John Lucas

Is it really Krampusnacht already? Why, yes. Yes, it is.

At the risk of sounding like a holiday hipster, but I was into this dude before anybody.

Okay, that’s clearly not true. The Alpine folklore surrounding Krampus, the demonic companion of Saint Nicholas whose job it is to punish naughty kids, dates back centuries. It has really only started to gain popularity in North America in the past 10 to 15 years, though.

When I first stumbled upon articles about Krampus online years ago, I thought it would be a fun thing to incorporate into my own holiday traditions. (Hey, I was born in Germany, so I almost sort of have kind of a connection to all that stuff, even though to the best of my knowledge no one in my family is actually German.) The trouble was, this turned out to be rather challenging, since anything to do with Krampus was devilishly hard to come by.

This is where I prove (I hope) that I am in fact not a holiday hipster. I am actually delighted that Krampus has, in the words of Charlie Brown, “gone commercial” and has entered the mainstream of popular culture at least a little bit. If nothing else, it has now become a lot easier to find Krampusnacht greeting cards and tree ornaments.

Heck, there was even a Hollywood movie about Krampus, which I finally got around to trying to watch this year, only to remember why I never bothered before. Lest you be tempted to seek it out, heed my warning. It’s just plain bad, and not even Adam Scott and Toni Collette can save it.

The fact is, of course, that Krampus is never going to be all that mainstream. I mean, can you imagine John Legend debuting his new Krampus song on Good Morning America? Not gonna happen.

There are precious few Krampus songs, in fact, but I did manage to find a couple. You will be shocked to learn that the video for the first one, by the Chardon Polka Band, is animated in stop-motion claymation style. It’s a whole thing.

Oh, and there’s also… whatever this is. I have no clue what this song is about, but the video does feature some authentic Krampus costumes, complete with carved wooden masks. So, that’s cool.