ghost story is my personal favorite creepy Christmas legend because the game played in the story was one I played a lot growing up. Granted, my games did not have the same outcome as the one told in the story but nonetheless, this is a delightfully scary Christmas story. “Smee” by A.M. Burrage is a spooky story set on Christmas Eve. In this tale, A boy, Tony, tells the frightening tale of a game called “Smee,” which is similar to hide-and-seek. However, this was no ordinary game of Hide Seek. Why? Because in this game, a ghost joined in.  

To read the full story, go to: https://www.scaryforkids.com/smee/

And that concludes our Winter Wonders and Christmas Customs. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday season and maybe explore some of these traditions and rituals. 

Stay safe, stay warm, stay jolly, and I will see you in the New Year! 

Winter Wonders and Christmas Customs: An Unusual Christmas Eve Tradition

By Austin Price, Staff Writer

Alright you single ladies, this next tradition is for you. This is by far the most unusual and outlandish Christmas tradition I have ever come across, but it certainly is interesting. While this tradition is not as well known in America, it is a holiday celebration staple for the Czech Republic. 

According to an article by OM&M News, “on Christmas Eve, single women find out if they will marry in the following year, by performing an unusual ritual involving the throwing of shoes.”  To perform this ritual, a woman will stand with her back to her front door and then throw one of her shoes over her shoulder. If the shoe lands with the heel towards the door, then it is believed she will remain single. If the shoe lands with the front of the shoe pointing towards the door, then it is thought that she will move out of her parent’s house and make wedding preparations.

While this tradition may be seen as more superstitious than reliable, it serves as either a beacon of hope or as an omen of failure for many women throughout Europe. My advice: do not perform this ritual when you are single, no matter where you live. Instead, perform this ritual in front of your long-term boyfriend in the hopes he will take a hint and finally make a commitment to you based on your shoe throwing abilities. 

Winter Wonders and Christmas Customs: Ugly Sweaters

By Austin Price, Staff Writer

Our next Christmas tradition is one of my personal favorites: the wearing of Ugly Christmas sweaters. Ugly Christmas sweaters didn’t actually start out so ugly. The original ugly Christmas sweaters were never intended to be ugly; they were actually pretty artistic and joyful. They were first known as “Jingle Bell Sweaters” and featured discrete Christmas themed decorations. However, as the years went by, these sweaters became more commercialized and took on a different meaning. 

This silly, iconic tradition really gained steam in the 1980s. According to writer Valeria Santalla, “the character that popularized weird sweaters with strange patterns was Cliff Huxtable from The Cosby Show. By the end of the decade, it was common for conductors of Christmas special shows to wear them.” Despite their fame, ugly Christmas sweaters lost their iconic status in the 1990s. Ugly Christmas sweaters did not make a substantial comeback until the character Mark Darcy got shamed in the 2001 film “Bridget Jones’s Diary” with one of the most outrageous sweaters ever worn on screen. 

After the film’s release, ugly Christmas sweaters made a full recovery thanks to some help from our neighbors in Canada. According to the “Ugly Christmas Sweater Party Book,” the sweaters became a party trend in Vancouver, Canada in 2001. It was in Vancouver that Chris Boyd and Jordan Birch launched the first Christmas Sweater Party.  This solidified the infamous ugly Christmas sweater tradition, gaining so much attention that a designated day was put in place to celebrate it. The official day to wear your ugly sweater is National Ugly Christmas Sweater Day on December 21. 

Winter Wonders and Christmas Customs: Gingerbread Houses

By Austin Price, Staff Writer

One of my favorite holiday hobbies is decorating gingerbread houses and other baked structures of architecture. While they are fun to create and yummy to snack on, gingerbread houses started as a tradition not meant to be eaten, but instead meant to be used exclusively for decoration. Gingerbread houses originated in Germany during the 16th century. However, in order to build a gingerbread house, we need to start with gingerbread itself. 

According to The Guardian Magazine, “Ginger root was first cultivated in China around 5,000 years ago and was thought to have medicinal and magical properties. Some food historians say that the first known recipe for gingerbread dates from around 2400 BC in Greece. Others trace its history to 992 AD, when Armenian monk Gregory of Nicopolis is thought to have taught Christian bakers in France how to make it.” 

In an article by The Spruce Eats, gingerbread is defined as a baked sweet containing ginger and sometimes cinnamon, cloves, nutmeg, cardamom, and anise; and sweetened with any combination of brown sugar, molasses, light or dark corn syrup, or honey. Gingerbread can take the shape of thin, crisp cookies like snaps, Polish pierniczki, Czech Pernik, Russian pryaniki, Croatian licitars, Scandinavian pepparkakor, and Dutch speculaas cut into hearts or other fanciful shapes. Gingerbread also can be a dark, spicy cake-like Polish Pernik, or an American version served sometimes with lemon glaze. The third form gingerbread takes today is a house-shaped confection made with a variation of gingerbread cookie dough.

The gingerbread house became popular in Germany after the Brothers Grimm published their fairy tale collection which included "Hansel and Gretel" in the 19th century. Early German settlers brought this lebkuchenhaeusle (gingerbread house) tradition to the Americas.

After the initial discovery of the gingerbread house, Queen Elizabeth I and her court are attributed with the idea of decorating these sweet structures. The first gingerbread man is credited to Queen Elizabeth I, who impressed visiting dignitaries by presenting them with one baked in their own likeness. This later evolved into the decoration of gingerbread architecture as these carved works of art served as a sort of storyboard that told the news of the day, bearing the likeness of new kings, emperors, and queens, or religious symbols. Gingerbread tied with a ribbon was popular at fairs and, when exchanged, became a token of love. 

Winter Wonders and Christmas Customs: Sugar Plums

By Austin Price, Staff Writer

Up next our focus is on a sweet treat, sugar plums. I am sure we have all heard of the magical Sugar Plum Fairy, featured in the iconic ballet, “The Nutcracker” or we have read Clement Clarke Moore's iconic 1823 poem "Twas the Night Before Christmas," which includes the line, "The children were nestled all snug in their beds / While visions of sugar plums dance in their heads." However, I am sure it has never occurred to you what a sugar plum is. Surprisingly, sugar plums often do not include actual plums. 

The sugar plum originated as a piece of dragée or hard candy made of hardened sugar in a small round or oval shape. "Plum" in the name of this confection does not always mean plum in the sense of the fruit of the same name, but commonly refers to small size and spherical or oval shape. Brian Earl, host of the “Christmas Past” podcast, blog, and YouTube channel, says, "Originally, these were caraway seeds or cardamom pods, some kind of spice that was then coated in sugar.” 

Disappointing, I know. Sugar plums without actual plums are like brownies without actual chocolate. However, despite their lackluster interior and deceptive name, sugar plums have been utilized as a sweet treat, symbolizing the beginning of the Christmas season. Since 1668 when the term was first used, sugar plums have been considered a confection. They originated in Portugal, where they contained green plums, but are now just as likely to feature black figs. They were poached for days in syrup and rolled in sugar to preserve them through the winter. Time Magazine writes “By the 16th century in England, the word referred to almost anything sweet and round, such as a poached fruit or a confection of minced and dried fruit rolled with nuts.” 

While these sweet snacks seem underwhelming to us, they were very popular in the past decades. According to Time Magazine, “Sugar plums were produced in an incredibly labor- and time-intensive process called panning, where layer after layer of sugar is poured over a nut or a seed and allowed to harden. Before the industrial revolution and the advent of automation, it could take a candy maker several days to complete a single batch of comfits. The confection’s price often reflected this, which meant sugar plums were a luxury item worthy of visions, to be enjoyed on a special occasion.” 

Sugar plums, while miscredited as deserts using actual plums, are still seen as holiday icons representing happiness and Christmas spirit. The term “sugar plum” was then expanded to encompass almost any kind of sugar candy or bite-sized confection. So, with a name that refers to anything and everything sweet and wonderful in the world, it makes sense that the Sugar Plum Fairy is chosen to rule the Land of Sweets while the Prince is away in Tchaikovsky’s “The Nutcracker”.

Winter Wonders and Christmas Customs: Carols

By Austin Price, Staff Writer

I think it’s safe to say that all of us have experienced the awkward moment when you open your door in December to be met with over-enthusiastic, community college glee club members ready to serenade you with Christmas carols in freezing temperatures. Quite frankly, I think this tradition is outdated and uncomfortable but let us look at the why’s behind these unsolicited, amateur performances happening on your front lawn. 

Carols were first sung in Europe thousands of years ago, but these were not Christmas Carols. They were pre-Christian/pagan songs, sung at the Winter Solstice celebrations. Carols used to be written and sung during all four seasons, but only the tradition of singing them at Christmas has really survived. Christmas, remembering the birth of Jesus, then started to be celebrated at the same time as the solstice, so the early Christians started singing Christian songs instead of pre-Christian/pagan ones. 

One of the first Christmas carols ever to be recorded was the 129 AD “Angels Hymn”, according to The New Daily. Around this time, Christianity-themed hymns started taking over the previous pagan songs celebrating Winter Solstice. More and more slow, solemn hymns started to emerge in the fourth century, and by the 12th, songs referring to Nativity themes and creatures had been introduced and incorporated into Christmas culture. Saint Francis of Assisi was the trailblazer in the development of Christmas carols as he began incorporating sayings and songs of well wishes in his Christmas services. He encouraged the members of his church to embrace music during the holiday season. Saint Francis’ method was met with widespread approval and soon enough, people began taking the songs home to enjoy with their families. 

Arcadia Publishing writes, “These songs stuck to their oral traditions for several hundred years, being passed down from family to family, until some were finally collected, written down, and published in 1582. This helped to solidify the songs in cultures across the world. Soon, they migrated from the church and became a staple activity in holiday celebrations. While most popular carols have been given a modern spin from their former medieval tune, they continue to bring the warm wishes and comfort of the holiday season.”

According to Classic FM, carols were being collected and printed widely by the 19th century. In 1880, it’s believed the Christmas carol service was invented in Truro by Edward White Benson, who later became the Archbishop of Canterbury. The notion of groups of carolers assembling in public spaces began in the 19th century. These performances were called “waits” and were a collection of singers singing for passers-by, who traditionally thanked them with tasty offerings of drinks or mince pies. It became known as wassailing and continues today but is now most known as Christmas caroling. Groups continue to sing Christmas carols with unrestrained joy in Christmas church services, outside in the chilly air, or inside our houses as we put up the tree.