The story of old Saint Nic and his reindeers is lovely and all but like everything in life, there has to be some balance.
While the threat of coal filled stockings can scare many a child during the festive season, some far more terrifying tactics were put into place across the globe when it comes to ensuring the young family members were good boys and girls at Christmas time. But they were just myths and legends, right?
Well, depending on what you believe, a number of a Christmas myths, monsters and legends still exists across Europe and beyond, with ghouls, child eating hags and even witches raining their merry Hell on those who did not abide by the rules of Christmas.
While we hope you never have to meet them, here are 10 of the scariest Christmas monsters you could bump into this December, if you’re unlucky.
9. Lussi
The Norwegian tale of Lussi from Norwegian folklore is female figure with a crown of candles - however, she is not a symbol of goodness and light. Lussi would carry restless souls who arose from their graves and stalk the local homes from December 13, making sure they had completed their festive preparations - or else. Her entourage of the dead were known as "gangferd" or “gongferd”, which roughly translates as the walking dead. Photo: Ian Forsyth
10. Belsnickel
Belsnickel is a German myth said to be a combination of Krampus and Saint Nikolas. He appears in Netflix's Christmas Chronicles 2, where he attempts to destroy Christmas. His story is that he would visit homes two weeks prior to Christmas to check up on the behaviour of the children. If they had misbehaved, he would tap upon their door or window with his pointed stick and force the children to answer his questions for him or sing songs. Photo: Creative Commons