Merry Krampus!
I’ve been saving this postcard because I’d never seen a devil featured on a Christmas greeting. Recently, while perusing some vintage cards, I ran across a series of variations on this creepy character known as Krampus. Evidently, in Eastern European folklore he’s the Enforcer for St. Nick and handles all disciplinary actions for the NAUGHTY KIDS.
He’s often seen with a switch or broom which he’ll use to whip the kids. Images of crying children are often included. And he’s the one who leaves you a sack of coal or a bundle of twigs if you’ve been bad.
As a kid, in our politically correct society, and especially here in the Bible Belt, we were never scared into going to sleep on Christmas eve, by thinking that the horned devil known as Krampus would think we were bad, and take us away in his sack!
Although, that does remind me of a girl I worked with whose grandmother would keep her in bed at night by telling her that if she got up “the Bloody Skull and Cross Bones will git ya!”
Night, night Grandma!
Merry Krampus!
