For some people, nothing about the holidays could be as scary as Christmas Eve dinner, where the main course is family drama. But there are actual scary traditions for Christmastime, and for those of us looking for less jingle bells and more jangled nerves, there’s Krampus.
New York City’s only year-round scare factory Blood Manor has donned its not-so-gay apparel for a Christmas theme throughout December at its new home, 359 Broadway in Tribeca. Spread across 5,000 square feet, you’ll merrily romp through a labyrinth of themed rooms and corridors, always on the lookout for the half-goat, half-demon Krampus.
He’ll be roaming the halls on the lookout for “New Yorkers and surrounding state millennials who misbehaved” to drown and eat. That sounds specific, but it’s good to have #dietgoals during the holidays.
Fun fact: Krampus was not originally associated with Christmas. He’s a 1,500-year-old Pagan relic from Central Europe who was said to be the son of Hel, ruler of the underworld in Norse mythology. But don’t let that stop you from screaming — he was said to collect bad children in a sack and take them away.
Why we tell ‘scary ghost stories’ at Christmas
Blood Manor is continuing a long tradition of putting a scary spin on Christmas. When you think about it, even the idea of Santa Claus breaking and entering into every home with a child and leaving god only knows what under the tree is plenty creepy.
Christmas used to be a time to tell ghost stories. Charles Dickens wrote the most famous one with A Christmas Carol, where Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the ghosts of Christmas Past, Present and Future. The Classical Theatre of Harlem just revived the play as a musical production with a message about gentrification. “Scary ghost stories” is part of the lyrics to the iconic Andy Williams song It’s the Most Wonderful Time of the Year.
But it all began much earlier than that, also as a Pagan tradition: Christmas comes during the Winter Solstice, when the nights are longest and darkest, when the barrier between the worlds of the living and the dead is said to be thinnest. Merry Christmas!
Krampus is welcoming victims — err, visitors — on select dates now through Dec. 30, from 7-10 p.m. Tickets are $40; bloodmanor.com.
