Everyone knows about Santa, his elves, and his team of reindeer that bring toys to kids all over the world. However, his darker counterpart Krampus has stayed hidden in the shadows, disciplining the bad children. Today, we’re bringing them both into the light to compare these two long-standing Christmas figures.
The Contenders
Santa Claus and Krampus both evolved out of European folklore loosely based on Saint Nicholas, and have the supernatural ability to visit every child on Earth, doling out rewards or punishments based on their behavior over the year. Like Superman and Zod, they may come from a similar background but they have wildly different ideologies behind how they use their superpowers.
- Santa Claus: Santa’s a jolly old man who brings toys to the good girls and boys according to the proprietary and opaque system by which Santa determines “goodness.” Even if you don’t feel his omniscient eye during the year, you can certainly feel his omnipresence in every mall, retail store, and commercial in America once Thanksgiving is over (if not sooner).
- Krampus: Santa’s lesser-known counterpart, Krampus, has all the same powers of Santa, but he doesn’t come to reward good children. He comes to punish the bad ones. Depending on which legends you believe, he either comes to merely swat the naughty children who misbehave with sticks, or to drag them to the underworld. That’s kind of harsh for fighting with your siblings, isn’t it?
The folklore around both of these iconic figures may morph and change over the years, but as we learned from sweet little Virginia, yes, Santa Claus (and implicitly Krampus) are as real as our belief in them. Here’s how they measure up to each other as the yin and yang of Christmas spirit.
Santa Has a Cultural Monopoly, But Krampus Has Branding Issues
While Saint Nicholas can trace his historical roots as far back as the 3rd century, the modern vision of Santa Claus has his roots in the 19th century. The 1823 poem A Visit from St. Nicholas (which you might know better as ‘The Night Before Christmas’) combined with this illustration from 1881 by artist Thomas Nast form the earliest depictions of the jolly, fireplace-invading bearer of toys. An ad campaign from Coca-Cola started in 1931 helped solidify this image so thoroughly that no one even remembered Father Christmas anymore.
Krampus, on the other hand, has had a tough time gaining any mainstream traction. He has his own parties and traditions like Krampusnacht on the night before Saint Nicholas’ feast day. The festivals are still celebrated in some parts of Austria, Bavaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Hungary, Slovenia and Northern Italy today. According to some traditions, on Krampusnacht, Krampus would make his rounds doling out punishment. In some versions of this legend, St. Nick and Krampus would actually travel together. Santa would give out the gifts and Krampus would give out coal! Yes, while the modern Santa tries to deny knowing Krampus and ignores him at parties, Santa stole some of his tricks from when they used to work together. Shameful.
Like the Wicked Witch of the West, Krampus’ side of the story has been erased over the years, while Santa gets to tell his version of events. However, as usual, Santa had some help. Many cultures have attempted to ban him over the centuries. For example, the Catholic Church attempted to ban Krampus celebrations in the 12th century. More recently, Austria’s Christian Social Party attempted to ban Krampus in 1934 right around the time that Santa was experiencing a Coke-fueled boom in popularity in America.
Of course, it’s hard to pin all the blame on Santa. Krampus’ core message of beating children and hauling the really bad ones off to hell isn’t exactly a crowd pleaser. He also gets confused for Santa fairly often. The 2010 Finnish movie Rare Exports is a horror movie that’s clearly about Krampus, yet they refer to him as Santa Claus throughout the entire film. Krampus could use a better publicist.
Santa Has a Better Psychological Plan For Influencing Kids’ Behavior
When Santa comes to town, he brings toys for all the good children and, sometimes, a lump of coal for the naughty ones (though the evidence that this actually occurs is anecdotal at best). Krampus, on the other hand, will do the supernatural equivalent of spanking a child and, in extreme cases, drag them to hell. From a psychological perspective, neither has a complete disciplinary system, but Santa’s better prepared to improve children’s behavior.
In psychology, there’s a theory known as operant conditioning. This theory describes the how different rewards or punishments can influence behavior. You might have heard some terms associated with this theory like “positive reinforcement” but they’re commonly misunderstood. Under this theory, there are four categories of responses:
- Positive Reinforcement: This occurs when a reward is added after a behavior. For example, children are good all year, so Santa brings them presents.
- Negative Reinforcement: This occurs when the reward is the removal of some kind of stimulus. For example, when a parent successfully convinces children to be good all year, their “reward” is that they no longer have to hear their children fighting.
- Positive Punishment: This occurs when a punishment is introduced after a behavior. For example, children fight all year long, so Santa gives them coal or Krampus smacks them with a stick. Note the “positive” here doesn’t refer to how enjoyable the punishment is, but rather that something is being added, instead of being removed.
- Negative Punishment: This occurs when the punishment involves the removal of something after a behavior. For example, the children start fighting on Christmas, so the parents take away the toys Santa brought.
As you can see from the examples above, neither Santa nor Krampus operate using all available methods. They still need the parents to pick up the slack sometimes. However, Santa utilizes both positive reinforcement and positive punishment. Krampus only utilizes positive punishment. Even if we set aside whether it’s more effective to use the carrot or the stick, Santa at least has both tricks in his bag. Krampus only has (quite literally) the stick.
Of course, there’s also the question of whether a once-yearly disciplinary system is effective at all. Most children don’t really remember to start being good until November anyway. However, Santa still has the edge here. Even if he can barely influence kids for a month out of the year, Krampus has a habit of dragging kids to the underworld. It’s hard to learn to be a good kid if you’re in hell.
Krampus Is Metal As F**k
Have you seen this guy? Okay, yes, the holidays are all about peace on Earth and goodwill to men and all that. Santa’s definitely got that down. If you want a holiday that’s joyous and loving and full of good cheer, Santa Claus is gonna take care of you. But we have to talk for just a second about how insanely metal Krampus is.
The above GIF is a scene from the 2015 movie Krampus. In this film, a young boy gets in a fight with his family and wishes them away. To answer the call, Krampus sends a cadre of evil toys and elves after them. Finally, he steps in to open a pit to hell where he traps the whole family in an endless Christmas morning with everyone they couldn’t stand. The dramatic irony of being forced to spend eternity getting along with your family as a punishment for ruining Christmas borders on Shakespearean.
Everything about Krampus’ persona, though, is metal to its core. The toys are twisted incarnations of classic toys like teddy bears, cherub figures, and one jack-in-the-box that bears a closer resemblance to a giant anaconda. Krampus himself walks on giant, hooved legs, hunched under the weight of his massive horns, reaching out to his victims with elongated claws on each finger that look like they were carved out of ebony. Every scene he’s in looks like it should be scored by Slayer.
There’s no real comparison here with Santa. Mr. Claus doesn’t aim to be “cool” or “metal” or “face-meltingly awesome in the biblical sense of the word.” He wants to inspire us to be kind and generous to one another and hopefully learn to carry that spirit into the rest of the year. That’s a good thing. But...man, look at this guy. Krampus wins.
The Verdict: Bring Back Krampus
The world can rest easy knowing that Santa isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Well, he might have to move when the polar ice caps melt, but no one’s going to abandon the idea of Santa. We’ll still have presents, stockings, cookies and milk, and flying reindeer for as long as we keep teaching our kids to be kind to one another.
However, Krampus has gotten the short end of the stick over the centuries. After surviving multiple cultural bans and enduring awful representation, we’re finally reaching a time where we’re ready to bring balance to the light and dark sides of Christmas. Though you might not want to give Krampus too much leeway in disciplining your kids.