Krampus: A Scary Holiday Legend

Watching the Stephen Colbert show one night a week or two ago, he introduced a feature, "The Blitzkrieg on Grinchitude," where he mentions (and shows) a nasty horned and hairy creature known as the Krampus. I thought it was a joke, but I liked the grotesque aspect to it, especially connected to a creepy Victorian-era postcard image he showed. Out of curiosity, I did a of Google research and it turns out Krampus is real. At least, a real German/Austrian legend.

Krampus apparently accompanies Saint Nicholas during the Christmas season. I have a German mother and grew up with some of the German traditions, and every December 5 I would put a boot on the windowsill and wait for Saint Nicholas to leave me something. I was told, if I was good I could expect gifts and/or sweets, and if I had been bad, I'd get a lump of coal or a switch left in my boot. I was either a very good child or had a very indulgent mother (probably some of both), as I'd never gotten anything bad left in my boot. The hardest part was the night of disrupted sleep as I'd stay awake in anticipating a Saint Nicholas sighting and hoping for goodies, and not coal.

Now I find out that Saint Nicholas had a buddy who had horns, an icky pelt and nasty teeth and just in general looked like an extra from a horror movie ("Night of the Demons"?) or from a heavy-metal video. Apparently old Krampus accompanies the Saint and offers warnings and punishments to the bad children. A Wikipedia entry (and Colbert mentions this, too) says the Krampus warns and terrifies the kids with rusty chains and bells.

The Wikipedia entry also mentions that some young men dress up as Krampus, quite elaborately in fact, on the night of December 5 and scare the unsuspecting public. Though I guess if you are in Austria, you'd be wise to anticipate it! And in some mythologies, Krampus works solo, preferring not to hitch a ride with Saint Nicholas.

I have to laugh at this, and wonder how on Earth I'd never heard of it. But somehow it seems appropriate that this myth has Teutonic origins. German humor is notoriously gruff (I'm guilty of it myself), and these are the people who invented the term Schadenfreude, where you take pleasure in someone else's troubles.

It's especially prevalent in our celebrity-obsessed culture. Who doesn't like opening up a tabloid and finding out how bad an actress looks without makeup or the cellulite on some singer's thighs? Classic Schadenfreude.

But Krampus just makes me laugh (and, I admit, scares me a bit). He sure does make for a scary Christmas.