In alpine Europe, Perchta the Belly-Slitter (a.k.a Berta/Berchta/Frau Percht) roams during the Twelve Days of Christmas, and if you piss her off, she'll cut out your entrails and stuff you full of straw and garbage. And you thought Krampus was all you had to dodge to get through the holidays! [more inside]
posted by Pirate-Bartender-Zombie-Monkey on Jan 4, 2010 - 24 comments

A Yule Log for your iPod. If you don't live in the New York area, and you have one of those fancy video iPods, you can now download some holiday cheer from Channel 11. (Their Yule Log phenomenon was previously discussed here.) For more information about Yule Log traditions, wikipedia features in depth articles on both the traditional and the modern. [Inspired by logging out of gmail.]
posted by jann on Dec 23, 2005 - 11 comments

♪ Somebody snitched on me ♫
Nuttin' for Christmas by Stan Freberg is one of those old-time favorites that's simply too cynical to be considered a holiday classic. When Strange Reaction [mefi] posted a selection of punk Christmas tunes, I was introduced to the Vindictives cover version [mp3 nsfw] which takes some amusing liberties with the lyrics. After some googling, it seems Nuttin' for Christmas is a song for which people love creating their own words, often in poor taste. But the original [midi] itself extends of an ancient yule tradition of releasing pent up negativity and resolving to begin the new year all straight edge and shit. What MetaFilter dog race will you let go of this year?
posted by If I Had An Anus on Dec 13, 2005 - 15 comments

Psychedelic Santa Claus. "Modern Christmas traditions are based on ancient mushroom-using shamans." [Via J-Walk blog.]
posted by homunculus on Dec 22, 2003 - 15 comments