Holy Almost Short and Sweet Blog, Batman! It's Christmas!

Well folks, it's that time of year in Salzburg. A cute lil tourist town like this has GOT to be decorated for Christmas. And let's face it, since Thanksgiving doesn't exist, people don't moan and groan about the decorations coming up so early. The Christkindlmarkt has been open since November 17th. Hope you Grinches don't get sick of it too soon!

(Side note: our study abroad program had a Turkey Day celebration dinner. I peeled, cut, and made mashed potatoes for 40 people. It was basically the only dish completely finished that people were literally scooping at the remains with their fingers. My Oma taught me well :)  ).

Christmas Decorations on my street! (apologies, haven't quite mastered night time settings yet)

Tonight I participated in the traditional Krampuslauf or Krampus Run. What is a Krampus you might say? This fella right down here:

Good lookin' eh?

Anyway, the Krampus is the helper of good Ol' Saint Nick. Only Saint Nick here doesn't mean Santa Claus. In fact, Santa Claus is the creation of Coca-Cola, so that doesn't really happen in good old Catholic Austria. Instead, Saint Nikolaus was a REAL LIFE bishop in Italy who did good work and especially loved children. On the eve of St. Nick's day (St. Nick's being the 6th of December), tradition would have it that St. Nick would come to your house with his golden book and read off all of the good and bad things the children had done. For being good, the child would receive a small gift. I'm not talking iPod Shuffle small, I'm talking a dried fig. Or some nuts. That kind of small. If they were bad, the Krampus would come and beat them or take them away in a basket. On the 24th of December, the Christkind (aka Baby Jesus, no Santa in sight) comes and brings a few gifts. The next day is CHURCH.

Basically, a traditional Krampus Lauf involves men dressing up as Krampuse and walking the streets with large bells attached to their backs. They then proceed to "whip and beat" mostly women and children and generally mess up their hair or try to scare them. Gotta see it at least once.

Tis the season for Vanillekipferl as well. It's a traditional Austro-Hungarian Christmas cookie. MUST STOP EATING THEM.

And to top off the Holiday Spirit, I leave you with a Christmas Cover that I put up on Youtube. Enjoy.

(click directly on video while playing to go straight to Youtube)