erinwrites | Thursday Thoughts: Bellsnickel

Originally published at erin-go-blog!. You can comment here or there.

December 6 is St. Nicholas Day. In my hometown, we celebrated a similar tradition, but instead of St. Nicholas, we were visited by Belsnickel. Here’s a brief mention I found on Wikipedia:

Belsnickel (or Belschnickel) is a Pennsylvania Dutch mythical being who visits children at Christmas time. If they have not been good, they will find coal and/or switches in their stockings. The Belsnickel was a scary creature not well loved except by parents wanting to keep their children in line.

Belsnickel is also similar to Krampus in Austria and Germany.

I did grow up in a very German part of Pennsylvania, and my area of the state had adapted a version of this story. Our Belsnickel wasn’t exactly scary, though…we thought of him as a jolly elf of sorts. On the night of Dec. 5, we’d leave our shoes out, and Belsnickel would leave a small gift (candy or little toys) for you if you’d been good.

I received small gifts from Belsnickel well into my adulthood. (Here’s one previous mention on the blog…I had spelled it Bellsnickle, and I’ve been noticing a lot of google searches leading people here! Hope you find what you’re looking for…)