In Berchtesgaden, Germany

Wander up into the hills onto the cobblestone streets, and you’ll find a small Christmas market between the towering church and royal residence in the old town center of Berchtesgaden.

This market may be one of the smaller markets I’ve visited, but it is as ideal as any: intimate, with local food and craftspeople, a large tree in the square and musicians performing regularly through the afternoon.

At 3pm each day in the week leading up to Christmas, the region erupts in gunfire, as townspeople continue the winter tradition of shooting into the sky.

Some say it is to let the approaching Christ child know where good children live, others say it is to scare off evil winter spirits.

And in the snowy hilltops above Berchtesgaden, I am invited to a Christmas Eve tradition from hundreds of years ago.

Loud bells begin clanking from the forest, as St. Nicholas and a gaggle of Krampus appear. They run through the village of 400, alternately greeting the inhabitants of each house, and whipping them with a special forest whip. (And hard, it hurts!)

The Krampus creatures scare the children to be good in the new year, and St. Nicholas rewards all of those who have been good in the past year. They must have thought I had been somewhere between good and bad this year, because they presented me with my own special forest whip. Probably it’s my favorite gift this Christmas.

It is part of a unique Christmas tradition on a continent that originated so many Christmas traditions centuries ago. A fitting place to find myself on these Christmas days, after a season of adventure and wonder.

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Benjamin Thomas