Krampus and Saint Nicholas

Are they friends? Worse.

What is Teddy Roosevelt doing here?

Saint Nicholas (sometimes called Sinterklaas) is a European holiday figure who brings good little children gifts and treats on his feast day. Based on Saint Nicholas of Myra, he’s seen as benevolent, good and kind. But he runs with some strange company.

There are many iterations of Saint Nicholas’s foil. Krampus has become the most popular in recent years, but there are others: Belsnickel, Rumpelklas, Knecht Ruprecht, Hans Trapp and more. These “dark” characters sometimes simply serve as Saint Nicholas’s “helper” (or servant. or…) while others serve to punish the children that the good saint sees as unfit to receive a treat, allowing ol’ Nick to keep his saintly hands clean.

The feast of Saint Nicholas falls on December 5th or 6th, but in a few traditions, the night before belongs to Krampus. The giant goatman stalks the streets, handing out coal or twigs and wielding his rute – birch rods or switches – to punish the naughty. Once those children have been punished, they still must wake up the next morning to no gifts from Saint Nicholas. (Unless, of course, the child is deserving of a more severe punishment; Krampus kidnaps some especially naughty kids and drags them to hell. Seriously, what is wrong with parents?!)

Obviously, this dynamic duo represents the Christian mythology in a more immediate way for kids. Saint Nicholas represents the benevolent judgment of god rewarding the faithful, so everything about his appearance is what’s “good” in this tradition: this fatherly white man wears church garb (prominently featuring white, gold and red; he also often rides a white horse), carries a staff to guide the flock and rewards those he judges as good. Why do I wokely point out his whiteness and white clothes? Because traditional depictions of the actual Saint Nicholas are less so; white was a conscious choice.

On the flip side, Saint Nicholas’s companion is viewed as… other. Krampus is inhuman, generally depicted with darker or “dirty” skin (yeah...) He has devil horns – with or without cloven hooves – and dresses in dark tatters; some depictions seem to be that of a “fallen” monk. His actions are obviously in the vein of punishment and menace.

One figure is clearly meant to be viewed as better than the other, not the least of which because he gives you presents and does not hit you.

I ascribe to the theory that absent its opposite, a foil character does not fully exist; the contrast is their defining characteristic. Without the context of Saint Nicholas, Krampus is merely an evil, villainous monster who is indiscriminately harming children; he has no real motivation. In his full context as a foil, those children had a choice and they chose the devil; their punishment has been earned, just as the good kinder earned their rewards.

While not every hero must have a foil, I would argue that Saint Nicholas actually does need one. On his own, he’s a nice guy, but the stakes are too low. Here in the US, we know that the threat of getting a lump of coal in our stockings is only a deterrent for the littlest of kids, if then (and let’s be real; everyone gets presents, anyway.) Saint Nicholas rarely gives out actual gold anymore, so it’s usually oranges, chocolates, cookies, nuts, poems/jokes and small toys; is that enough to make you behave? Ol’ Nick keeps his friends on hand to make it clear that the other option is kind of a lot, so stick with what you know, kid.

Of course, here on the internet, straying further from god’s light each day, we see your swat-on-the-behind-and-drag-to-hell helper… and we predictably decide we want to do him. Seriously, we’re real horny about this goatman. It’s kind of a problem, actually. Let’s agree not to think too deeply about the implications of that, shall we?