Unpacking Krampus: Santa's Evil Partner In Crime
- Photo: MatthiasKabel / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-3.0
Krampus Is A Not-So-Friendly Christmas Demon
Jolly Old Saint Nick loves bringing toys for children at Christmas, but his buddy Krampus is a whole different matter.
There’s no mistaking Krampus for Santa. Krampus is a demon, known for his mangled, demonic face and his furry black body. Giant horns sprout from his head, because Krampus isn’t 100% demon - he’s also half goat. And just like Satan, Krampus loves to scare people.
- Photo: Unknown / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
Santa And Krampus Play Good Cop, Bad Cop
Santa and Krampus are actually good friends. They team up in December to make sure that children behave - or else Krampus will drag them down to Hell. It's a slightly different take on the whole "coal in your stocking" thing.
Dating back to the seventeenth century, Santa and Krampus have played good cop, bad cop with children across central Europe. Krampus is the “scared straight” one of the pair. He terrifies children into behaving with threats of bodily harm and kidnapping. You know, typical Christmas stuff. Once kids were on the straight and narrow, Santa would appear to shower them with presents.
- Photo: Unknown / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
Krampus Carries A Bundle Of Birch Sticks To Beat Kids
The whole point of Krampus was to terrify young children into behaving. And one of the most important tools Krampus uses to intimidate children is his bundle of birch sticks, which he usually carries on his back. When Krampus spots a naughty child, he’ll pull out the birch sticks and start swinging.
Krampus sometimes even left behind a bundle of birch sticks to remind children that he lurked everywhere. A 1958 article about the Krampus legend in southeast Austria claimed that Krampus delivered gold-painted bundles of sticks to children. Families would hang them on the wall to remind kids to follow the rules.
- Photo: Unknown / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
Krampus Also Carries Chains Just To Be Even More Terrifying
Images of Krampus often show him with broken chains around his feet. These chains may symbolize the binding of demons by the Christian Church. Krampus thrashes his chains at children, showing them that no chains can bind him.
The chains also fit with the yin and yang relationship between Saint Nicholas and Krampus. Saint Nicholas represents the Church and everything holy, while Krampus is his demonic counterpart. The chains are a visual reminder that Christianity has the power to hold back demons - or the power to let them roam free.
- Photo: Unknown / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
Krampus Stuffs Children In His Sack To Drag Them Back To Hell
In addition to carrying birch sticks to whip children, Krampus often appears with a sack or a basket strapped to his back. But this sack isn’t for carrying presents - it’s to kidnap naughty children.
If a child was particularly bad, Krampus might stuff him into the basket and drag him down to Hell. Alternately, Krampus could transport the child in a sack to drown him in a lake or eat him. Either way, it’s a long way from Santa’s sack of presents.
- Photo: Unknown / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
Krampus Even Drags Babies To Hell – Merry Christmas!
Krampus doesn't just focus on naughty boys and girls. He even attacks babies. In this image, Krampus is shown dragging nine babies down to Hell on his bundle of twigs, riding it like a flying broomstick. And sure, some babies can be pretty naughty (I'm looking at you, baby in the basket) but no one could suspect the smiling baby fourth from the left of anything treacherous.
No wonder a Vienna principal warned parents in 1953 that Krampus would scar children for life.
- Photo: Unknown / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
Krampus Visits December Fifth; If You Survive, You Get Presents
How exactly do Santa and Krampus work together? Krampusnacht, or Krampus night, was December 5th. On that night, Krampus visits each house, just like traditional stories about Santa Claus. But Krampus leaves behind bundles of sticks for naughty children - or he just goes ahead and beats them himself. The worst children might be thrown into his sack and tossed in a stream or dragged back to Hell for a year.
If children survived the encounter with Krampus, the next day was St. Nicholas Day. Good children could finally breathe easy knowing they were getting presents instead of beatings.
- Photo: Unknown / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
Krampus Torments Children, With Parents Laughing In The Background
In some traditions, Krampus and St. Nick teamed up to visit boys and girls. Santa would carry his bag of toys, while Krampus would appear with more sinister aims. And parents have been exploiting Krampus for years, using him to terrify children. One woman who grew up in Germany wrote in 2016 about the time Krampus attacked her friends, dragging one screaming child out the door, whipping a crying girl with branches, and terrifying children - and the whole thing was arranged by the parents.
- Photo: Unknown / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
Don’t Get Too Comfortable With Your Toys - Krampus Might Be Right Behind You
As this holiday card from around 1900 warned, even good children shouldn't rest easy when Krampus was around. Even if children survived Krampus’s visit on December 5th, the demon could come back at any time to terrorize them. In the image, Krampus jumps right on the back of a young boy’s rocking horse, wielding his chains and a bundle of birch branches. Even more terrifying, the demon’s tongue lolls just above the boy’s head.
There’s nothing like a demon tormenting terrified children to put you in the Christmas spirit, right?
- Photo: Anonymous / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
Krampus Can’t Keep His Tongue In His Mouth
Images of Krampus dating back to the 1800s agree on one thing: Krampus has an enormous tongue. It’s so big that it doesn’t even fit in the demon's mouth. Usually the tongue flops out as Krampus terrorizes children, usually hitting him in the middle of his chest. But in one terrifying holiday greeting card, Krampus’s tongue is so long that it wraps all the way around a frightened child.
- Photo: HaSt / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-4.0
Krampus Isn’t The Only Christmas Demon
Christmas seems like a strange time to celebrate monsters, but it turns out that Krampus isn’t the only Christmas demon. Not by a long shot.
Frau Perchta is a witch who hands out punishments during the twelve days of Christmas. If she decides you’re too sinful, she’ll rip out your internal organs and replace them with garbage. Belsnickel, famously featured in an episode of The Office, also whipped children with switches. Hans Trapp eats children. So does Père Fouettard. In Iceland, 13 devilish trolls torment children. If you don’t work hard, the Christmas cat might eat you. And that's just a handful of the terrifying Christmas traditions practiced across Europe.
- Photo: Llorenzi / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-4.0
Modern Krampus Parades Can End With Welts
Krampus still appears on the streets of Austrian towns, especially on December 5th, known as Krampusnacht. But these parties are not just fun and games. At one Krampus Run in Salzburg, the costumed Krampuses got a little too enthusiastic. One tourist said that the Krampuses dolled out “savage beatings,” sat on teenagers, and targeted thighs and shins.
“The narrow streets in the Old City section of Salzburg were packed with pedestrians as the Krampuses stomped through. Many people were caught unaware and reacted with terror. Some would flee and try to seek refuge in a shop or restaurant, only to be pursued by a determined Krampus. With so many easy targets, we again managed to escape largely unharmed. At times we were chased, jostled and struck, but compared with the brutality we witnessed, it was obvious we had been spared the full brunt of what Krampus could muster.”
Sounds like good Christmas fun, right?
- Photo: Unknown / Wikimedia Commons / Public Domain
Krampus Is A Pagan Figure Grafted On To Christmas
Krampus dates back at least to the twelfth century, and maybe even earlier. In the twelfth century, the Catholic Church tried to ban Krampus celebrations, but they were unsuccessful. One reason they targeted Krampus was his pagan roots. Krampus comes from pagan traditions that involve ringing bells and lighting bonfires to drive off evil spirits during the darkest days of the year. The Church eventually combined their celebration of Christmas with pagan year-end traditions, which is how Krampus became buddies with St. Nicholas.
- Photo: MatthiasKabel / Wikimedia Commons / CC-BY-SA-3.0
Krampus Has Been Banned, But He Keeps Coming Back
The first attempt to ban Krampus dates all the way back to the twelfth century. The Catholic Church tried to ban Krampus celebrations because the demon was so similar to the Devil - it raised fears about devil worship. And Krampus's pagan associations didn't help, either. In the twentieth century, Austria’s fascist government also banned Krampus in 1934, claiming he was a symbol of the Social Democrats. One city even promised to arrest any Krampuses spotted on the street. In 1953, the head of Vienna’s kindergarten system even sent home a pamphlet warning parents that Krampus could scar their children for life.
But none of these attempts to keep Krampus down have worked. Instead, Krampus parties have become even more popular, and they’re spreading. In fact, the first known Krampus party in the U.S. happened in 2015 - and only time will tell if Krampus catches on.
