Trade in your candy canes for birch branches as we explore the terrifying global origins of holiday folklore that prove Santa Claus is the exception, not the rule. From the skin-peeling Namahage of Japan and the child-hunting Nalujuit of the frozen North to the suffocating Christmas witches of France and the original bad cop, Krampus, this episode uncovers the monsters that haunt the Twelve Days of Christmas. Tune in to discover why our ancestors used fear rather than rewards to enforce obedience, how a lack of butter could cost you your life in Scandinavia, and why the "most wonderful time of the year" was historically the most dangerous.

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Move over, Krampus—this episode uncovers the true nightmares of the Yuletide season, taking you on a global tour of the gruesome, the ghostly, and the grotesque. From the visceral horror of France’s Père Fouettard—the butcher who pickled children in barrels—to Austria’s belly-slitting Frau Perchta and the rap-battling skeletal horse of Wales, we explore the dark folklore that transforms the holidays into a fight for survival. We break down the obsession with counting that stops the Cajun Lutin and Greek Kallikantzaroi, survive the chimney-smashing rage of Scandinavia's Lussi, and finally make a case for the most disturbing legend of all: Hans Trapp, the Alsatian "Christmas Scarecrow," a figure based on a real-life 15th-century psychopath whose cannibalistic legacy is a horror movie waiting to happen.

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This episode focuses on Dr. Jules Wallace, arguably one of the most controversial and successful mediums in American history, who perfected the blend of showmanship, psychology, and trickery that defined the Spiritualist craze of the late 19th century. Arriving in St. Louis in 1893, Wallace quickly became a national sensation by staging elaborate séances and "materializations"—where he would ostensibly summon full-bodied apparitions from his spirit cabinet. His career peaked with a spectacular public duel against the rival mind-reader Professor Tyndal. Despite his masterful illusions, Wallace's elaborate fraud was ultimately exposed by reporters and police, leading to his charge of fraud before he vanished with a bag of cash, successfully escaping arrest and solidifying his legacy as the adaptable grifter who exploited the national yearning for proof of the afterlife.

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