Painted drawing of Saint Justo, wearing red, green, white and gold samurai armor of the Sengoku period. He is grinning and has his fists on his hips.
The final #CompanionsOfChristmas figure: Saint Justo!
Candlemas (today!) is the final day of what the traditional Christmas season, and midnight's approaching! Be sure to take down any remaining decorations, because otherwise you might be visited by Saint Justo, the Christmas Samurai. 1/
Watercolored drawing of a man with a handlebar mustache and sweeping baroque hair in green lederhosen, gauntlets, tall boots, and a hunting jacker. A rifle is slung across his back and a large horn hangs at his side. He has leashed a leash of half-pig, half dogs with three legs each. The frontmost such creature has only one eye, and wears an eyepatch.
#COMPANIONSofCHRISTMAS: Türst!
Türst is a cruel hunter who most-dangerous-games his way through the Swiss countryside during the Christmas season. He hunts with a trio of braying, three-legged schweinhunds (the offspring of a tryst between a hunting hound and a wild boar). 1/
Over Twelfthtide, I'm gonna post some of the "baddies" of Christmas, folks that St. Nick has never tamed like he has his dark companions Krampus, Peré Fouettard, etc.
#COMPANIONSofCHRISTMAS: Holda and Perchta! 1/
Watercolored line drawing of a man with a black mustache and long hair, topped with a red headscarf under a wide-brimmed hat. He wears knee-length leather chaperones and has knee-high black boots with spurs. He has a red sash and neckerchief and a blue shirt. He holds a bolo.
#COMPANIONSofCHRISTMAS: Gauchito Gil!
Forced into the Argentine army as a teenager, Gauchito Gil proved himself an adept horseman, cattle wrangler, and sharpshooter, and when his term of service was over he intended to settle down to the peaceful and solitary life of a gaucho (cowboy). 1/
Watercolored drawing of a soot-blackened chimneysweep with a bushy mustache and a top hat. His outfit is mid-late 19th century. He carries a ladder and two brushes.
#COMPANIONSofCHRISTMAS: Shmutzli!
Schmutzli was a chimneysweep in Switzerland, and took in many children from the local orphanage. He didn’t do this out of love or charity; he wanted tiny workers to do the dangerous job of going down the slimmest chimneys to remove the soot and coal ash. 1/
A watercolor drawing of a small, round, smiling old woman with fairy with a handbell riding an old donkey bearing saddlebaskets full of small gift-wrapped packages
#COMPANIONSofCHRISTMAS: Tante Arie and Marion
Plenty of livestock was present when Jesus was born in a stable, including a donkey who was the first animal to acknowledge the baby’s divinity, bowing down at his cradle and thereafter affixing herself to the Holy Family. 1/
A watercolored drawing of a werewolf that looks more like a were-terrier-mutt holding a red lantern and a lidded mug with steam coming off. He has thigh-hight red gaiters suspended from a belt, smeared in algae, and wears an outfit and masked hood of layers of red, gold, and purple fringe.
#COMPANIONSofCHRISTMAS: Guinefort, the Cajun Christmas Werewolf!
When Santa Claus visits the bayous of Louisiana, the dense canopy of trees that blanket the rivers along which its people live preclude him from employing his reindeer-pulled sleigh. 1/
Watercolored drawing of three pirates: a woman with a peg leg holding up a coin, a lanky fellow grinning from behind a fanned hand of cards, and a shorty guy with an eyepatch making a kissy face while holding up two sticks of licorice
#COMPANIONSofCHRISTMAS: The Pirates of Port Navidad!
Greedy Rita, Cheatin’ Pete, and Lickerish Lou were an inseparable trio of 4th-century Mediterranean sailors whose ship ran aground on some sharp rocks during a storm. 1/
(This story was partly inspired by the wonderful
#COMPANIONSofCHRISTMAS series of illustrations by @schweizercomics.bsky.social who reminded me that Saint Nick is the patron saint of sailors in distress, not just of children and toymakers!)
I ain't gonna redo this batch of #COMPANIONSofCHRISTMAS characters because it's a lengthier thread, so instead reposting this story about juggling different (and sometimes conflicting) holiday traditions practiced among the different branches of one's extended families.
Watercolored ink drawing of an older man in Tajik robes and hat of red and white, with hints of frosty blue. He carries a bundle of gathered wood and you can see parcels hidden in that bundle.
#COMPANIONSofCHRISTMAS: Bobo Barfi!
Bobo Barfi was gathering firewood to warm his home in the mountains of Tajikistan, when he stumbled across Ded Moroz, who had become trapped in a deadfall of old trees downed in a winter storm. 1/
watercolored drawing of a lady with an apron and a bag-like bonnet giving you the ginch eye. She's got two sacks, one full of sticks, the other candy and presents.
#COMPANIONSofCHRISTMAS: Budelfrau!
Many years ago, Budelfrau owned an apple orchard on the edge of the forests in Austrian east Styria, but people feared the ogres of that wilderness, so few ventured to her shop, even though hers were reputed to be the best apples in a region famous for them. 1/
Watercolor drawing of a man in green and red pinstriped overalls and matching engineer cap. He has darker, desaturated green arm garters and red vest over a white shirt, and red gloves and gauntlets. He has a large brass oil can and a pocketwatch, which he is checking. He's short, old, smiling, and has a white mustache, sideburns, and wispy hair sticking out from under his cap. He has big round glasses.
#COMPANIONSofCHRISTMAS: Hogger Boggs!
During World War II, Santa generally had to fly much lower than he does during peacetime, for fear of attracting the attention of aircraft spotters and putting local towns into panic. 1/
Watercolored ink drawing of an old man in mostly white with accents of yellow and greenish-gray, and a wide flapped fur hat. He has wooden beads draped around his neck, embroidered mittens, and has a tall staff that tapers into a small dragon with a slightly turned head.
#COMPANIONSofCHRISTMAS 16: Sagaan Ubgen
Sagaan Ubgen, the Mongolian guardian of longevity, lives at Lake Baikal, the deepest (and oldest) lake in the entire world, where he has given winter gifts and hospitality to travelers at the lunar New Year for as long as anyone can remember. 1/
I posted some of the new #COMPANIONSofCHRISTMAS characters this year without tagging them so that they could be found by folks new to the series. Rectifying that now!
I posted some of the new #COMPANIONSofCHRISTMAS characters this year without tagging them so that they could be found by folks new to the series. Rectifying that now!
I posted some of the new #COMPANIONSofCHRISTMAS characters this year without tagging them so that they could be found by folks new to the series. Rectifying that now!
Watercolored drawing of a man carrying a long-handled whip will a bell on it, covered in a costume of thousands of colored strips of cloth
#COMPANIONSofCHRISTMAS: Pitchy Patchy!
Once a highly decorated Akan military commander, the man who would become known as Pitchy Patchy was stolen from his home and enslaved in Jamaica, but he was able to escape to freedom... 1/
Watercolored drawing of a horse skull atop a floating sheet, festooned by colorful ribbons. The creature is led by a ghostly man with a 19th century top hat and coat atop 6th century Welsh garb.
#COMPANIONSofCHRISTMAS: Mari Lwyd!
#MariLwyd was a gray mare belonging to Taliesin, a poet hailed as “chief of the bards” in sixth century Wales. Taliesin frequently called on Awen, the Welsh muse, for inspiration... 1/
Watercolored drawing of two frosty figures: a girl in grayish and beigeish white furs, and a bearded man dressed in the same hues.
#COMPANIONSofCHRISTMAS: Snegarochka and Ded Moroz!
Long ago, in the Vologda Forest in what is now Russia, a couple, unable to have children, made one out of snow, and so great was their love for each other, and their desire for a child, that the girl came to life. 1/
Watercolored drawing of a furry, horned, stout worm dragon with red eyes
#COMPANIONSofCHRISTMAS: The Badalisc!
One of the more pernicious Christmas dragons is the furry serpent Badalisc, which is caught during an annual hunt each Jan 5th in the mountain forests of northern Italy. 1/
Watercolored drawing of a knight in late 15th century German armor, mostly black with a few yellow/gold accents. The armor details have suggestions of the shape of decorated Christmas trees.
#COMPANIONSofCHRISTMAS: Hans Trapp!
Hans Trapp (once known as Hans Von Trotha) was a German knight in who, in the 1480s, forcibly took possession of a castle fortress that had belonged to a monastery. 1/
Watercolored drawing of a shifty-eyed goat counting a stack of turn-of-the-century pound notes, plush entrails dragging from between his shirt buttons
#COMPANIONSofCHRISTMAS: Derby Tup!
Many, many years ago, a butcher named Joe Funny, who plied his trade in north Derbyshire, would travel from door to door on New Years’ Eve with his wife, leading a flock of goats a’string. One year, the last goat in this doomed line was Tup. 1/
Watercolored drawing of a man with a blonde chin beard wearing copious amounts of fur. He carries a sack and a whip and a krampus mask hangs from his belt.
#COMPANIONSofCHRISTMAS: Belsnickel!
Belsnickel was a hermit in Germany’s large and wild Black Forest, a fur trapper who wanted nothing more than to be left alone, but he lived near the entrance of a cave that children from a nearby village liked to explore. 1/
I'm from NB and I have never heard this story before! Thanks so much for sharing :) Also, these #COMPANIONSofCHRISTMAS are so well done Chris!
Watercolored drawing of two white-haired women in Mycenaean-ish armor with ivy and holly, respectively, iconography and shape.
#COMPANIONSofCHRISTMAS: ILEX and HELIX!
Santa isn't the only one with companions; Mrs. Claus has a few of her own. Among them are Ilex and Helix (the Holly and the Ivy), her oldest & most trusted bosom friends/comrades-in-arms from her days among the Dryads. 1/
watercolored drawing of a little girl dressed like an angel
#COMPANIONSofCHRISTMAS: Christkindl!
Martin "saints are bad" Luther wanted to ban St. Nick from entering protestant Europe in the 1500s, but knew that many of the people still wanted him to come, and that partisans might help smuggle the jolly old man across the borders. 1/
#COMPANIONSofCHRISTMAS: Mother Goodie!
Many, many years ago, Santa was about to make his final stop on Christmas Eve: Campobello Island, in the Canadian Maritimes, where terrible nor'easter was raging. The sea was mountainous in the fierce wind and freezing rain. 1/
watercolored drawing of a fur-clad devil with a long tongue, a basket on his back, chains on his wrist, and a bundle of switches
#COMPANIONSofCHRISTMAS: The Krampus!
The Krampus was a rural giftgiver who would deliver presents to good Alpine children and stuff the naughty ones into his basket and take them back to his lair, where they would be forced to spend the next year making toys for good kids. 1/
Watercolor drawing of a young swashbuckler in a Page's outfit, arms akimbo
#COMPANIONSofCHRISTMAS: Piet! Santa's chief lieutenant, in charge of managing operations at the North Pole.
When Piet first met Santa, Piet was a young castle page in Andalusia on the eve of being made a squire, but his lord was a wicked knight who had contrived to capture the old saint. 1/
