Santa's Old Sidekick

 

Santa and Krampus off on Christmas Eve

I was reading one of my new Christmas books the other day called Winter Solstice, and I came upon an interesting and slightly disturbing "fact". I put fact in parentheses because I will be discussing Santa, and while it will be mythological truth, it's not actually true. You know what I mean?

Krampus 

So this interesting fact is that Santa hasn't always been the one to deal with the whole naughty or nice issue. You see back in the day, he only concerned himself with the good kids. It was his job to go around being jolly and rewarding all the good little boys and girls. But what about all the bad kids you might ask? Well, don't worry about them. They got what was coming to them. You see, a log time ago, Santa was one half of a dynamic duo. So who was Santa's partner? Why Krampus! And what does Krampus look like? A monster that looks very much like the devil himself, so frightening that he (literally) scared the hell out of kids. And what was his job? To scare the hell out of kids. Supposedly he would haunt the dreams of bad kids, scare them, possibly kill them (with sickness) and drag them into the pits of Hell. Then (thankfully) someone decided that was a little rough for merely bending the truth, or getting in a tussle with a sibling. So more recently Krampus became the one to put the coal in your stocking instead of treats if you were bad, which I think is quite a substantial improvement over earlier forms of punishment. Besides it made for a smoother transition to Santa punishing naughty children, and Krampus disappearing totally. Can you imagine how confusing Santa Claus would be to little kids if they were unsure whether to expect a Barbie or eternal damnation from him? He would be like an abusive parent. Definitely no good for Christmas.
Isn't that something though? The history of our traditions is so often so different from the way we imagine them! The good versus evil thing is interesting to me too, especially because they weren't enemies, they were partners. And actually it makes more sense than the idea that the modern Santa being mean and not giving a little kid a toy. I mean, hasn't Santa always seemed like a bit of a push over? Well, I guess it's because he's new at the whole judging job.
It's also interesting that the tradition of Krampus is no longer...celebrated (if that's the word for it) except in isolated places in eastern Europe, where a towns person is designated each year to wear a scary costume, and roam the streets rattling chains and scaring little children into being good...for the holidays at least.

Krampus comes for naughty girl.

Maybe the reason he has gone the way of the Dodo, as the saying goes, is because a long time ago kids didn't really get presents, so the threat of bodily harm and eternal fire was the only way to get them to listen. Where nowadays just telling them that Santa wont get them a Wii if they are bad puts the fear of god in them. Not that I'm complaining about him being gone. Krampus is very un-Christmassy, and way to Grinchy for me. So I for one am glad that he has faded from the tradition. But history is history, and the "fact" is that Santa had a partner.