Happy Holidays everyone! As a Christmas gift to you all, we decided to post Monday's episode a few days early. In this episode, we discuss Belsnickel, a Pennsylvania-Dutch Christmas gift-giver. Originally from Germany, Belsnickel has become part of Pennsylvania Christmas tradition. But is Belsnickel the fun, jolly figure you'd think he is?

We know this is not our typical content, but we hope you enjoy this break from our typical episode. We hope you and your family have a fun and relaxing holiday and we will hop into your feed again in the new year.

The poem Darian recited, "Christmastime in the Land of Belsnickel", was written by Matthew Burns, and can be found in his blog post here:

http://appalachianlifestyles.blogspot.com/2008/12/christmastime-in-land-of-belsnickel.html

Before you listen to this episode, we highly recommend you watch the clip of The Office where Dwight dresses up as Belsnickel, which you can find here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-vhnw0Ph44

Our sources for this episode can be accessed here:

http://paheritage.wpengine.com/article/der-belsnickel-nicholas-in-furs-or-hairy-devil/

http://www.indobase.com/holidays/christmas/characters/belsnickel.html

https://www.visitpaamericana.com/holidays/what-or-who-is-belsnickel/#:~:text=The%20Belsnickel%20originated%20in%20the,%E2%80%9Cnickel%E2%80%9D%20refers%20to%20St

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belsnickel

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knecht_Ruprecht

https://www.imdb.com/news/ni63112890

https://medium.com/k%C3%BChner-kommentar/der-belsnickel-cometh-before-st-nick-708ad8d2b090

While Darian is an attorney, and Kristen is a nurse, nothing said in this podcast shall be construed as legal or medical advice.