What is it with grocery stores and holidays this month?

Last week, it was Balducci’s in NYC with their Hanukkha ham special. Very unfortunate. Now let’s head south to Schnucks in Germantown, Tennessee — where’s you’ll find this inexplicably grotesque Santa Claus guarding the gingerbread house kits.

Peter Baskind, who snapped this perplexing bit of cadaverous holiday cheer, shares our confusion.

There are some things that I simply can’t explain. This is seemingly one of them … I stumbled across this in a tented display of Christmas cookies, Holiday cakes and the like. What is this?! A poor attempt at the Grinch, or something more sinister?

Peter contributes a web site called Apple Zombies, so you’d think if anyone could shed some light on the specter of an obviously undead Jolly St. Nick, it would be him.

But no. We’ll just have to chalk it up to the mystery of Christmas.

Link: Apple Zombies