Christmas Creep: Krampus

I've saved my favorite Christmas Creep for the last day of the 13 Days Of Creepmas:  Krampus!!  I love this guy, I truly do!!

Of course this is another one of those Northern European naughty verses nice children kind of things, but what is cool about Krampus is that his origins are completely pre-Christian, with many Austrians and southern Germans readily proud of his "Heathen" origins.  Besides Krampus, who in Christian times was the original companion of Santa Claus, Saint Nick, merely beats naughty children with birch sticks and scares them with chains--compared to some other--mainly Icelandic--creatures that eat them!  Okay, in some cases, he is said to drag them to hell, but again, that's a Christian era addition.  He is, in my opinion, very much preferable to the Black Peter's of The Netherlands!

The Krampus celebrations, which are strongest in Austria, take place on the same dates as the Dutch Sinterklaas parades occur, with the parades of "goat-devils" invade villages, town and cities on December 6 with (mostly) men donning suits of wool, goat mask, birch switches on their back and rattles chains all about.  Of course, in almost all cases, Saint Nicholas in amongst them and they serve as his body-guards in many cases.  One of the things that I like about these traditions is that there is a time for gift giving other than Dec. 25. Krampus, also is said to aid the handing out of gifts on Dec. 6 to all the nice children--so, lets face all kids in Austria get gifts on Dec. 6, no matter what. To read more about Krampus click here. So Frohe Weihnachten!!  Merry Christmas all.  

OMG!!  This is my idea of the perfect Christmas gift!!