The Dark side of Christmas
Meet Krampus and his evil associates
Half devil, half goat, Krampus is Santa Claus’ evil counterpart as depicted in Germanic folklore. While it was Santa’s job to travel around and deliver gifts to the children who had been good, it was left to Krampus to punish those who had been naughty. He is known to carry around a large sack to kidnap the naughty children to eat, drown or drag down the underworld and he would use sticks to beat them.
Krampusnacht, also known as Krampus Night, is a celebration held on 5 December, the day before Saint Nicholas’ Day, because this is when Krampus would supposedly arrive to dole out his various punishments. Today, the event is known for the raucous and drunk celebrations where people dress up as Krampus and run through the streets — however, this behaviour has not always been accepted. For years, the myth of Krampus became lost across Europe as the Catholic Church, which disapproved of the rowdiness, effectively sanitised Christmas.
The tales of Santa’s other evil companions, such as Le Père Fouettard, who whipped naughty children, and Knecht Ruprecht, who would gift them lumps of coal, also similarly faded from popular memory. Having said this, in recent years the scary counterparts to
Santa have seen a recent resurgence in popularity, with their tales becoming increasingly commercialised.
There are also characters out there that were known terrorise at Christmas but who were not necessarily associated with Santa Claus. The best example is the Kallikantzaros, goblins from southeastern European folklore that resemble little black devils. It was said that they would surface from underground during the 12 days of Christmas to trouble the humans on earth. To protect themselves, people would burn Yule logs as the Kallikantzaros could not walk through fire. According to legend, any child born during the 12 days of Christmas was at risk of turning into a Kallikantzaros.
“He is known to carry around a large sack to kidnap the naughty children”