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Krampus Tales · free · 6:28

The Department Store Santa Shift

The Department Store Santa Shift is a 6-minute Krampus Tale, a fireside Christmas story told by a 1940s radio-mystery narrator and introduced by Krampus himself. Press play to hear it free, right here.

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The story

A radio narrator describes a department store in a big American city where three different Santas take turns on the same throne in the same red suit, each one with a clipboard and a slightly different beard.

How it begins

You know the store. Every city has one. Eleven floors of glass and brass, perfume that hangs in the air like a rumour, and a toy department on the top floor where the carpet is the colour of cranberry sauce. It was the week before Christmas in a big American city, and the snow was coming down past the windows like someone was emptying a feather pillow over the whole street. The bells on the corner kettle were ringing. The radiators were knocking. And up on the fourth floor, in a velvet grotto built of fake pine and a painted moon, sat Santa Claus. Or rather, sat a Santa Claus.…

The folklore behind it

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