SEASONAL SILLINESS
One Saskatoon family isn’t keen on the usual family Christmas portrait, as you can see in this 2013 example from Janet Taylor, Jon Taylor, Caitlin Taylor, Evan Taylor and Eric Taylor. More wacky holiday traditions,
With the holiday season well underway, traditions from quirky to downright terrifying are beginning to make their annual appearances around the world.
In Japan, millions will flock to KFC on Christmas, which is celebrated more like Valentine’s Day than a family holiday.
In Germany, it is said that while St. Nicholas rewards children for good behaviour, his devilish counterpart Krampus — half goat, half demon — shows up to punish children for bad behaviour. People dressed as the nightmarish creature take to the streets on the night of Dec. 6.
Closer to home, the Taylor family in Saskatoon is preparing for their annual, wacky family photo shoot.
“Every Christmas Day, my husband would get all the kids and us all gathered around the tree,” said Janet Taylor. “He would take a picture of us all and then email it to family back home, for the grandmas and granddads and stuff.”
As the kids got older, they wanted to do something more creative. That’s when the photos moved from in front of the tree to outside in the dead of winter, along with all their living room furniture.
After hauling the couch, lamp, and area rug outside into -30 weather, the family alternated between running inside to warm up and back outside to attempt a casual Christmas photo.
“In this day and age people (say), ‘Did you guys photoshop that?’ And it’s like, no! We hauled that crap out onto the lawn and we froze our butts off!” said Taylor with a laugh.
That was approximately five years ago.
Each year, the family tries to top the photo from the year before.
Last year, the family of five opted for a “cooking Christmas dinner” theme instead of a living-room scene and included the kids’ significant others along with Taylor’s parents who were visiting from Ontario.
“We were laughing and goofing and it was just a really special day, a special memory,” said Taylor.
She said it’s important to come together and document memories, especially as kids get older and move away.
“There’s so many people that are lonely and don’t get to do those kinds of things,” said Taylor. “It just reminds you to be grateful that you have a great family.”
For Corrine Maeder of Regina, Christmastime spurs memories of traditions from her childhood.
Born and raised in Switzerland until the age of eight, Maeder’s community had their own version of Krampus called Pere Fouettard, which loosely translated means Father Whip.
On Dec. 6, friends and family would gather for St. Nicholas Day. If you were good, you got a present from St. Nicholas. If you had been bad, you faced Father Whip who wore a long black robe.
“He would come carrying a bundle of sticks and the premise was that if you had not been well behaved, instead of a present you would be getting a stick with which to be beaten,” said Maeder.
She said no child ever got a stick, but the story was enough to make the children, including herself, extra well-behaved in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
“As a child I was always just petrified that I was going to get a stick,” she said. Instead of a stick, Maeder remembers getting a pair of skis which made the song she had to sing in front of everyone before she got her gift, worth it.
She said while St. Nicholas Day always came and went with a bit of anxiety, her Christmas Day was always a positive experience with her family.