Nicholaus, Santa, and the torture of German children

On December 6th, there is something here called Nicholaus Day. I missed it this year with Bernd's grandchildren, but experienced it last year, and have had it on my mind as worthy of a post. When I've told the story to friends around here, all have been amazed and shocked, so here goes....

Nick comes to the houses of children on December 6th, along with his sidekick Krampus. Nick has a little gold book, and he tells the children that he has been watching them all year, and has been marking down all good and bad deeds in his book. The children stand in front of him and hold a staff while he elaborates. The really frightening thing, is that Krampus, Mr. Scary Guy incarnate, all dressed in black, rattles his chains and generally looks like he might to do something horrible to punish you when Nick reads the bad things you have been doing. I thought they were absolutely terrifying when I first saw them, because Nick was about 8 feet tall, and with his pope-like hat on, he seemed to reach the ceiling......so I can't imagine how giant he must look to a 2 or 3 year old. And then Krampus, well he's just generally terrifying. They function as a good cop/bad cop team and the pair I saw did it all in Bairish. As I still don't understand a word of Bairish, Bernd's daughter had generally filled me in on what he would discuss with the children.

What happened with Felix and Moritz (ages 2 and 4 at the time), was that each stood at attention with staff in hand (and dad real close by) and calmly listened to what Nick told them about all of their good deeds. No expression, no comment, just listened in a very attentive way. When Nick came to the bad deeds, which last year for both kids was saying bad words, both immediately acknowledged that he had been saying bad words by shaking their heads in agreement. This was so cute and funny that I had to plant my face in the wall so that they would not see my complete hysteria! This was also an improvement over the year before, when Felix had denied biting his brother to Nick when this issue came to light. After the discussion with these two scary guys, the kids get gifts (I personally think they have earned them in a big way) which have been discreetly provided by the parents.

I hear that this year, Felix, now age 5, had the very good sense to cry! He eventually calmed down, but my take on this is that I think Nick and Krampus are collectively so frightening, that I don't know how a child can avoid crying. As I've talked to girlfriends lately, it is amazing how many of us were afraid of Santa. I think as American children, we had it way easier with a guy in a red suit at the mall, than German kids do with a guy who watches everything all year, marks it in his book, and then brings along his scary friend to shake his chains at you! Felix and Moritz, you can't read this yet, but I think you are both very brave.