The Yule Goat, the Yule Witch and the Yule Cat – meet Europe's Christmas creatures

Writer: Helena Bergström

Christmas is certainly a Christian holiday, but Christmas traditions also include a wild mix of folklore and pre-Christian winter rituals. Throughout Europe, Christmas stories are populated by witches, goats, demons and various mythical animals. Join us on a journey through Europe's darker, stranger and sometimes frightening Christmas traditions...

When Christmas was a little wilder

What European Christmas traditions have in common is that they remind us of a time when winter was seen as dangerous and the supernatural was present in people's stories. We have delved into six magical creatures that populate Europe during the Christmas season.

1. The Nordic countries: The Yule Goat

Long before Santa Claus became a popular figure, he ruled Yule goat in the Nordic countries. The goat has its roots in pre-Christian Norse mythology, where the thunder god Thor's chariot was pulled by two goats.

The goat has long been associated with Christmas. As early as the beginning of the 18th century, young people would go around the farms performing plays or singing songs – and one member of the group would usually be dressed up as a goat.

In Sweden and Finland, the tradition of a Christmas goat that roamed between farms during Christmas, sometimes to distribute gifts, remained for quite some time. Today, the Christmas goat is mainly a decoration, often made of straw. Perhaps the most famous is The Gävle Goat, which is built up every year, and just as often burns down.

2. Italy: The Christmas witch La Befana

In Italy, Christmas presents are not always brought by Father Christmas, but can also be distributed by the witch. La Befana, who flies over the rooftops on his broomstick on the night of Twelfth Night.

According to legend, La Befana was the woman who refused to help when the three wise men asked for directions to the baby Jesus. Full of regret, she later set out to look for the child, laden with gifts – and continues to do so to this day.

Today, La Befana is celebrated throughout Italy, especially in Rome, where Piazza Navona is filled with market stalls, sweets and broom-decorated figures. Good children receive presents, naughty children receive coal – albeit usually in the form of sugar.

3. Iceland: Christmas meat

Iceland's Christmas cat is not something you want to encounter in the winter darkness. Christmas meat is a huge black cat, which according to legend eats children (and adults) who have not received new clothes for Christmas.

The story has its roots in Iceland's harsh farming society, where new clothes signalled hard work with the autumn wool before Christmas – if you had worked hard during the year, you would get something new to wear for the winter.

Today, the Christmas cat lives on in culture: in children's books, songs and as a giant statue in Reykjavik. Threatening, but also loved – from a safe distance.

4. The Alps: Krampus

In Austria, Bavaria and parts of northern Italy, Krampus during Advent. With horns, fur, chains and frightening masks, he represents the dark counterpart to Saint Nicholas at Christmas.

Krampus punishes disobedient children, at least symbolically, and his origins can be traced back to pre-Christian rituals linked to the chaos and forces of nature in winter.

Today, the tradition lives on strongly through Krampuslauf, where hundreds of masked participants run through various cities in noisy, often quite wild processions.

5. France: Père Fouettard

In northern and eastern France, as well as in French-speaking parts of Belgium and Switzerland, Saint Nicholas is not accompanied by Krampus, but instead by Père Fouettard – ”The Whip Father”.

This somewhat unpleasant figure may be dressed in dark clothing and seen with a cane in his hand, symbolising his role in keeping an eye on children's behaviour. The figure is believed to have emerged during the Middle Ages, possibly based on older figures of fear used to maintain order.

6. Wales: Mari Lwyd

In Wales, a strange figure wanders through the villages around Christmas: Mari Lwyd – a horse's skull on a stick, covered with white cloth. The tradition is that Mari Lwyd, together with a group of companions, goes from house to house singing different verses in a kind of singing duel. If they win the duel, they are invited in for food and drink.

It is still a living tradition today, especially in southern Wales – a mixture of celebration, folklore and collective improvisation.

What is your relationship to Europe's Christmas spirit?

What is your relationship to Europe's magical Christmas creatures? Which ones do you know, and which ones have you heard stories about? Are there perhaps other magical figures that you have heard about?