My Aunt Irene used to throw the BEST Christmas Eve Parties-

the food was good ( her specialty were Bourbon Balls and sugar cookies )  the decorations were beautiful- there was a nice balance of the modern and the traditional and my Aunt Irene always wore pearls and a black dress and she always set a beautiful table.

But in the midst of all of this finery, sitting on the corner  above her fireplace sitting casually next to a Santa ornament was a little worn glass ornament. The figure next to Santa had black fur and he was dressed in red and sprouting from his head were horns.

I don’t know when this decoration appeared- he could have been there for all of our Christmas gatherings and I didn’t notice him until I was tall enough to see the top of the fireplace mantle more clearly.

So that Christmas, when I was seven years old I asked my Grandpa Bert ( his sister was my Aunt Irene ) why there was a Devil on Aunt Irene’ fireplace and he told me that was Krampus.

My Aunt Irene was putting little dishes of bourbon balls on  the table next to us. She stopped to listen in because my and my Grandpa’s conversations were like car crashes. When you drive by one, you know you shouldn’t look, but you do.

Krampus, my Grandfather said, showed up  before  Christmas and punishes wicked children. Sometimes he even carries them off into the woods.

” Is he a monster? ” I asked.

My Grandfather said he  most certainly is.

” And he visits naughty children – never the good ones?”

That’s right he told me.

I asked again if Krampus was a monster- not just a regular monster but a scary one.

He’d put Dracula and Frankenstein’s monster to shame, said my Grandpa bluntly.

I considered this. Christmas had more going on then I had ever imagined.

” Anita, ” my Aunt Irene said to me, ” wipe that smile off you face. Honestly. ”

But she was smiling and so was my Grandpa.

And from the mantelpiece, so was Krampus.