Who is Krampus? The Christmas Devil

Come early December in Austria and some parts of Germany, bad children don’t just face the prospect of Santa Claus leaving a lump of coal in their stocking on Christmas morning, but also a visit and a possible trip to the underworld with Krampus the Christmas devil.

Krampus Origin Story

Half man and half mutant goat, Austrian children are taught that Krampus comes around each Christmas season to scare naughty children into rehabilitating their ways. While other European versions of Santa Claus have long had their scary counterparts in Belsnickle or Knecht Ruprecht—Krumpus predecessors whose origins harken back to the pagan celebrations of the winter solstice—Krampus takes the cake for his overall scariness, and the fear he instills in children of a believing age.

Krampus Night

On Krampusnacht or “Krampus night,” fun-loving adults—both sober and inebriated alike—dress up as Krampus to frighten children in their homes, or during a Krampuslauf or “Krampus runs” through the streets of a given town.

When the German postcard industry first began to flourish in the 1890s, a new form of Christmas card soon emerged. Known as Krampuskarten, many of these less than warm and fuzzy cards declared “Gruss vom Krampus,” or greetings from Krampus, showing the Christmas devil stuffing frightened children into backpacks, or preparing to strike a child with his bundle of birch sticks.

Other Krampuskarten offered decidedly adult content, such as Krampus proposing to women, while still others showed large women whipping tiny men with birch sticks, before hauling them off in their satchels, making the traditions of Krampus a scared straight time for naughty children of the Alps.