Christmas bells, candy canes, and hot cocoa by the fire - that’s the idealized American Christmas scene. Our traditions are designed to give everyone in the family the warm fuzzies and in America, the worst thing that could ever happen at Christmas is a lump of coal in your stocking.  But this isn’t the case in the Old Country. Europe is the source of many of our grim fairy tales and even Christmas has its own unique cast of monsters. Tales of cannibalism, horse skulls, slaves, and worse all make an appearance in the holiday traditions around the world. Today we’re exploring the yuletide lore that your parents definitely didn’t tell you before bed.  That’s what you're in for today on Impolite Society. Sources: https://www.slate.com/articles/life/holidays/2011/12/zwarte_piet_holland_s_favorite_racist_christmas_tradition_.html https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/0015587042000231264 https://www.medievalists.net/2019/12/the-yule-cat-of-iceland-a-different-kind-of-christmas-tradition/  https://witchlike.wordpress.com/2020/01/05/frau-perchta-witch-of-twelfth-night/ https://www.wales.com/about/culture/mari-lwyd https://medium.com/@jahernandez_writes/the-tale-of-p%C3%A8re-fouettard-66260dc44890 https://www.visiticeland.com/article/meet-the-icelandic-yule-troll-family https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jIXscGcdGyk  https://www.americanacademy.de/attacking-zwarte-piet/  https://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2017/12/22/572569325/caga-ti-a-catalan-log-that-poops-nougats-at-christmas https://people.howstuffworks.com/culture-traditions/holidays-christmas/pooping-man-catalan-nativity-scene.htm Email us your impolite questions at [email protected] and visit our website for info about the show and your hosts Laura and Rachel.