God Jul


Wishing all of my fellow haunters, haunted house freaks, Halloween enthusiasts and fans of the macabre a very Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays from Highbury Cemetery! I've decided that for the first time in quite a few years, I'm skipping the annual Christmas day posting of the "Grandpa scene" from Silent Night, Deadly Night.

Instead, I'm just going to post this wonderful little video from Pär Boström. A beautiful clip of his music set over a cool little scene of his father's homemade Santa village. (But don't worry, Boström's masterful ambience still draws on a bit of the darkness. So there's no for concern that I have suddenly gone soft!)

Everyone have a wonderful Christmas day, and we'll get back at it in short order. Enjoy!


  

The Shortest Day, The Longest Night


We've made it to the Winter Solstice. The official start to our winter season. With the ending of another autumn, I actually look forward to the coming cold and darkness. 

The balance continues and the cycle completes.

Back in 2020, dark ambient label Cyclic Law released this incredible playlist for the Winter Solstice. And while they haven't released anything newer, this one still captures the stark mood of winter cold and darkness so well. Hauntingly desolate, yet oddly comforting.

Enjoy.


  

A Major Award...


So a few months back, I posted on my excitement of the seasonal return of the Monster cereals. To relive my hyper-sweet childhood breakfast memories, I ended up buying a box of Count Chocula (the gold standard of Monster cereals) and Frute Brute (a horrifically sweet, cherry-flavored mess that I won't take a chance on again).

The thing that caught my attention was this year's customized Monsters, designed by famous street artist, KAWS. Nothing mind-blowing, but kinda cool.

But the thing that REALLY caught my attention was the contest on the side of the boxes, where you could win a limited-edition set of 4 KAWS Monster figures. Cool. I jumped on their site and plugged in the code from the box. And then thought nothing more of it. Because I never win ANY kind of contest like this...

Until now.

I ended up receiving a "Congratulations" email back in the middle of October informing me that I had in fact won a set of figures. I got really excited, then quickly went back to work on the upcoming haunt build.

Fast forward to this week, when a package from General Mills showed up in my mailbox...


My KAWS Monster Cereal figures! I actually won a contest, and they actually showed up!

Now having said that, I'm actually not really sure what I'm going to do with them. For now, I'm keeping them in their sealed bags and they will go back in the mailer envelope. I'll keep them in my closet until I figure out exactly what I'm going to do. Still, a really cool prize from a most unexpected win!

And I have seen a few other Halloween bloggers showing off their figures, so it looks like there were quite a few winners out there. So congrats to everyone who won, and if you didn't win (and you REALLY, REALLY want a set) you're still in luck. People are already posting them up on eBay for silly money...


But wait, there's more. In doing a bit of research on the Monster cereals, I found a most interesting fact...

Are you ready?

Did you know that Count Chocula has an actual first name??

It's Alfred. Count Alfred Chocula.

Do you want to know another interesting/kinda gross fact? I'm warning you on this one, though. Click the next link only if you REALLY want to know.

Learn all about "Franken Berry Stool." EWWW...

  

Fröhliche Krampusnacht!


Gruss vom Krampus!

It's Krampusnacht, and that means that all of the bad children will be visited by Krampus tonight! Krampus, the Christmas Devil and evil counterpart of St. Nicholas, is a cloven-hooved, goat-demon that punishes bad children with a lash of his birch branched switch, then transports them to Hell inside the wicker basket upon his back.

Have you been good this year?

Photo courtesy of Liv Rainey-Smith/Xylographilia.

Photo courtesy of Sean Gallup/Getty Images.

Photo courtesy of Matej Divisna/Getty Images.

Photo courtesy of Miguel Walch.

Photo courtesy of Hexe Productions.

Photo courtesy of Fest300/Krampusnacht 2013.

Photo courtesy of Stefan Koidl.

And a little homage to the horned-one himself from the 2015 Michael Daugherty film of the same name to put you in a ghastly yuletide mood... "Cloven" by composer Douglas Pipes. Enjoy! 


  

C.W. Stoneking - "The Zombie"


A perfect track for the weekend! Classic American roots blues by C.W. Stoneking with a really great illustrated video by Patrick McHale (of Over The Garden Wall fame).

Enjoy!