The anti-Santa

Check out this pretty cool news story from NPR about a little known fact about Christmas celebrations: the anti-Saint Nicholas. Introducing the Krampus, the bad cop to Saint Nick's good cop, the Yang to Santa's Yin. Whereas Santa gives gifts to the good kids, Krampus punishes the bad ones ... by snatching them up in a basket and bringing them back home to devour for Christmas dinner. Nice.

St. Nicholas and Krampus
(Picture from Wikipedia.org)

This unique folkloric tradition takes hold among the Alpine countries in Europe--parts of Italy, France, Germany, Austria, Liechtenstein, Slovenia, and Switzerland. Looking from the expression of the kids in the picture to the left, this is waaay more effective than threatening little Timmy that Santa won't give him a toy firetruck if he's bad. "The Krampus will come by and snatch your whiny ass if you don't shut the hell up!" I have to remember this when we have kids.