{"id":946,"date":"2014-12-05T14:49:14","date_gmt":"2014-12-05T13:49:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sno.co.uk\/blog\/?p=946"},"modified":"2016-10-31T10:53:04","modified_gmt":"2016-10-31T09:53:04","slug":"krampus-santas-little-helper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sno.co.uk\/blog\/krampus-santas-little-helper\/","title":{"rendered":"Krampus: Santa’s little helper?"},"content":{"rendered":"

You\u2019d be forgiven for mistaking Austrian ski resorts for the London Dungeon tonight.\u00a0While we\u2019re busy\u00a0gobbling down\u00a0choc-5 on the advent calendar, kids over\u00a0there\u00a0are bracing themselves for the scariest night of the year\u00a0– tonight, demonic figures bent on punishing them\u00a0will\u00a0emerge from the shadows …<\/span><\/h3>\n

We know Mr Claus\u00a0only\u00a0delivers\u00a0to good little boys and girls,\u00a0but in pagan mythology he also enlists the help of a pretty terrifying assistant to punish the youngsters who make it onto the Naughty List.<\/span><\/p>\n

Introducing Krampus:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Krampus

Krampus spotted in Ischgl \u00a9 Tourismusverband Panznaun<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

Not for the\u00a0faint hearted, legend\u00a0has it\u00a0that in the dark of the night on the 5th<\/sup> of December the Krampus appears\u00a0to snatch unruly children from their beds.\u00a0 He begins by whipping them with birch branches, hurls them screaming into a basket on his back (or his bathtub depending on who you ask) and ferries them, finally,\u00a0to the underworld.\u00a0 Try looking at the photograph: his giant curved horns, clunking hooves, coarse black hair and blood-red tongue make the Grufallo look like the Christmas fairy.\u00a0 Austrian\u00a0kids who\u2019ve been a little less than angelic really<\/em> \u2018”better watch out” \u2013 not for Santa Claus, but for the foul-faced demon who\u2019s “coming to town” with him\u2026<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Manfred<\/span><\/p>\n

A whole Krampus crew in Solden \u00a9 Manfred Wegleiter and Krampusgruppe Haiming<\/span><\/p>\n

Branching out\u00a0from the Germanic countries of its origin, the Krampusnacht is now marked in many Austrian ski resorts<\/a><\/span> including the every popular St Anton<\/a><\/span>.\u00a0 There\u2019s also continuing market for Krampus cards which tend to depict the gruesome character\u00a0with the ominous caption “Brav Sein”, or, “Be Good”. \u00a0Just imagine these\u00a0lined up above your fireplace:<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Cafepress

Krampus merrily raising his birch branch to strike…
<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Krampus

Good cop & bad cop out together -Krampus with St. Nick.
<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Cafepress

Krampus with pigtailed captive.
<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Cafepress

Krampus enjoying a little sleighing… and child cargo.
<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"Cafepress

Krampus waits for child to finish begging for mercy.
<\/span><\/p><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

Growing up with the threat of the\u00a05th of\u00a0December every year, it\u2019s no wonder Austrian children are so well-behaved…<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/h3>\n

Know a Brit-kid\u00a0in need of\u00a0some terror-based discipline?\u00a0 Please do\u00a0Share!<\/span><\/h3>\n

 <\/p>\n

Or encourage them to book a Christmas ski holiday in Austria<\/span><\/a><\/span>\u00a0 \ud83d\ude09<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

(all cards from Cafepress)<\/span><\/p>\n

\n\n\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

You\u2019d be forgiven for mistaking Austrian ski resorts for the London Dungeon tonight.\u00a0While we\u2019re busy\u00a0gobbling down\u00a0choc-5 on the advent calendar, kids over\u00a0there\u00a0are bracing themselves for the scariest night of the year\u00a0– tonight, demonic figures bent on punishing them\u00a0will\u00a0emerge from the shadows … We know Mr Claus\u00a0only\u00a0delivers\u00a0to good little boys and girls,\u00a0but in pagan mythology he […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ski-holidays","has-post-title","no-post-date","has-post-category","no-post-tag","has-post-comment","has-post-author"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sno.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sno.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sno.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sno.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sno.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=946"}],"version-history":[{"count":24,"href":"https:\/\/www.sno.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5541,"href":"https:\/\/www.sno.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/946\/revisions\/5541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sno.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sno.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sno.co.uk\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}