First off, this isn’t a a ranting tirade about monsters and such, it’s rather an acute observation about Christmas. So if your looking for blood dripping vampires and crouching gargoyles, you had better slink off to some other shadow.
My favorite holidays have always been Halloween and Christmas. Both are festive, colorful and have great ancient origins.However, it is Halloween that gets all the praise from would-be goths and fans of all things gloomy, scary, etc. It makes sense, but I would like to have all those with a penchant for sulking to also enliven Christmas, for it is deserving of a dark touch as well, especially to ward off the tense, stressed out commercialism that we have all come to loathe. So the following is a short list of the reasons why I believe that Christmas can rank right up there with Halloween.
Reason#1: First off it’s Winter, which in most places is darker and colder. Unless you live in a climatic extreme of some kind, you’ll notice a huge change in the environment. What is more bleak than a windswept street, covered in ice or snow, abandoned like a Dawn Of the Dead ghost town!?
Also, all of my creative energy seems to double in the winter. Perhaps it’s because I spend more time indoors, or my mind has finally made its seasonal transformation. As far as dark seasons go, Winter (in my book) is only second to Autumn.
I just now thought of something, all those Black metal bands use ‘Winter’ in their song titles (Queen Of Winter Throned, Wintry Grey..). And they’re pretty scary right? I guess it could be that most of those bands live in Northern Europe, but that’s despite the point.
Reason#2: Religious Icons. No matter where you turn, there’s an Angel statue, or Father Christmas (Saint Nicholas), or crosses and stars (gotta love the pagan symbols too!). I’ve always found front yard nativity scenes to be pretty creepy as well.
Religion and creepiness go together quite well. Just watch the Omen, the Believers or the Exorsist. Or even play the Castelvania video game series and you’ll see what I mean.
Reason#3: Christmas Carols. Actaul Christmas Carols, not Jingle Bell Rock or I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa. The high-pitched, gathered in front of your house, steeped in snow kind. I’ve always felt that music has a definate forboding element. Again, another religious influence gone awry. If you don’t believe me, then check out the Christmas Music collection called Excelsis, A Dark Noel. It was put out by Projekt (BlackTape, Lycia, Love Spirals..) and perfectly illustrates my point. If only all Christmas music could be this ethereal.
Reason #4:Christmas Lights. I don’t know hat it is about Chrstmas lights, but i love them. Not the clear kind mind you, the multi-coloured. We put them everywhere. Take tons of pictures, and they always turn out like a Cocteau Twins album cover. Something about a dark lane with lights on trees and houses really gets me into the Holiday Season.
Reason #5:A Christmas Carol, the Timeless classic by Charles Dickens , first published in 1843. If you weren’t with me on the earlier examples, then you gotta give in to the overall dark tale of Scrooge! It’s got death, ghosts, retribution, and the ever-classic talking door knocker. How can you go wrong? I can watch every version of this classic. Even the Flintstones one!
There are many other reasons to view Christmas in a much darker light, but I don’t want to ramble too much. Scary presents, scary Salvation Army Bell Ringers, the Nightmare Before Christmas, the Nutcracker, an impending snow Avalanche, and Holiday Returns if you work retail, ahhhh!!! I hope you take away the chance of having your own Dark Noel, and have a Grim Holiday.
Written by Ezareth: Lead Singer of the band Christmas Island.
Feel free to email me with any questions at ezareth@aol.com
Materials:
Excelsis, A Dark Noel-Audio CD-Projekt 62
A Christmas Carol, Charles Dickens
A Christmas Carol, Timeless classic stories for today. Charles Dickens, illustrated by Andrew Wheatcroft, abridged by Shona McKellar. Eyewitness Series, DK Publishing, First American Edition 1997