Betsy Shaw
posted in Mom Stories
Last week, we pondered the suggestion that Santa Claus might better represent our racially-diverse society if he were a penguin. This week, we have a man suggesting Santa is a bit too soft to be an effective icon/ role model.
In what the New York Times refers to as an Op Doc, animator and filmmaker Drew Christie suggests we give our favorite Christmas icon an image makeover to keep up with countries like Germany and Austria where children live in fear of St. Nikolaus’ child-whipping sidekicks called Krampus.
Krampus, if you’ve never heard of them, are hairy, horned and fanged thugs that maraud the streets of Austria, alpine Germany and parts of other European countries. Some wear baskets on their backs and carry birch switches and go door to door with St. Nikolas threatening to beat or take away naughty children. The
y look like this:
With a short, and humorous film clip, Drew Christie argues that children from other countries might be better behaved, and more academically diligent, precisely because their holiday icons are far more fear inducing and commanding of respect than ours. Rather than school reform, Christie believes, maybe we need holiday icon reform.
“Our children deserve a Christmas icon that inspires greatness in them,” Christie says.
A pair of drunken Krampusses/Krampii (sorry don’t know the plural) jumped on the hood of my car while driving through an Austrian village many years ago. I can attest to their threatening demeanor. And, upon first hearing that it’s the Krampus’ job to scare the heck out of little children before Christmas I was horrified. But the more I learned about Krampus the more I realized it’s just part of a culture that is not mine to judge. We’ve taken Halloween and run with it. Krampus isn’t any more deranged.
Not everyone sees Krampus as harmless. According to this article, some teachers in Austria are refusing Krampus entry at the school gates because he is far too terrifying for the students.
Listening, right now, to James Taylor’s lilting voice sing “You better watch out, you better not cry, you better not pout I’m telling you why,” I can kind of see Drew Christie’s point. All kids have to do is not cry or pout and Santa will come? How easy is that? Maybe Santa should up the bar and start demanding mastery of the violin and perfect test scores. But how can he do that if no one is truly afraid of him and his soft belly.
I’m kidding. I’m don’t really buy into scaring children into good behavior. No. I’m a softy. But I did get a chuckle from Christie’s Op-Doc.
“Look, I like Santa, I think he’s a nice guy,” Krampus says, “but he’s just not working. We need to go another direction.”
Do you wish Santa were scarier? Do you know of, or participate in, any other cultural holiday traditions?
Read more from source:“babycenter-com-baby”