There are a number of strange, silly and sometimes downright scary "Christmas Creeps" from around the world, with the vast majority of them, unsurprisingly, from Europe, where Christmas traditions arose. One of my favorites are the Yule Lads of Iceland. I think a lot of people really only think of elves as being an Irish or Celtic thing, I know I certainly used to. Who would think that Vikings of all people would have a thing about elves?? Well, turns out a lot of Scandinavian countries have a elves of various sorts, and Icelanders (who are part Irish in ancestry) are positively crazy about them! To the point of having "elf crossing" signs on rural roads.
But, it turns out that the Gle∂ileg jól or Yule Lad is specific to the Christmas season. As Wikipedia points out, their numbers have fluctuated over the years, but they are currently numbered at 13 (which is perfect for here at the 13 Days Of Creepmas!). This is really another take on that naughty or nice tradition. Originally they ranged between really nasty tricksters (maybe related somehow to Loki??) to monsters that would eat children!! Now Yule Lads are said to either leave gifts for good children (who they visit during the long night--YIKES!) or rotten potatoes for the, well, "rotten" kids [sounds like a tooth-fairy type thing to me). Each one has a name, with some translating into English as "Window Pepper" or "Meat Hook"(!), with a specific arrival and departure date (full list on Wikipedia link above!)
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