The legend of Krampus dates back centuries, rooted in the “scary ghost stories” shared to pass Europe’s long winter nights. During the longest nights of the year before and after the winter solstice, when the veil between natural and supernatural thinned, tales warned misbehaving children of grim fates — being beaten, eaten or dragged away by other supernatural beings. These ancient stories persisted after the advent of Christianity, with Krampus taking on a distinctly demonic aspect.

What Does Krampus Have to do With Christmas?

Today, Krampus often appears by himself, but he originally served as the “bad cop” counterpart to St. Nicholas, the gift-giver who inspired Santa Claus and became popular in the European Middle Ages. People exchanged gifts on the Feast of St. Nicholas (Dec. 6) or the evening before, until the Protestant Reformation and the rejection of saints shifted gift giving to Christmas. In older traditions, St. Nicholas rewarded good children with gifts and punished the bad, but this was seen as incompatible with his saintly image, leading to the incorporation of Krampus into the tradition. When St. Nicholas came to visit, so did Krampus, and the night of Dec. 5 became popularly known as Krampusnacht (Krampus Night). The two were polar opposites: St. Nicholas arrives with a sack full of toys; Krampus arrives with an empty sack to stuff with children.

Why Is Krampus Becoming More Popular?

The Central European traditions around Krampus have become increasingly popular in North America. Krampus’ rising popularity is attributed to a variety of factors, often a search for “new” traditions or as a rejection of the consumerism surrounding the season. Many cities — including Orlando, which is holding a Krampus Fest on Dec. 8 — are seeing a rise in the tradition of Krampusruns, which are parades of people dressed as Krampus carrying sticks and switches (and the processions can sometimes get rough).

Krampus films, which sometimes incorporate the Christmastime setting into the horror genre, are popular as an antidote to the feel-good movies of the season that flood TV and theatres. In fact, Krampus makes an appearance in the newaction film Red One, starring Dwayne Johnson and Chris Evans, with an interesting plot twist.

What Are Other Dark Traditions or Symbols Connected to Christmas?

While Krampus is associated with Central Europe, other European societies have their own traditions of Santa’s (evil) helpers. In some French-speaking regions, St. Nicholas is accompanied by Père Fouettard, or Father Whipper, carrying a whip, stick and a basket on his back.

Santa Claus is a latecomer to the chimney game; goblins and witches had been creeping into homes that way for centuries before. Not all stories of yuletide monsters ended up connected to St. Nicholas and Christmas. In Iceland, the ��ó������ö�ٳٳܰ����Բ� (Yule Cat), a giant black cat, peers into windows and eats lazy children and adults. Meanwhile, the thirteen ogre-like Yule Lads steal, play tricks, leave treats for good children and take the naughty ones back home to their mother, Grýla, to be cooked.

In North America, Puritanism stripped many practices of their supernatural elements; the Massachusetts Bay Colony even outlawed Christmas in 1659. Nevertheless, much of what we’ll do in the upcoming weeks has origins in older, darker traditions. There is Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, where the selfish Scrooge is visited by three ghosts on Christmas Eve. The popular Elf-on-a-Shelf, moving at night and sometimes causing mischief, is a reflection of the supernatural entities sent to spy on children. Mistletoe and holly were hung to ward off evil beings. Caroling as we know it emerged after the Reformation; before then, the practice was more akin to our modern Halloween, with a touch of Krampus. Youths dressed in furs and scary masks with horns and went house-to-house asking for food and drink and playing tricks. If they got none, wassail — a hot alcoholic punch or cider — was often given to them. One of the verses in We Wish You a Merry Christmas harkens back to the practice: “So bring us a figgy pudding, and a cup of good cheer.”

If you look closely, you’ll find that many of our songs and traditions echo a time when Christmas was also a season for ghosts and monsters. As we celebrate the holidays this year, give some thought to the traditions of the past and what they mean to us today.

I grew up with network television. Four stations: ABC, CBS, NBC and PBS. It was always one of those stations that would air the half-hour television specials “A Charlie Brown Christmas,”�� “How the Grinch Stole Christmas,” “Frosty the Snowman” and “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” It was those four shows and their regularity year after year that finally would bring me around to donning the Christmas spirit.

I’m still that way. I need to at least see the Grinch’s heart grow three sizes and I need to hear Linus say, “Sure, Charlie Brown, I can tell you what Christmas is all about. Lights, please.” And once those moments happen, I know Christmas will come, and I know I will be in the spirit of giving – with my heart open.

Here’s the funny thing. I am usually in the spirit of giving, my heart is usually open, and I believe in peace and good will toward everyone. And strangely, it is the holidays when I start to tighten up. I start to strain against the relentless marketing, the onslaught of Christmas carols, and the barrage of gaudy yard decorations.

According to the National Retail Federation, the holidays can represent as much as 20 to 40 percent of annual sales for some retailers, and this year they are anticipating holiday sales to rise 3.9 percent over 2012 numbers, to $602.1 billion. Yay, holiday sales! Boo, the stress and the pressure and the crowds and the traffic and the elbows and the screaming children and angry faces and the impatience and the relentlessness and the onslaught and the barrage! At some point, we all feel like Charlie Brown screaming: “Can’t anyone tell me what Christmas is all about?” It gets so lost in the marketing.

Our American melting-pot culture seems to have replaced the Roman and Greek gods with the polytheism of celebrity. We worship fame: actors and musicians and athletes at the top of their game making millions of dollars. And even they gain importance during the holidays with the rollouts of all the special movies, and all the special sporting events, and all the special concerts. It is just incessant.�� Unless you live in a cabin without electricity in the woods, how do you get away from it. Where can you find some peace?

I always celebrated Christmas with my family, and even after I married a Jew we still celebrated Christmas. In fact, she always wanted us to get a tree. There is something so calming about a well-decorated tree with the lights twinkling and the pine wafting and the presents underneath growing. Oh no! Did I just say that? Guilty. And that is why I need Charlie Brown and Frosty and Rudolph and the Grinch to always re-enlighten me, to make me understand.

So often the holiday stories are about a misfit who feels left out, who doesn’t get it, who through their special misfit powers somehow saves the day. Rudolph’s red nose. Poor guy has this awesome light-up red nose and those stupid other reindeer see fit to make fun of him, ostracize him, make him feel bad. But that little fella saves Christmas. Turns out that nose can illuminate the way through that bad weather. And now he’s rich because he patented it and takes a cut of every flying thing built with operating lights. Oh no, I brought it back to money again!

The true spirit of the holidays is in giving generously with your heart and soul. It is about having patience with the madness, taking an elbow but laughing, being cut off on the road but taking a deep breath, and hearing a child scream but smiling at him or her (they get really confused by that). It is about spreading the joy that we should feel in our hearts because we’re alive on this magnificent Earth.

How great is that? I think it’s worth celebrating.�� And in the spirit of giving, it feels good to get something special for the people you love. But it’s about more than that, and those half hour television specials always help me relax and relearn what the holidays really offer us:

“And the Grinch, with his Grinch-feet ice cold in the snow,

stood puzzling and puzzling, how could it be so?

It came without ribbons. It came without tags.

It came without packages, boxes or bags.

And he puzzled and puzzled ’till his puzzler was sore.

Then the Grinch thought of something he hadn’t before.

What if Christmas, he thought, doesn’t come from a store.

What if Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.”

Happy holidays!

Mark Routhier is an assistant professor of directing and acting at the �鶹ԭ�� and director of new play development at Orlando Shakespeare Theater, a partnership with the university. He can be reached at markr@orlandoshakes.org.

��

For me, the beginning of “the season” is evidenced by the conversion of one of my pre-set radio stations to play Christmas and holiday tunes on a loop. The evidence on my Facebook newsfeed is also a giveaway, noticing that since Nov. 1 everyone is declaring what he or she is thankful for every day.

Ironic to me, though, are the comments of users who start being thankful on Nov.1 and then post an update on Nov. 5 with “I forgot to be thankful the past four days so here are five things I’m thankful for all at once.”

At first I thought, “Aw, that is so sweet,” but that quickly changed to “I’m sorry, but really?” Come on now, it’s the season! While I love to read what others are thankful for and personally keep up with their thanks on social media, I just wish it weren’t a huge declaration or movement when they decide to pause to be thankful for what I hope they are also doing every other month of the year.

When people “forget” to be thankful, not just in November, it’s kind of sad.

So, what does “’Tis the Season” mean, anyway? Does it mean a special red cup at Starbucks, or a Thanksgiving sub from Publix, declaring your thanks via social media, or a random act of kindness by paying for the person behind you in line? It seems that’s what it has become, but I think it’s more than that.

Now, I certainly appreciate and value the sentiment behind the holidays. People bustle with excitement, generosity, and the hope of a fresh start come the New Year. Sometimes, though, I just wonder why everyone seems to become friendlier as the holidays approach. I say “the holidays” because it means something different to everyone.

Yet, in a country where we are afforded many freedoms but still struggle with social discord among an array of controversial issues, in these last two months of the year the holidays symbolizing something different to everyone seem to often be forgotten. We tend to be blind to those who are different than us, and instead of alienating them, we offer our generosity and warm personalities.

It creates a sense of peace…it creates a certain social climate. A season, I might say.

Many celebrate Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa and other holidays – some in a religious sense, while others do not. Ten months out of the year, these differences in what the holidays mean would drive us crazy and create an immense amount of friction among our subcultures. Ten months out of the year, we find it extremely hard to accept why someone might celebrate differently from us, and even wonder if their moral compass is pointed in the right direction, without ever questioning our own.

If we are able to look past differences during “the season,” to come together and be our most accepting and giving selves to spread a shared sense of peace and excitement among all, why does that have to change with the start of a new year?

My message today is concise. On Jan. 1, we will be focused on our resolutions, hoping to become improved versions of ourselves during the next 12 months. Sadly, as the hope of “the season” fades, many of these resolutions will fail. The year will get in the way. It will become busy and messy, just as it was before the pumpkin spice lattes and Black Friday deals. We will begin to make excuses.

But folks, I’ve seen what we can do when we come together and forget differences. We are actually nice to each other. We listen.

In the two months of the year that I feel the change in spirits, I actually like talking to strangers. They are different from the strangers that I meet January through October.

So, I have just one request. After celebrating “the season” in whatever capacity you choose, when your heart and spirit are most full, resolve not merely to work out more, to spend less money, or in my case, rescue fewer cats (because we all know that will fail).

Instead, pick something that could last: Resolve to simply be a better stranger.

Erin O’Flaherty is a senior pursuing a bachelor’s degree in accounting and the current Miss �鶹ԭ��. She can be reached at eoflaherty@knights.ucf.edu.

Early October my grandson and I were shopping. As our shopping cart glided along the aisles, he excitedly exclaimed, “Look, Grandma, there’s a snowman!” He is 4 and I am nearly 15 times his age, so I was sure he had mistakenly identified Casper as Frosty. It was October and they are both white…easy mistake.

So I said, “No, it’s a ghost.”

To which he replied, “No, Grandma, he has a carrot nose. A ghost does not have a carrot nose. That would be silly. It’s a snowman.”

To my surprise, it was indeed a snowman that was accompanied by Santa, reindeer and a host of fully decorated Christmas trees. This display dwarfed the table of Halloween pumpkins, witches, spiders and skeletons, and the one next to it filled with Thanksgiving turkeys, pilgrims, cornucopias and fall leaves.

When is Christmas? Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving) usually kicks off the Christmas shopping frenzy, but this year it seems Christmas has come early. One big box store has thrown its hat into the ring by offering early Christmas layaway plans. The airwaves and Internet are full of tantalizing ads from toy makers with items to fill every child’s wish list.

When is Christmas? Boo, gobble gobble, and ho, ho, ho. Toto, I’m not in Kansas anymore. Halloween, Thanksgiving and Christmas—when did these three, which each used to dominate its own month, morph into what’s known as the “holiday season”? Bah, humbug, I want my Christmas back.

When I was a kid, Christmas was the most wonderful time of the year. I looked forward to the sheer joy of Dec. 25. My dad was a Christmas man. Without fail, the first Saturday in December, my dad would head to the garage. He‘d pull out the ladder and retrieve the box marked “Christmas lights.” He would unroll the strings of brightly colored lights, plug them in, and check for those bulbs that needed replacing. Then he’d hang them around the edges of our roof and outfit the evergreens in our front yard. These glowing orbs signaled the beginning of the Christmas season for the McCloud household.

The next day after church, the two artificial trees (one green and one sliver) would emerge from the attic. While Dad and my two brothers assembled the trees, Mom, my sister and I would go through the ornaments. Those that survived a year of storage went on the trees. The causalities went into the trash.

The green tree would occupy a corner in the dining room and was decorated with ornaments my three siblings and I had made over the years. There was always a fresh string of popcorn and the tree was topped with the angel from my first Christmas.

The silver tree (made of aluminum) had a revolving color wheel that would alternately illuminate the tree green, red or blue. It always sat in the living room, strategically placed so from the outside it could be seen smack-dab in the middle of Momma’s picture window. It would be decorated with shiny store-bought ornaments, garland and lights.

Once the trees were finished, there would be hot cocoa, gingersnaps and molasses cookies for all. At 8 p.m. that evening, Mom and all the children would bundle up, go outside and gather in front of the living room window. Dad would remain inside, turn off all of the lights, and plug in the Christmas tree. After a dramatic pause, from the darkness a glittering, sparkling, twinkling tree would emerge to a chorus of oohs and ahhs and sheer joy. It never failed to thrill us.

Once back inside, Dad would remind us of the reason for the season and he would read the Christmas story. These are fond memories of Christmas, ones that I hold near and dear.

Everybody needs a little feel-good. The sheer joy of preparing for Christmas during the season of Advent ��is too special to commercialize. The sheer joy of waiting for Santa is too precious to my grandchildren. The sheer joy of watching holiday classics is too nostalgic to abandon. The sheer joy of hosting my family and friends is too endearing to give up. The sheer joy of watching the kindness of strangers during the Christmas season is too valuable to lose.

When is the most wonderful time of the year? December, right? Yes, for��me, the most wonderful time of the year is December, not October. No matter who or what promotes Christmas in October, it’s not for me. One month of celebration is special, two or three months are not.

Ecclesiastes 3:1 says there is a season for everything. Whatever one chooses to observe, be it Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Las Posadas, or another event, December is the most wonderful time of the year.

Rebekah McCloud is director of the �鶹ԭ��’s PRIME STEM/Student Support Services Program. She can be reached at Rebekah.McCloud@ucf.edu.

I am extremely thankful for the outstanding dedication and unwavering commitment of our staff and faculty members. Your hard work resulted in many notable successes this year, far too many to mention here.

In light of these successes, I have approved six paid university holidays for eligible employees from December 23 to 31. These days will be in addition to normal state holidays on Christmas (December 25) and New Year’s Day (January 1).

OPS employees are not eligible for paid personal leave days.�� Certain employees may be deemed essential and will be required by the appropriate supervisor to work during this period of closure.�� Should that be the case, the employee may use the additional leave before July 1, 2014.

Please talk with your supervisor for more details about how this applies to you.

It is my hope that this extended holiday period will allow you to relax, reflect on the past year, and prepare for what will surely be another exciting, challenging, and successful year ahead.

�鶹ԭ�� Stands for Opportunity, and I am thankful for the opportunity I have to work alongside the most talented and dedicated staff and faculty members of any university in the country.�� You have my sincere thanks for the contributions you make to our students and university.

I just can’t adjust to Christmas in Florida – not the religious holiday, but the secular one featuring Santa, his reindeer, fake snowmen, gingerbread men, Charlie Brown and his friends, and any number of inflatable or Styrofoam characters populating front yards around the community. They seem to have taken over Central Florida like some sort of alien occupying force.

Then of course there are the lights.

The lights! The lights!

They’re scattered everywhere across the fronts of houses, adorning bushes, swirling around palm tree trunks and flashing from the fronds.

What is it about Floridians and Christmas lights? Do transplanted Yankees have some sort of strange need to bury themselves in lights? Are they overcompensating for the lack of snow and cold weather so familiar in their childhood?

How else to explain the cascading avalanche of green, red and white light that gives a strange twilight glow to neighborhoods well after sunset? How can you possibly get excited about a Santa sleigh of lights, pulled by blinking reindeer, piercing the night through the fog born of 100 percent humidity? Not exactly a veritable winter wonderland.

Then there are bushes covered with white lights blinking on and off in a kind of studied random pattern, which, if you watch long enough, can leave you nauseous. Small hedges are covered with red or green lights. Even worse are multi-colored arrangements that appear to have been created by monkeys throwing light bulbs at hedges, offering no recognizable pattern, only scattered bulbs in riotous forms.

One is reminded of those strange modern art “events” of the ’60s at which people threw various colors of paint at a canvas, which generally resulted in something that wasn’t quite art.

On top of a subdivision wall I saw a strange blue line the other night. It resembled a series of dots running for about 50 yards along the side of the road. I had never seen it before, and so I assume it had some mystical Christmas meaning that only certain “special” people could discern. Clearly I wasn’t one of them.

Just the other day I had an encounter with a new variation on Christmas decorations. I saw several cars adorned with antlers. Not those that come as trophies of the hunt, but synthetic ones sticking up from the roofs.

One car even had a red ball attached to the middle front grill, like is was Rudolph the Red-nosed Range Rover.����

Yeah, that really put me in the Christmas spirit.

This was not a transcendent moment taking me back to my childhood, but a torrent of tackiness reminding me just how far gone some Floridians are as they struggle in vain to convince themselves that it really is Christmas, even if Santa is wearing a swimsuit and catching a wave.

Such an image has been immortalized with a new holiday recording carrying the off-putting title, “Christmas in the Sand.” Somehow I don’t think it will become a classic, but then who other than Gene Autry thought Rudolph” would become better known than the three kings?����

The single most amazing piece of schlock I’ve seen over the years is a neon sign spelling out “Happy Birthday Jesus,” in the distinctive neon script used to spell out “Miller High Life” in the windows of neighborhood taverns. Such tackiness has no peer.

Perhaps it’s time to send the worst offenders off to Maine or Minnesota for a two-week stint of deprogramming amidst the delights of a December blizzard. They obviously need help, having failed to make the adjustment to Christmas in Florida as they continue to insist that artificial Christmas trees, blinking lights, and Styrofoam snowmen are essential to the season.

I do like Christmas but just not in these conditions, where Santa is more likely to sweat bullets than sort out who has been naughty or nice.

Merry Christmas, everyone!

Aren’t you glad it only comes once a year?��

As a father of two grown children, I vividly remember placing presents under the Christmas tree with mixed emotions. My excitement about the joy to come was partially offset by a fear that I hadn’t done enough. I didn’t want my kids to be disappointed in their presents and, by extension, me.

Another emotion gnawed at me: that I’d done too much. I worried about feeding a cycle of greed that would result in their being less caring and giving as adults.

So how do parents confront the guilt versus gluttony conundrum that can be so stressful during what is supposed to be a happy, peaceful time of year?

The reality of most household budgets is that a line has to be drawn somewhere. Parents who do what we can for our children shouldn’t feel guilty because we can’t afford to do more. After all, paying the bills is a more important parenting skill than scoring that season’s must-have toy.

A larger danger is that our joy of giving can cause us to lose focus on our responsibility to teach our children that it is better to give than receive. Children who appreciate giving are more likely to be altruistic throughout their lives.

So how can parents push back on the need to have the next great thing and teach their kids a lifelong attribute?

Help your children decide to give toys they don’t use anymore to needy children via a local charity. My children often did this, and more than 20 years later my son still talks about how the sadness of giving away a toy bunny subsided when he realized someone else needed it more.

If your children receive an allowance, encourage them to donate a percentage to a worthy cause. Talk with them about what the recipients of the money will do with it.

Volunteering at a homeless shelter or toy drive or helping elderly neighbors take care of their yard also can make a lasting impression.

It can be hard to remember during the shopping frenzy, but the volume of gifts isn’t important. The thought, time and sacrifices behind those gifts give them meaning. If children understand this concept, they’ll be more likely to become happy, giving adults.

And really, what better present could parents give their children?

E.H. “Mike” Robinson is a professor of education at the �鶹ԭ�� in Orlando and the Robert N. Heintzelman Eminent Scholar Chair for Understanding and Prevention of Greed and to Foster the Development of Altruism.

Source: Orlando Sentinel, Teach children to appreciate giving. Published: Wednesday, Dec. 21, 2011.

For a child whose family cannot afford to purchase gifts, the annual Facilities Operations Adopt-A-Child program, in partnership with the Bithlo-Christmas Neighborhood Center for Families, can help make the holiday season a little brighter.

Employees from many campus��departments have joined their Facilities & Safety colleagues and��purchased gifts for Bithlo and Christmas children for the past eight years in lieu of giving each other presents.

Nearly 20��children still need to be “adopted,” and each child is listed with his or her age, clothing and shoe sizes, and gift wish list. Unwrapped gifts are due by Friday, Dec. 16.�� Cash donations are also accepted.

“It is a blessing to give, no matter what the amount is,” said Brian Wormwood, associate director of Facilities Operations.

For more information, visit The Bithlo/Christmas Neighborhood Center for Families Adopt-A-Child Program. To sign up, contact Rachel Emmanuel at Rachel.Emmanuel@ucf.edu or call 407-823-2431.

‘Twas the forecast before Christmas and all through the state, those wishing for a booming economy would still have to wait.

Foreclosure signs were hung in the yard with great care, in hopes that a buyer soon would be there.

Across the state, Floridians were snug in their beds – more than half with a mortgage over their heads.

This ode to the holiday classic “‘Twas the Night Before Christmas” is found in the latest Florida economic forecast released today by Sean Snaith, director of the �鶹ԭ��’s Institute for Economic Competitiveness.

“There’s no holiday miracle here,” Snaith said. “But there are some signs of hope, such as projected growth in retail and gross state product.”

Snaith’s forecast offers predictions through 2013 for Florida and its 12 metropolitan regions. Those areas are Naples, Daytona Beach-Deltona, Gainesville, Ocala, Lakeland, Palm Bay-Melbourne, Pensacola, Miami, Jacksonville, Tallahassee, Tampa Bay and Orlando.

The full forecast and Snaith’s poem can be found on the .

Highlights in the report include:

— Next year should mark the beginning of a long, slow and steady decline in unemployment. The emphasis is on “slow” – it may be 2020 before we see unemployment fall below 6 percent again.

— The sectors forecasted to have the strongest growth during 2010-2013 are: Professional and Business Services (7.5 percent); Trade, Transportation & Utilities (2.6 percent); Education and Health Services (2.6 percent); Manufacturing (0.9 percent); and Leisure & Hospitality (0.9 percent).

— After two years of contracting, Real Gross State Product will expand 3 percent in 2010; 2.6 percent in 2011; and 4 percent in 2012.

— After a wobbly start in 2010, retail sales should finish stronger for the year. Retail sales will accelerate in 2011 and 2012, and they will grow at an average pace of 5.7 percent during 2011-2013.

Snaith is a national expert in economics, forecasting, market sizing and economic analysis who authors quarterly reports about the state of the economy. Bloomberg News has named Snaith as one of the country’s most accurate forecasters for his predictions about the Federal Reserve’s benchmark interest rate, the Federal Funds rate.

Snaith is also a member of several national forecasting panels, including The Wall Street Journal Economic Forecasting Survey, CNNMoney.com’s survey of leading economists, the Associated Press Economy Survey, the National Association of Business Economics Quarterly Outlook Survey Panel, the Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia’s Survey of Professional Forecasters, Bloomberg U.S. Economic Indicator Survey and USA Today Economic Survey Panel.

The �鶹ԭ�� Institute for Economic Competitiveness’ mission is to expand public understanding of the economy by convening business leaders, scholars, policy makers, civic groups and media to discuss critical issues.