Nothing says Merry Christmas like severed bodies!

An advent calendar being sold in Germany features a famous serial killer loose in a town square with smiling children and Santa Claus enjoying a lovely Christmas scene.

It's in cartoon-style, but regardless, it still depicts Fritz Haarmann, who murdered 24 young men and boys in the 1920s; he apparently chopped their corpses up with a meat cleaver and dumped the severed remains in the local river. And there he is beneath a tree guarding the door for December 1. Gee, they're not even trying to stick it in there in the middle of the month. At the end of November, kids will be clamoring over who gets to open Fritz's door. "Mommy, what's that giant murderous weapon looming over Santa Claus?"

"It's part of our history," says Hans Nolte, the director of the town's tourism board.

The defense for the calendar is that the serial killer is part of history and other historical characters are part of the scene as well. The calendar isn't being recalled either; in fact, sales have gone up! Absolutely brilliant marketing tactic.