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Krampus Tales · free · 5:42
Krampus Loses at Cards
Krampus Loses at Cards is a 6-minute Krampus Tale, a fireside Christmas story told by a dry old English storyteller and introduced by Krampus himself. Press play to hear it free, right here.
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The story
On a snowed-in Christmas Eve in a Yorkshire railway waiting room, a stranded retired schoolmistress is joined by a tall, horned, very well-mannered gentleman with a sack and a rattle of chains, who suggests a friendly game of whist to pass the night. The storyteller recounts how she plays him hand after hand for the souls of the stationmaster, the porter and a sleeping commercial traveller, and wins every one.
How it begins
The snow came down over the Yorkshire moors on Christmas Eve like a sheet being shaken out over a bed nobody had made. By four o'clock the lamps at the little station of Gallowmere Junction had been lit, and by five the last train had gone, and by six the line had quietly stopped being a line at all. Miss Agatha Pennock, retired schoolmistress, sat alone on the hard bench of the waiting room with her carpet bag on her knees and her umbrella propped against the wall, and she was not in the least afraid. She had taught forty years of boys who put frogs in her desk. A…
The folklore behind it
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Krampus Kristmas, free 24/7
The Krampus Tales play between the songs on Krampus Kristmas, the world's first 24/7 Krampus radio station, and all 30 are a free podcast too.