Krampus

Christmas is considered to be a joyful festival all around the world. Saint Nicolas or Santa Claus comes home to gift good children. Just when you are waiting for Santa, hiding in your house, a foul stench fills your nose. And instead of Santa, a dark-skinned monster with a large sack is before your tree. Know this if you see him: you have been marked by Krampus.

The legend of Krampus varies everywhere: he is even celebrated in many parts of the world. But he is most renowned as being the evil counterpart of Saint Nicolas. While Saint Nicolas gifts children who have behaved well, Krampus punishes children who have misbehaved and takes them to his lair. He is described as half-goat, half-man. He is hairy, usually brown or black, and has the cloven hooves and horns of a goat. His long, pointed tongue lolls out, and he has fangs.

Krampus is said to have chains on his legs, and he thrashes them against the ground. He has a whip, which he uses to punish children. He has a large sack to carry children away in. He either eats them, drowns them or transports them to hell after he takes them to his lair. Legend says that Saint Nicolas used to fill the shoes of bad children with coal, and they would then be dealt with by Krampus. An encounter with Krampus has been disclosed:

I was hiding in the closet in our living room. It was Christmas eve, and I was intent on catching Santa when he brought gifts for me and my sister. I checked the clock: it was five past one. I had been sitting there for almost three hours! I decided that to take a nap for a few minutes when I heard a loud thump in the other room, as something heavy had just been dropped to the floor from a great height. Excited, I peeped out through a small crack in the door- and a foul stench filled my nose. I immediately stepped back and pinched my nose. I held my breath and peeped out again.

A huge figure was shifting in our hallway. I was confused. Was Santa really that huge? Still, I continued to watch the figure. Then he began going upstairs, a step a time. I got even more confused. Our tree was in the room which I was in, so why was Santa going upstairs to the room I shared with my sister? I waited for him to come back. After about ten minutes of stomping on the first floor, he came back down. He came slowly into my room and looked around. That was when I noticed the crooked horns on his head. Chills ran down my back. Still, I kept quiet. After what felt like an eternity, he turned around and went away. I passed out in fear. I woke up the next morning and crept back to my room. I was going to watch a movie with my friends that day, so I tried to pull my shoe on, but it suddenly didn't fit. There was something inside of it. I shook it, and small pieces of something dark fell out of it. There were pieces of coal inside my shoes.