Krampus is the Christmas Demon of Germanic folklore whose job it was to punish the kids on Santa's Naughty List has been featured here before.
The Krampus is a holiday fixture that’s popular in the Germanic countries. Created to really enforce the whole “better watch out” Christmas ideology, the Krampus is the pure evil that must exist to balance out St. Nick’s pure goodness. Legend has it that when the Krampus discovers a bad-apple kid, he grabs the tot with his tongue, throws the kid in a sack, and takes them back to his home for dinner.
And while most people assume he is a better-left-forgotten relic of less gentle times (or less gentle places), he appears to be having a resurgence this year, being featured everywhere from Buzzfeed to FearNet to The Awl to NPR. He's getting a piece of the Christmas merchandise blitz and of course he has his own website. There is Krampus music and he even speaks in his own defense. And of course, he has a 'Folk Death Metal' band named after him.
But the biggest Krampus Kontroversy is the result of television's food maven Anthony Bourdain, who wrote and had animated a cautionary Krampus story for the holiday edition of his show, which was rejected by his bosses at the Travel Channel. Fortunately, you can still see it on YouTube. Happy Holidays!
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