Death & Christmas While nowadays Christmas and Yule are seen as joyous holidays they also have an old dark core that has never truly been forgot. It is a time of finding the light in the cold and the dark, and a time of active waking spirits. When the Wild Hunt with its many spirits of the dead led often as not by death gods such as Wotan, Holda, King Arthur, Harlequin, etc. Death has always been a part of the holiday. Both in the world around us at rest and in the gods associated with it. This can be seen echoing through culture and history with Father Time and The Grim Reaper often portrayed alongside Santa Claus and Father Christmas in old art, while films such as Hogfather and A Nightmare Before Christmas feature a Deathlike figure actually taking over for Santa, cloaked in the same clothing. A callback through our Collective Unconscious to a time we know in our hearts is older than Bethlehem and the Church, a Time we call Christmas and the ancients called Yule. -TLK