Krampus is a horned, anthropomorphic figure in the Central and Eastern Alpine folklore of Europe who, during the Advent season, scares children who have misbehaved. Assisting Saint Nicholas, or Santa Claus, the pair visit children on the night of 6 December, with Saint Nicholas rewarding the well-behaved children with gifts such as oranges, dried fruit, walnuts and chocolate, while the badly behaved ones only receive punishment from Krampus with birch rods. Krampus day itself, on the other hand, is on the 5th of December. [1] The character of Krampus has been imported and modified for various North American media, [19] [37] including print (e.g. Krampus: The Devil of Christmas, a collection of vintage postcards by Monte Beauchamp in 2004; [38] [26] Krampus: The Yule Lord, a 2012 novel by Gerald Brom [39]); Krampus, a comic series from Image Comics in 2013 created by Dean Kotz and Brian Joines, television – both live action (" A Krampus Carol", a 2012 episode of The League [37]) and animation (" A Very Venture Christmas", a 2004 episode of The Venture Bros., [19] " Minstrel Krampus", a 2013 episode of American Dad! [40])–video games ( CarnEvil, a 1998 arcade game, [41] The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth, a 2014 video game [42]), and film ( Krampus, a 2015 Christmas comedy horror movie from Universal Pictures [43]). It is customary to offer a Krampus schnapps, a strong distilled fruit brandy. [17] These runs may include Perchten, similarly wild pagan spirits of Germanic folklore and sometimes female in representation, although the Perchten are properly associated with the period between winter solstice and 6 January. Krampus is thought to come from either Bavarian: krampn, meaning "dead", "rotten", or from the German: kramp/krampen, meaning "claw". [5] [6] [7] Origins [ edit ] A person dressed as Krampus at Morzger Pass, Salzburg, Austria Crimmins, Peter (10 December 2011). "Horror for the Holidays: Meet the Anti-Santa". National Public Radio.

Sveti Nikola – Mikulaš"[Saint Nicholas - Mikulas]. www.hrvatskarijec.rs (in Croatian). Archived from the original on 22 December 2015 . Retrieved 14 December 2015.Davis, Robert (2004). Christian Slaves, Muslim Masters: White Slavery in the Mediterranean, the Barbary Coast, and Italy, 1500–1800. Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-1403945518. Crimmins, Peter (15 December 2011). "Horror For The Holidays: Meet The Anti-Santa". NPR . Retrieved 25 November 2015. Discussing his observations in 1975 while in Irdning, a small town in Styria, anthropologist John J. Honigmann wrote that: Gatzke, Gretchen (1 December 2009). "Krampus? Who's That?". The Vienna Review . Retrieved 17 December 2011. a b "Joines & Kotz's "Krampus!" Terrorizes Christmas at Image". Comic Book Resources. 19 November 2013. Archived from the original on 26 January 2021 . Retrieved 21 December 2014.

Mittermayr, Helmut (8 December 2013). "70 Verletzte bei Krampuslauf"[70 injured in Krampus run]. Tiroler Tageszeitung (in German). Throw Out Krampus". Time. 7 December 1953. p.41. Archived from the original on 22 December 2008 . Retrieved 18 December 2011. Krampus appears in the folklore of Austria, Bavaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania, Northern Italy ( Autonomous Province of Trento and South Tyrol), Slovakia, and Slovenia. [29] McFarland, Kevin (16 December 2013). "American Dad: "Minstrel Krampus" ". The A.V. Club . Retrieved 5 September 2020. FOTO: Sveti Nikola i Krampus stigli su morem i nagradili dobru djecu"[PHOTO: Saint Nicholas and Krampus arrived by sea and rewarded good children]. Liburnija.net (in Croatian). 26 November 2016 . Retrieved 5 December 2016.Krampus nije baš tako loš kao što se čini, on samo opominje"[Krampus isn't as bad as he seems, he just warns]. www.24sata.hr (in Croatian). 6 December 2014.