Redtree Times

I’ve played this song, Must Be Santa from Bob Dylan, a couple of times over the past decade. It’s a great song, a polka with a klezmer feel that takes Dylan back his Jewish roots and in the the entertaining video you get the bonus of seeing Dylan dance. Good fun for the day before Christmas.

In past posts with this song, I have included a group of photos of Santa that were less than jovial and maybe a little menacing– the Kreepy Kringles. These seedy Santas seemed about right for this year’s holiday season.

While looking for an photo or two to accompany the original post, I browsed through masses of images of Santas from the past and was amazed how many of them crossed that line into outright creepiness.

It made me believe that Santa is just about on par with Circus Clowns in the amount of Creep Factor they exhibit.

You might see a rogue clown wandering through the woods every now and then and that is pretty spooky. The idea of Bozo chasing me through a darkened forest still haunts me. Thank god for those big floppy clown shoes that slowed him down in the woods.

But Santa shows up in your house. He is, simply put, a bearded home intruder and flamboyant dresser who crawls down your chimney in the dark of night. He drinks your milk –or makes himself a 7/7– and eats all your cookies. Sometimes he even makes out with your Mom.

Who knows what else he’s does?

He knows when you are sleeping, for god’s sake!

When I was kid I had a difficult time going to sleep on Christmas Eve because of the excitement and anticipation that Santa was on his way. Now, after looking at those photos of these Psycho Santas, I won’t be able sleep for fear that he actually might heading my way!

For that first post with these borderline Santas, I picked a few that were pretty strange but there were plenty more of them out there, some which just made me a little queasy. A couple look like they were taken in a secret room in Santa’s basement. I have a feeling that many of them are also contained in a police registry somewhere.

Or should be.

I thought I would include a fresh batch of Kreepy Kringles this year. I kept the one from the original, at the top here, because he just weirds me out on multiple levels.

I don’t know about you but I will be sleeping with one eye open tonight. Anyway, enjoy the song and have a good holiday evening.