Christmas isn’t all about cookies and cheer. In fact, Christmas was a time to “make it right,” or “set the courses straight.” This mindset is seen in the folklore of the Christmas season. While all eyes are on St. Nick, the darker characters of Christmastime are still lurking in the shadows.
Jólakötturinn

Like much of the wintertime folklore, these figures predate some of the regional Christmas traditions, but through the years have woven themselves into the local lore of the yuletide, and this is a case in point with Iceland’s Yuletide Cat. In Icelandic traditions, children were given new clothes during Yuletide, but this was only given after they had done a series of household chores. The consequences of not completing these chores were one of mortal danger — no clothes and no life. Yes, if children didn’t do their chores and receive a fresh set of clothes, a Yuletide Cat, called Jólakötturinn, would eat any child that didn’t have new clothes. The silver bullet to not be eaten by this monstrously large 12-foot cat would be having and wearing a fresh set of clothes. Whether Jólakötturinn is a creation of parents, or actually prowling outside homes is hard to tell, either way, it is definitely motivation to finish all to-do lists!
Krampus

Krampus has gone mainstream, but this half goat half demon holds, not just Santa’s naughty list, but also the interest of people beyond its region of Austria and Alpine Germany. Dubbed the anti-Santa Claus, Krampus takes naughty children, never to return to their families again. The Victorian era, with its macabre tendencies, picked up Krampus with a voraciousness, having him plastered across the fronts of countless postcards. The day to really watch out for Krampus is Saint Nicholas’ Night, also known as Krampusnatch.
Frau Perchta

The Yuletide folk creatures don’t disappear after Christmas, in fact, this is the season to be vigilant for the Alpine folk legend of Frau Perchta. In Austria and Germany, she goes by many names — the Spinning Room Lady, or the Belly Slitter – she is persnickety about a house’s cleanliness. While she herself is dressed in rags, Frau Perchta does not want a single item to be out of array or a speck of dust covering any surface. Any uncleanliness or uncouth misbehavior is met with wrath. Under her rags, she carries a knife to slit the stomachs of wrongdoers and fill them with straws and stones. She is also said to steal children in the same fashion as Krampus.
Grýla

Grýla is another figure from Iceland who keeps children in check during the holiday season. Unlike Krampus who takes children and their demises are left uncertain, Grýla makes a feast out of the wrongdoers — literally. This troll-like creature is known to take children, boil them, and then eat them. Grýla has thirteen Yule Lads who have names corresponding to the bad behavior they do. While the list is long, some of the names are quite interesting to see — Sky Gobbler, Sausage Stealer, Spoon Licker, Window Pepper, Door Slammer, and Candle Beggar are just some examples.
Belsnickel

Some European (specifically German) folklore came over to Pennsylvania, like Belsnickel, which is still a known folklore among the Pennsylvania Dutch. Two weeks before Christmas, Belsnickle is the prelude to Santa Claus. He whips naughty children, giving them a literal wake-up call to turn themselves around before Santa arrives.
Hans Trapp

A lot of the folklore comes out of Austria and Germany, but there are some interesting characters in other regions as well. France has some peculiar Christmas characters, like Hans Trapp. Outside of the northeast region of France, this character is not well known, yet the story has a mix of elements of Ireland’s Jack O’Lantern and German Austria’s Krampus. Legend has it that Trapp was a real man, a greedy man, whose greed was so strong that he was excommunicated from the Catholic Church. Turned into an outcast, Hans Trapp dressed as a scarecrow and would eat children who wandered in the woodlands where he resided. Hans Trapp kept doing this until he was killed by a divine bolt of lightning. Today, he comes back before Christmastime to scare children into being good.
Mari Lwyd

A final, less murderous folk character of the Christmas season comes from South Wales. Mari Lwyd is a folk tradition used for the wassailing season. What makes the tradition a bit dark is the use of a horse skull stuck onto a pole. Men carrying the horse head door to door would wassail until residents of houses would give in and give the wassailer’s food and drink. This seems to have more recent origins and while the tradition of Mari Lwyd fell out of fashion in the mid-20th century, it returned in popularity today.











