The Krampus visited Stephen Colbert on his show earlier this month:
http://tinyurl.com/yhdh6ko

I grew up in southern Bavaria, which is just north of Austria, so Krampus had some cultural migration in the area. I remember being deathly afraid of him as a child, and, by a total coincidence, I was reminded of Krampus just a few weeks ago and remembered how terrifying he is.

Thanks for tapping into the deepest of childhood horrors, SI. :) Never a dull moment.

Hah, awesome! I always thought getting a lump of coal instead of presents was a weak response to a child being naughty all year...

Holy crap that guy is scary.

He also hangs out in Hungary as well.

mmm, he's sexy. haha

When I was a child, I was very interested in history and culture, so my grandmother bought me a picture book about Victorian Christmas traditions... I remember seeing that picture at the top w/his tongue hanging out and having horrible horrible nightmares. I wonder where that book is.

Any clues about the the tongue thing? I know that way back when, something with its tongue hanging out was SUPER scary - but nowadays, things with their tongues hanging out are more on the silly side (notice that the modern-day Krampi have lost their tongues). What gives?

Woah, I'm German and honestly I had NO idea. Where I come from Santa Claus has a servant called Knecht Ruprecht who puts unruly children in his sack. He's not a monster either but is said to be grim-looking and silent with black hair and a long black beard. :D

I never was afraid of him for reasons that are completely unknown to me even today. I guess I thought that despite putting children in his sack- what he only did on Santa's command- he was a nice fellow. (Yeah, I know.)

Scary! I wonder how many children who couldn't sleep during Christmas Eve (because of the excitement.. or sugar?) were frightened that they would be taken away!

Wow, that's almost as scary as people using holiday presents to motivate good behaviors in children. ;)

On this subject, I highly recommend you read "Six To Eight Black Men" by David Sedaris.

Along with the tongue, Krampus has changed from "black-haired goat" man to "evil incarnate devil" man. That's a big change.

i can't remember the angel + devil's name for the life of me, but when i was living in the czech republic many folks told me about their st. nicholas' day... st nick goes around to every household with an angel and a devil to ask every child if they were good or bad that year... if the kids were good, they get candy from the angel, and if they were bad... the devil CARRIES THEM TO HELL IN HIS SACK. talk about extremes!!

It's not mentioned here, but in some areas (particularly rural Austria), young men dress up as the Krampus and if there are any young women in the streets, they are fair game for the Krampuses to beat them with sticks. From videos I've seen, it looks like only young women are targeted. Pretty terrifying!

Never heard of a country called Slovania. Is it close to Syldavia?

Oh, wow! I never knew the Krampus existed in Germany. I guess only in the border regions. Where I'm from, we had the Knecht Ruprecht, which is just an old guy dressed in dark cloth. Not really scary.

But seriously, please change that "Slovania" typo, now THAT is scary.

I just learned about Krampus this year and decided to include him in my holiday celebrations. I have no children to frighten, but it's a lot of good fun for the adults. Then again, I'm probably not the typical American having the typical holiday celebration; I have a Death Metal themed tree complete with a devil figure at the top, which I tell everyone is Krampus.

It's Gene Simmons in 10 years! (sorry, couldn't resist.)

Wow. Freaky.
I think Santa Claus himself is scary enough... think about it: some strange old guy who gets little kids to sit on his lap and gives them presents, sneaks into their houses at night, and has obviously been watching them all the time (to know if they've been bad or good).
If Santa was a real life person, he'd be in jail by now.

I just learned about Krampus this season and as someone whose favorite holiday is Halloween I think it's awesome! I would have been terrified of him as a child, but now that I'm an adult I can enjoy him.

I bet you didn't know you can get Krampus on a fez (scroll down to see the naughty children he's put in his basket): http://fez-o-rama.blogspot.com/2009/12/krumpus-fez.html

Here's something totally crazy, though. I looked up Krampus on Wikipedia and got a page about "companions of Saint Nicholas" (basically the things people have mentioned here). "Zwart Piet" (Black Peter; from Belgium and the Netherlands) is also mentioned. He basically just helps St. Nick give out gifts and because he comes into house via the chimney he's covered in soot (although according to the Zwarte Piet Wikipedia page it seems he was actually described as a black man in a book from 1850). According to Wikipedia, "Blackfaced, googly-eyed, red-lipped Zwarte Piet dolls are displayed in store windows alongside with brightly packaged holiday merchandise." Um, WHAT? Blackface and googly-eyed?

I googled a photo of Zwart Piet dolls: http://www.flickr.com/photos/tgaw/3043727035/

Then I googled a photo of Gollywogs: http://www.albury.net.au/~tim/Chgoly10.JPG

The Wikipedia page on Zwarte Piet says that some people see him as a racist representation and don't like the tradition while other people have dressed as Pete but have painted themselves colors other than black.

OK, this comment was long, but I think this whole thing is crazy and fascinating. It also put me in mind of how in the US, a lot of places offer a black Santa Claus for your children to visit. While some other countries may be trying to erase the negative African influence on Christmas, some people in the US are trying to introduce a positive one.

This comment on the Colbert report makes it even more interesting for this webpage:

"Since I am Austrian and quite familiar with those creatures I would like to add my 2cents … sorry mr. Colbert but I have to tell u that u are mixing up 2 different creatures. We have krampusse, who are only allowed to show up in combination with the nikolaus (our santa claus, kinda) and they have 2 horns and black fur, carrying a basket with them (for the nasty kids to be stuffed into it). However the creatures showed in the clip and also mentioned at the event in Schladming, those are perchten. There are Schiach- and Schönperchten (ugly and beautiful perchten). They have lots of horns, wear a white fur and they have no birch with them (normally). The tradition is that they should banish the winter. Krampusse are male, perchten are female but i love the report :)"

So there are males and females. And the females come in ugly and beautiful.

In Switzerland he's called Schmützli (little dirty one), and generally looks far less scary. He comes with Samichlaus on the 5th December, but what i actually find more terrifying is the Christkindli (christ child) which is a flying baby, that brings you gifts on the 24th.

in the netherlands the evil sidekick is called zwarte piet (black peter), and is described as an african man (which we know are evil and cruel persons + they have no soul).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zwarte_Piet

@ Lucy: So the Schmuetzli is the Swiss version of Knecht Ruprecht (or Knecht Ruprecht the German version of Schmuetzli)? They come on the 5th in Switzerland, really? In Germany on the 6th. And yup, "Baby Jesus" (which oddly often is a winged angel-girl) brings gifts on the 24th. I loved having gifts twice. Does Switzerland have "Sternsaenger"?

The carrot and the stick indeed.
Why, I am asking, this guy is made to look like a some relative to Pan? (Or he is supposed to look live a devil and they chose to hit two birds with one stone?)

Excuse me while I shit myself and run out to grab some sleeping pills for Crissmiss eve...

And still the "Slovania" typo remains? I try not to split hairs, but seriously, Slovakia and Slovenia are both countries I know of...what/where the fuck is Slovania? Argh. Also, a, stop trolling you're just embarrassing yourself.

Readers,

Thanks for the heads up about the "Slovania" typo. Fixed.

Sometimes we don't get to things immediately because Gwen and I have full-time jobs and, you know, just do this blog for fun. So, we try to keep up, but we aren't constantly monitoring all comments.

- SocImages

That's my ex-husband.

There's a winter solstice thing in Kensington Market, Toronto, and in the parade—where there are a lot of fanciful masks, lanterns, stilt-walkers, etc.—I did see a Krampus! And screamed to my puzzled friends, "KRAMPUS!!" Thanks, Sociological Images.

This thread demostrates a remarkable phenomenon. Americans actually pay notice to the traditions of other countries. How much longer until we have an americanised version of this "krampus" (character that is present in most European cultures but does not really go by the name of "krampus" in most places, in case you did not realise) forced down the throats of people by americanised commercial advertising? Just look at what they did to our St. Nicholaus!!! Currently know as St. CocaCola.

There's a Wonderella comic up this week about Krampus, which was the first I'd heard of him (her? it?), and now I see Krampus everywhere! Baader Meinhof, you sly devil(s).

I'm from Croatia. The concept of Krampus is widely accepted in my country, too (probably some of the Austrian influence, or..?). Anyway, it's true some children are really frightened by Krampus and his appearance (especially if eager parents bring their kids to a St. Nicholas show and Krampus starts dancing around in the audience... I'd say any 3 year old would be afraid of a fuzzy masked man appearing out of nowhere and acting totally strange, regardless of the story they hear about him). I myself have never seen Krampus as something spooky: my parents softened the image for me so I actually saw him as sort of cool and funny. St Nicholas keeps him in check. I know he's supposed to be a devil, but, compared to Lucifer, he never seemed that scary for me. (This is just a personal oppinion).

Oh, another thing. In Croatia, Krampus is said to follow St Nicholas, and both are associated with St Nicholas' Day (December 6th). Essentialy, St Nicholas IS Santa Claus, but there's a difference (as Santa, he's mostly been stripped of his religious connotations).
Christmas presents were traditionally said to be brought by baby Jesus (Kristkind). In communism this was quite unacceptable, so a Santa Claus-like image became popular: Deda Mraz ( = Grandpa Frost). Capitalism is all the rage now, and today children believe in Djed Božićnjak (Grandfather Christmas), who can be considered as Santa using a Croatian name.
Anyway, just wanted to point out that Croats associate Krampus with another December holiday, not Christmas. I don't know if this is the case in Austria, Germany, Slovenia and Italy but ... maybe it would be wise to double-check.