Don't Stop...Believin'

   Proof and belief. Those two frustrating words that are the crux of the paranormal enthusiast and skeptic alike. "Show us the proof!" the skeptic's all demand, while shaking their fists in the air for added emphasis. And while this may grate at the minds of the paranormal believers out there, we'd all love to be able to show them that proof. Someday. Maybe. Hopefully. Until then, all we have is our good old fashioned faith.
   There's not another holiday out there that evokes as much emotion, nostalgia and raw belief as Christmas. Every adult has memories of presents under the tree in the morning, believing in Santa Claus or... the moment they found out Santa Claus wasn't real. I didn't have that moment of shock and horror such as finding my presents under my parent's bed. I just stopped believing one year. My cousin on the other hand, gripped onto the idea of Santa Claus as if she were hanging over a dark chasm filled with hungry wolves. She refused...absolutely refused...to believe that Santa wasn't real and we were getting a little too old to truly believe Santa was anything more than a metaphor. 
   On Christmas day, we had the family get together at her house. As soon as I arrived, she would rush me upstairs to her bedroom and show me what "Santa" got for her. This day, she proudly pointed to a new stereo set up in the corner of her bedroom, complete with two tape decks for recording and "high speed dubbing," an AM/FM radio, and a record player on top. Two tower speakers were on each side of it. It was around 1991 and that stereo was pretty damn awesome.
   "Look what Santa got me!" she exclaimed, proudly standing next to the stereo as if it was her son on the first day of school. I looked at her and was shocked she had just said that to me.
   "Santa didn't get that for you...your parents did," I said bluntly. She looked at me, unblinking.
   "No...Santa got it for me," she said defiantly.
   "Santa isn't real," I retorted back. But she didn't say anything more to defend herself and I decided it wasn't worth it. If she wanted to still believe in Santa, I wasn't going to fight her on it.
   The following Christmas she discovered a Barbie toothbrush in her parents attic space. She then received said toothbrush in her stocking from "Santa" on Christmas day. The cover was blown. Her belief in Santa went straight out the chimney he used to come down and she joined the millions of kids who have to go through the crushing realization that Santa isn't real. As we grow up, we are told a lot of things are not real that we used was just as real as the sun rising everyday.
  As I grew up and became more and more obsessed with paranormal topics, I found myself starting to believe in the unbelievable again, or the things we are encouraged not to believe in because they cannot be proven under a microscope or in a testing lab somewhere. Belief in the magical and miraculous around Christmas time is a little more tolerated and even encouraged. In fact, Christmas used to be the time when ghost stories were shared! Go figure!

Ghosts and Goblins at Christmas?

   The history of Christmas is fascinating and actually has its roots in ancient Pagan celebrations such as the winter solstice and Yule. Because December is the darkest time of the year, our ancestors used to believe that that was the time of the year to be scared of ghosts and goblins. It was dark and cold outside and obviously that made it easier for the dead to return and torment the living (as if cold and darkness weren't enough already.) The winter solstice symbolically celebrated the death of the Earth and it's coming rebirth with the returning sunlight and spring season ahead. So for the ancients, death was a central theme in the month of December. It was the perfect month for ghosts and December 24 used to be the time when the veil was thinnest and the dead could easily pass from their world into ours.
   The English Victorian's used to tell ghost stories around the hearth in the cold winter months and around Christmas as a way to pass the time. Ghost stories were immensely popular in the mid 19th century and onward. Most everyone is familiar on some level (unless you live under a rock) with Charles Dicken's, "A Christmas Carol" from 1843, where Ebenezer Scrooge is visited by the three ghosts of Christmas past, present and future. We can actually thank Victorian England for many of our current holiday traditions we still celebrate such as Christmas cards. For whatever reason, telling ghost stories at Christmas become a tradition long forgotten and left for the month of October. But really, what a perfect time for a ghost story...when we are actually encouraged to believe in magic and unseen forces working behind the scenes in our great, big world.
 

"Ghost of Christmas Future" original illustration by John
 Leech from the 1843 first edition of "A Christmas Carol." 

Fun Christmas Superstitions

If you are born on Christmas, you can not die by drowning or hanging. Lucky you!

If you are born on Christmas, you are more prone to seeing the dead. Other versions say the dead will never bother you if born on this day. So I guess you'll have to talk to someone born on Christmas and get their opinion on this one.

Think a few evil spirits are lurking around your home? Open the doors of your house on Christmas Eve at midnight and let those wild spirits fly out into the night sky! Or the first to open the door on Christmas needs to yell "Welcome Father Christmas!" and then the bad spirits will be let out.

Candle's left to burn over night in the window or windows of a house ensured good luck. If the candle is blown out in the morning...well...it's just not good. Not good at all for you.

If you deny someone a kiss under the mistletoe, bad luck is sure to find you and don't replace the mistletoe until next year with new mistletoe, or more bad luck will find you.

The Weirdest Christmas Fact You Will Read Today

How terrifying would this be to show your
if they weren't behaving for "Santa."

   While researching a few fun facts about the history of Christmas, I found the devilish figure of Black Peter. Now in old postcards such as the one featured in this post on the right, Black Peter pretty much looks like the Devil. Metaphorically speaking, he was the complete opposite of Santa Claus. Sort of like God and the Devil. While it was Santa's job to give presents to the good little boys and girls, it was Black Peter's job to dish out the punishments and drop the lumps of coal in the stockings of the bad children.
   Black Peter got his start in 15th century Holland. First appearances of him don't actually portray him as a devilish figure, rather a Spaniard! Gasp! At the time Black Peter surfaced, the Spanish were occupying the Netherlands and they weren't all that happy about it. Other people suggest his origins are Moorish due to his dark skin and manner of dress in depictions of him. Peter's outward appearance would continue to change through the centuries and in Holland today, Black Peter is more like Santa's sidekick and is usually portrayed by a white man with his face painted black (that ticks off a few people over there), rather than some evil monster with horns and a hairy body. Santa and Black Peter arrive in a parade on December 5 in Holland and has been a holiday tradition for a long time that has also become controversial due to the stereotypes Black Peter embodies.

   Hopefully you've been slightly enlightened now with some strange facts about Christmas to share with the family this holiday. Now go listen to that song by Journey "Don't Stop Believin," and yell the chorus over the rooftops. Because when we stop believing in things, this world becomes a pretty dull place to live in.