We know all about Krampus, we’ve spoken about the Yule Cat, but did you know there’s even more festive fiends to watch out for this holiday season?
Let’s discover three more of the worlds creepiest Christmas characters.
Père Fouettard – France, Belgium and Switzerland
Père Fouettard translates to English as “Father Whipper”, which gives us a pretty good idea of what this devious Christmas monster has in store for naught children.
Similar to our beloved Krampus, Père Fouettard accompanies Old St Nick on his Christmas visits and hands out lumps of coal – if you’re lucky. If you’re one of the unlucky ones, Père Fouettard lives up to his name and whips the Christmas crap out of you.
But if you think this is brutal, you should hear his origin story.
Père Fouettard seemed to appear in 1252, where he’s said to be either an innkeeper or butcher. One day, he spies three boys on their way to enrol in a religious boarding school. Thinking they must be weathly, the nasty innkeeper/butcher kidnaps and murders them – slitting their throats and cutting them up into little pieces and throwing them in a barrel.
However, good ol’ St. Nicholas discovers the man’s crimes and resurrects the children. Either by choice or by force, Père Fouettard, as he became known, now accompanies St. Nick on his yearly gift-giving adventures, as a warning for children to be on their best behaviour.
Parallels can be drawn between Père Fouettard and another folk boogyman, Hans Trapp. Hans Trapp plays a similar role to Père Fouettard and Krampus – accompanying St. Nick to punish naughty children. His story is based on that of the German knight, Hans Von Trotha, born 1450. Although his real life exploits of eating children have been embellished by folklore, he was actually ex-communicated by the Pope.
Frau Perchta – Austria and Bavaria
Likely stemming from an old Alpine Goddess, Frau Perchta has become associated with Midwinter and Twelfth Night. Like many Goddesses she has more than one form – that of a beautiful woman or an elderly crone.
During the twelve days of Christmas, Frau Perchta enters houses and rewards good children by placing a silver coin in their shoes.
And for naughty children? Well, Frau Perchta has a horrible surprise in store for them. You see, for naughty children, she slits their bellies open, disembowels them and stuffs them with pebbles and straw. The same fate would befall those who ate anything other than fish and gruel on her feast day – January 6th.
I think I’d rather take a beating from Krampus.
The Kallikantzaros – Greece, Bulgaria, Turkey, Serbia
The mischievous kallikantzaroi are horrible little goblins who live underground, but are able to roam the earth during the nights of Advent.
Although their ultimate goal is to bring about the apocalypse, they spend these nights stealing food, throwing flour and whisking children away to their underground lair.
The kallikantzaroi are described as small and humanlike, with an array of devilish features such as tusks, goat legs or abundant hair.
Luckily, there’s a whole host of ways to deter these little creeps.
It’s said that leaving a colander on your doorstep will distract the critters from entering your house. They will spend all night trying to count the holes, but are unable to count above two. It’s thought that three is a holy number, and to utter it would cause a kallikantzaroi sudden death.
A family could also keep a fire burning in the fireplace to prevent the little devils from entering a house via the chimney.
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