Nutcracker

By Crusader1307

A component of Christmas known by most, The Nutcracker is actually a Talisman to ward off Evil Spirits. This is based on their constructed appearance as a ''Soldier''. Their long maw (jaw), is often confused with a festive Holiday device used to crack open the shell of nuts. This is somewhat of a misnomer. Their ''jaws'' are elongated to scare (said Spirits) away from One's home. The ''Dolls'' first appeared in Germanic Nations around the 17th Century AD. Brightly colored and often highly embellished (the more the better), several such Dolls are kept at ''key locations'' in One's House. Their more ''fanciful'' usage as a Holiday piece came into being in The United States with the earliest Productions of The ''Nutcracker Ballet'' in the 1950s. This, and the fact that many American Servicemen brought Dolls home with them (from their deployments to Germany), as a ''Christmas Gift'', would create their mythos.