A Cup of Yuletide Fear: Monsters of the Holiday Season With Cory Hutcheson
In this three-part lecture series, learn how the festive and fearful intertwine in eerie winter folklore and dark holiday traditions.
Course Description
Unwrap the eerie side of the holidays in this dark dive into winter folklore. While Santa and Rudolph are familiar faces, few know of Hans Trapp, the "black knight" who travels with the Christ Child in Germany, or Perchta, who inspects homes with a belly-slitting threat. And what child wouldn’t tremble at Père Fouettard, who punishes the naughty with a rod alongside Saint Nicholas?
Join folklorist Cory Thomas Hutcheson as he explores these shadowy legends. You'll meet the infamous Krampus and discover the raucous “Krampuslauf” parades, follow Italy’s "Christmas witch" La Befana, and dive into spooky holiday traditions like fortune-telling and "scary ghost stories." Learn how the festive and the fearful have been intertwined for centuries—and how you can add a dash of the uncanny to your holiday season.
Syllabus At A Glance
This course includes three total sessions, each lasting 1.5 hour on three consecutive Mondays beginning December 2.
Session 1 (Monday, 12/2, 7:30–9:00 PM ET)| Krampus and Friends
We’ll begin with an introduction to the best-known monstrous traveling companions of St. Nick, along with some of the other folkloric monsters and beasts of midwinter.
Session 2 (Monday, 12/9, 7:30–9:00 PM ET)| The Women of Winter
We’ll continue to explore the dark side of the holidays by looking at many of the feminine (and gender-bending) figures of Yuletide.
Session 3 (Monday, 12/16, 7:30–9:00 PM ET)| Dark Deeds on a Winter’s Night
We’ll finish up our exploration of Yuletide terror by looking at some of the spookier rituals and practices associated with the Christmas season and talk about how we incorporate these darker aspects of the holiday season today through contemporary rituals and popular culture.
Between Sessions
This course comes with downloadable slides and a PDF booklet to accompany the course which includes information on the traditions discussed, reading lists for further exploration, and more. Students will be encouraged to document and share their own holiday lore and do light fieldwork on their community reflective writing.
Pricing Options
This course is available at three ticket prices. This tiered pricing model is designed to increase access for a wider range of students as well as to support our instructors. In addition to tiered tickets, we offer a limited number of no-pay spots for students who would not otherwise be able to take this course. No-pay spots are selected via a randomized drawing two weeks before each section begins. For more information and to apply for a no-pay spot, please click here. To learn more about our pricing model and randomized selection process for no-pay spots, please visit our FAQ page.
Community Guidelines for Students
Please take a moment to review our community guidelines for students, which aim to share our classroom ethos and help set the stage for the best possible learning experience.
Atlas Obscura Online Courses
Atlas Obscura Courses offer opportunities for participants to emerge with new skills, knowledge, connections, and perspectives through multi-session classes designed and taught by expert instructors. To learn more about our current course offerings, please visit www.atlasobscura.com/online-courses. For answers to commonly asked questions, check out our FAQ page here.
Founded in 2009, Atlas Obscura created the definitive community-driven guide to incredible places across the planet and is now an award-winning company that shares the world’s hidden wonders in person and online.
Once registered, you’ll receive a confirmation email from Eventbrite that will provide access to each class meeting. Please save the confirmation email as you’ll use it to access all sessions of your course via Zoom.
Cory Thomas Hutcheson is a folklorist, university educator, and magical practitioner currently living in Tennessee. He teaches courses about folklore and monsters at Middle Tennessee State University and frequently presents public lectures on folklore topics including holiday monsters and the spooky history of sleepover games. He has spent more than a decade as the co-host and author of the New World Witchery podcast and website, featuring more than two hundred episodes and articles on North American folk magic and witchcraft. He has conducted hundreds of hours of interviews with practitioners of a wide range of folk traditions, and traveled widely including stints living in Prague (Czech Republic) and among the Pennsylvania-Dutch. He has a doctorate in American Studies from Penn State, with specializations in folklore, ethnography, and religious studies. He is the author of New World Witchery: A Trove of North American Folk Magic (Llewellyn, 2021), Llewellyn’s Complete Book of North American Folk Magic (Llewellyn, 2023) and Conjuring the Commonplace: A Guide to Everyday Enchantment and Junk Drawer Magic (1000Volt Press, 2023). He has also contributed to publications including the anthology The Gorgon's Guide to Magical Resistance (Revelore, 2022) and the Oxford Handbook of American Folklore and Folklife Studies (Oxford UP, 2018).
This lecture series is designed so students can participate live or watch a recording of each session, after it airs, at a time that is convenient for them. Sessions will take place live over Zoom, with dedicated Q&A segments for students to ask questions via video or chat. Within 72 hours after each session meets, students will receive access to a recording of the live session, which they can watch for up to two weeks after the course concludes.
