The Elf on the Shelf Beat Krampus, by Nora B. Peevy

           

I dug up a little research and guess what? There’s something even SCARIER predating The Elf on the Shelf, which was made by a sweet older woman for her grandchildren (bless her heart.) Yeah, before Elf on the Shelf there was…

THE KRAMPUS BOX!

Sounds cooler, right? Not really. The tradition dates to the 1600s in Austria or Germany. Children would leave a shoe outside their door on December 1^st for St. Nicholas to bring them presents. If they were nice, they would get a present, but if they were naughty, they would get a birch stick, and that’s how Krampus knew to take them away. Then on one cheery festive holiday, a man decided to make a beautiful-looking box for Krampus Nacht. Each house with a child had one of these devilish boxes made, then. The boxes were left out from December 1^st to St. Nicholas Day on December 5^th. If you were bad, a note or a picture of you went into the Krampus Nacht box. If you were good, you didn’t have to worry about a half demon, half goat with scary horns stuffing you in his sack and taking you far away from home to a hellish place.

No known Krampus Nacht boxes are around today. I’m assuming because when the children grew into adults, they took the horrid things and burned them in the fireplace. At least, that’s what I would do.

It’s interesting to note that from 1890 through WWII, Krampus cards became very popular to send to your neighbors and loved ones. So, the adults laughed while the children suffered. Happy Yuletide, everyone!

This brings me to the terrifying Elf on a Shelf. Supposedly, The Elf on a Shelf craze started in 2005, but that’s not true. That’s when the elf’s sister was introduced after the parents of the company went bankrupt and left the store to their son.

In the 1960s Flora Johnson lived in Atwater, Ohio and created Christopher Pop-In-Kins for her grandchildren with a loving… errr…. spooky heart if you ask me. In 1984, she wrote her first story about Christopher Pop-In-Kins visiting children on Christmas. She sewed the very first doll herself. (Thanks for that, Flora. Bless your heart.)

Over fifteen years Flora sewed by hand 10,000 dolls. She self-published Christopher Pop-In-Kins with the help of her husband and son. In the year 2000, Book Two and Book Three came along with the help of her husband and son again.

 

Then, in 2005, Christopher Pop-In-Kins earned the Chicago Award at a Trade Show in New York for the most noticed toy. Yeah, I’m sure it’s the most noticed because now tens of thousands of innocent children have been terrorized while they should have felt snug in their beds dreaming of Santa and wondering if there would be reindeer on the roof. Thanks, Flora.

Have a holly jolly holiday, everyone, whichever you celebrate! But please, burn The Elf on the Shelf.

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

Nora B. Peevy is a cat trapped in a human’s body. Please send help or tuna. She is an Olympic champion sleeper and toils away for JournalStone/ Trepidatio Publishing as a submission reader, a reviewer for Hellnotes, and reads scripts for The H.P. Lovecraft Film Festival. Ms. Peevy recently took the position writing nonfiction articles for The Weird Wide Web. She also is a syndicate author for Thrill Ride eZine and has taken up freelance editing as well as editing for Unveiling Nightmares. Her quirky tales are published by Eighth Tower Press, Carnage Press, The Sudden Fictions Podcast, Unveiling Nightmares, and other places. For the Sake of Brigid, her first novelette just came out in May of 2024 and her first novel, Flesh-eating Turtles!!! will be debuting in late December/early 2025.