Have a naughty child? Forget coal, call in Krampus!
Is your child naughty enough to get a visit from Krampus? AP Images
Forget about giving coal or switches to naughty children, apparently according to Austrian tradition you can call in a guy much, much scarier to set them straight.
Meet Krampus – the scary horned goat-like demon that visits naughty kids.
“Krampus is St. Nick’s evil side. He is the punishment for naughty children. According to lore, he shows up in town with birch branch switches in one hand, sometimes chains in the other. He, like his jolly counterpart St. Nick, also carries a sack, but his intention is to use it to drag bad children to hell, or at least to his dark lair….”
“In Austria and other parts of Europe, the tradition in which Santa’s evil helper roamed the village was once held somewhat exclusively on Dec. 5, the day before the Feast of St. Nicholas:”
“Originally, Krampus had just the one day. A few men in each town dress up in furs, heavy boots, and a ghoulish mask topped with horns–with a switch in hand. Then they go to all the houses with small children, and when the parents open the door they run in and act menacing–growling and cracking their switches. The children scream. After everyone’s had a good fright, the parents invite the men to sit down and have a few shots of kirsch or schnapps, which they always accept. Not surprisingly, by the end of the night the Krampuses’ growls are a little slurred, their switch-cracking is a little too close to the children, and parents have to make sure their kids don’t look out the window, lest they catch a glimpse of the Krampus puking in a gutter.”
Check out these other weird and wonderful Christmas traditions from around the world
Would you ever show your kids this or tell your kids this? Would it scare the heck out of them? This would scare my kids tremendously. You guys know I would never even show my kids this much less threaten them with it.
How bad would your kids have to behave to get the Krampus treatment? Have you ever given them coal or switches? (Michael said when they lived in Germany, he did get coal one year in his shoes instead of candy. He told the kids all about this. )
Tell us what you think about the site
Customer Care »
Vacation stops, manage subscriptions and more
AJC Services
Sections
Other Editions
Visitor Agreement | Privacy Statement
© 2013 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
66 comments Add your comment
missnadine
December 12th, 2012
3:53 pm
Tina – I am also an agnostic, and I don’t care who knows. I like Christmas, except for the ultra right-wing folks, who seem to savor bringing sales clerks to tears by yelling at them for daring to say Happy Holidays. What the hell is wrong with people who do that? Can’t you just be happy that someone said something nice? Why is it important to wage a war on Christmas, like Bill O’Reilly?It is those types of Christians that ruin it for more moderate folks, every single year.
Bikerchick
December 12th, 2012
4:08 pm
Me and my three teenage stepchildren watched the movie “Rare Exports” on Netflix just this past weekend. Movie was made in Finland and dealt with this very subject. Did not know that this was an actual legend in those parts! If you get a chance, check out the movie. It’s scary, but has a great child actor who is the hero of the movie and is braver than the adults! Of course, the movie is something I would never, ever allow young children to see as they would be terrified and nightmares would ensue, but for teens, the movie was a hit.
Roekest
December 12th, 2012
4:10 pm
Absolutely brilliant!
Nonbeliever
December 12th, 2012
4:29 pm
Absolutely we would do this! Children are too spoiled today and need some thing to make them think about their actions.
ATL Born and Raised
December 12th, 2012
4:30 pm
Phil from Athens calling anyone a troll is HIGH-LARIOUS!
Jingle Bells...Batman smells
December 12th, 2012
4:32 pm
Phil from Athens, I think you may be looking for the “Conservative Old Angry White Men’s Blog” instead of this blog, which is for mothers with children. Hello? Would it be a bother for you to take your anger there?
Phil from Athens
December 12th, 2012
5:34 pm
” I like Christmas, except for the ultra right-wing folks, who seem to savor bringing sales clerks to tears by yelling at them for daring to say Happy Holidays.”
I wish you crazy folks would stop making stuff up.
Phil from Athens
December 12th, 2012
5:34 pm
“Phil from Athens calling anyone a troll is HIGH-LARIOUS!”
Try again, ma’am.
Phil from Athens
December 12th, 2012
5:35 pm
“I think you may be looking for the “Conservative Old Angry White Men’s Blog” instead of this blog, which is for mothers with children. Hello? Would it be a bother for you to take your anger there?”
Awe, another petulant troll just happens to show up to throw out a drive by insult at me. How cute.
Bless yer heart, ma’am.
HSM
December 12th, 2012
10:15 pm
Thank you, Jingle Bells! Phil has lost been on my nerves!
Signed,
Mom with Children
HSM
December 12th, 2012
10:15 pm
I meant long. I hate autocorrect!
DB
December 13th, 2012
12:51 am
@Mayhem: Just out of polite curiosity, since you’ve put yourself out there as an atheist — i.e., one who does not believe in deities — would you mind explaining something I’ve always wondered about? If you are truly an athiest — why do you celebrate Christmas at all? I’ve never understood why people who were atheists would celebrate Christmas — it would be like me, as a Christian, celebrating Ramadan.
Miss Priss!
December 13th, 2012
6:43 am
Boy, Kiki … I think you’ll screw your kids up yourself just fine. Using Satan Clause for family law enforcement and reindeer poop under the tree. What bed wetters.
HB
December 13th, 2012
11:40 am
DB, I can’t answer for Mayhem specifically, but I think the reason so many non-Christians celebrate Christmas is that it really is a secular American holiday, largely driven by commercialism, in addition to being a religious holiday (to me, those are really two separate Christmases, and it’s not all that different from how Halloween has evolved). If other religions’ holidays took off commercially the way Christmas has with so many secular symbols, music, and tv shows/movies that don’t allude to the religious basis of the holiday at all, I think those might be adopted by nonbelievers too.
oneofeach4me
December 13th, 2012
3:37 pm
Oh heck no! Cause then.. I would end up co-sleeping with a 7 and 11 year old. No thanks. I will stick to the good old fashioned “I do have my receipts ya know!!”
PatBos
December 16th, 2012
1:58 pm
I told my children about Krampus as soon as they were old enough to understand. Children need to know the bad as well as they good. If their heads are filled with nothing but Santa Claus and fairy tales, they aren’t prepared for the real world. Children need to know the world isn’t all sugar plums and that actions bring consequences. Parents today make empty threats, e.g., “If you don’t behave, you’re not going to the party this weekend (or whatever),” then turn around and allow them to go to the party and the child learns he can do anything he pleases and there will be no consequences. If a child acts up, instread of punishing them, parents today take them to the doctor and pump them full of drugs. In times past, parents instilled fear in misbehaving children instead of mollycoddling or drugging them and guess what? There weren’t any school shootings back then!