Lost Negatives

[gothwalk]

I do wonder what happened to the negative parts of the various seasonal traditions - the kids who didn't get Christmas presents because they weren't good (or got coal, or sticks, or whatever), the ones who didn't find Easter eggs, and so on. They seem to have vanished entirely.

I was reminded of this by an overheard conversation in a supermarket today wherein two (well-dressed, well-spoken, polite) kids were discussing blackmail tactics to get the maximum possible number of Easter eggs out of their relatives. The small boy was good on the numbers, but weak on motivation (his concept of beating up his older brother seemed doomed to failure, for instance), and the small girl had them down a lot better, having already concealed pictures of "Mary and George" in safe places for a later exchange against a chocolate currency.

Comments

[mr-wombat.livejournal.com]

Occam's Moron:
If your kids don't get good presents then you're poor. Furthermore, poor kids get the shit knocked out of them.

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

Oh yes. I remember being told as a child that Black Pete was going to come and put coal in my stocking if I was naughty.

Also that robins in the garden were Santa's helpers, watching us with their beady little eyes!

[jadedgeneration.livejournal.com]

Ditto on the robins! The fact that they stalk people around the garden really didn't help my childhood paranoia in this respect!

[smarriveurr.livejournal.com]

See, I never got coal as a kid, or threatened with it - as an only child, I was such the apple of my parents eye, after all.

But I do remember the Germanic tradition of Knecht Ruprecht, the tame demon/troll/boogeyman of some stripe that came along with Santa and abducted/beat evil children. How I wish that idea still prevailed.

[ailbhe]

We were threatened with loss of presents from Santa if we were bad, but there was never any behavioural connection with Easter Eggs as long as I can remember. We got one and one only, from the Easter Bunny, and none from relations of any kind.