Happy Holidays everyone! It’s my other favorite time of the year (along with Halloween, of course).

So… we survived Summerween. We survived Halloween. Now what if I told you that the holiday season, one of the jolliest times of the year, also has roots in fear? Yes, underneath all the cheer there are dark things lurking.

Like a franchise threequel, get ready for… Creepmas.

The approach of winter is one reason for the fright, because for our ancestors this time of year did not always guarantee survival. If you didn’t grow enough crops through the year, knit enough outerwear and do everything else you needed to prep for winter you may not make it to see another.

Another reason? The darkness. The days are growing shorter and the nights longer, culminating in the winter solstice. And darkness is where the dangers lurk, where the myths and stories grow. One of the reasons we have so many holidays this time of year that feature light, like Christmas, Diwali, Hanukkah and Kwanzaa, is because we really need it now.

So yes, this time of year? It’s ancient. And it’s scary. But it’s also heartwarming. The duality of humanity knows no bounds.

This week, on December 5th, is Krampusnacht. This is the night where, according to Alpine folklore, a sinister being known as Krampus precedes Saint Nicholas and visits children during the night. Not to reward though. To punish. Not just with coal, oh no, with Krampus you either get a whipping stick or, if you’re especially bad, the sack in which he takes you to the underworld, never to be seen again. And Krampus isn’t the only frightening creature in European folklore to take the holidays and add several dallops of terror.

And as the internet is wont to do, we now have a new made-up holiday called Creepmas. For those of us who are not ready to let Halloween vibes go, we have this mashup to help sustain us until the end of the year.

So if you’re interested in this side of the season where darkness, cold and fear reign supreme, you’ve come to the right place because I have suggestions.

To read more, try The Fright Before Christmas: Surviving Krampus and other Yuletide Monsters by Jeff Belanger. This is an excellent non-fiction book where the author explores the horrifying seasonal folklore that has stood side by side with the holiday season for centuries if not millennia. Krampus is here of course, but you’ll also learn about the Belsnickel (The Office fans will already be familiar), the Yule Lads and Yule Cat, Gryla, Karakoncolas, etc. Each holiday folk horror icon gets a spotlight in this book, and you’ll learn more about the history of this time of year and how people have adapted to it and shaped it.

Something you may not know about England is that one of its biggest traditions around the holidays is to tell ghost stories. Charles Dickens‘ A Christmas Carol came from that tradition and is widely known and beloved, the quintessential story that highlights the spirit of the season with themes of redemption and generosity. And it has several ghosts, including the Ghost of Christmas Future. You can find several adaptations of the story and with maybe one or two exceptions, the Ghost of Christmas Future is always terrifying (and in some versions, the Ghost of Christmas Present also gets a few scary moments). Read or watch this year to get a good chill but also a hopeful ending.

The movie Black Christmas might have one of the best taglines known to human kind: “If this doesn’t make your skin crawl, it’s on too tight”. Released in 1974, Black Christmas is one of the very first slasher films and one of the very first holiday-themed horror movies. Plus, it was made in Canada. AND it’s directed by Bob Clark, who would later direct the absolute tonal opposite of a holiday movie, A Christmas Story. Yes, really. Check this out to see when slasher films were in their infancy and Christmas horror movies were still considered taboo.

Speaking of taboo, we have the Silent Night, Deadly Night series. Why am I highlighting part 2? Well, Part 1 is definitely a classic in the holiday horror genre, causing protests when it was released in 1984 (BTW, I remember seeing that poster in theaters when I was a kid and *shudder*). But I lean towards part 2 because it is just… completely insane. You almost don’t even have to watch the first movie because the first 40 minutes or so of part 2 just recaps part 1, told by the younger brother of the killer in the first movie… and the younger brother was either just a baby or not even present for much of what happens in part 1. The rest of the movie wastes no time going further off the rails. While the first movie is quite mean spirited, the second one is mostly just unintentionally hilarious. “GARBAGE DAY!”

One of the newer additions to the holiday horror sub genre is It’s a Wonderful Knife, which gives us a slasher twist on one of the most beloved movies ever, It’s a Wonderful Life. Basically, a young woman survives a Christmas massacre and feels her life has really gone downhill since. When she says she wishes she’d never been born, she gets her wish… and realizes that things could be a heck of a lot worse. And oh, the serial killer she helped stop last year is now still at large. It’s a neat take on an old favorite tale.

And of course, I have more recommendations. It’s me, after all.

It’ll be a long wait before we’re back into the Ber months, the best stretch of the year. Enjoy the fall/Halloween/holiday spirits while we have them, to sustain us through the next eight months before we come alive all over again.

(And for real? I’d much rather have Krampus come to call then have an Elf on the Shelf.)

Gruss vom Krampus! Happy Holidays!