[av_heading heading=’Krampus figures: European folklore gave Santa Claus a dark side’ tag=’h1′ style=” subheading_active=” show_icon=” icon=’ue800′ font=’entypo-fontello’ size=” av-desktop-font-size-title=” av-medium-font-size-title=” av-small-font-size-title=” av-mini-font-size-title=” subheading_size=” av-desktop-font-size=” av-medium-font-size=” av-small-font-size=” av-mini-font-size=” icon_size=” av-desktop-font-size-1=” av-medium-font-size-1=” av-small-font-size-1=” av-mini-font-size-1=” color=” custom_font=” subheading_color=” seperator_color=” icon_color=” margin=’,,35px,’ av-desktop-margin=” av-desktop-margin_sync=’true’ av-medium-margin=” av-medium-margin_sync=’true’ av-small-margin=’,,20px,’ av-mini-margin=” av-mini-margin_sync=’true’ headline_padding=” headline_padding_sync=’true’ av-desktop-headline_padding=” av-desktop-headline_padding_sync=’true’ av-medium-headline_padding=” av-medium-headline_padding_sync=’true’ av-small-headline_padding=” av-small-headline_padding_sync=’true’ av-mini-headline_padding=” av-mini-headline_padding_sync=’true’ padding=’10’ av-desktop-padding=” av-medium-padding=” av-small-padding=” av-mini-padding=” icon_padding=’10’ av-desktop-icon_padding=” av-medium-icon_padding=” av-small-icon_padding=” av-mini-icon_padding=” link=” link_target=” title_attr=” id=” custom_class=” template_class=” av_uid=’av-lq2hdn2a’ sc_version=’1.0′ admin_preview_bg=”][/av_heading]
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NEW YORK – There’s a dark side to Christmas. It’s kind of inevitable, really; darkness is at its heart. The holiday’s origins go back more than 10,000 years, created to mark the time when those living in the northern hemisphere experience the shortest days of the year and thereafter begin to gain a little bit more sunlight each day on the journey to spring and summer. The chilling aspect of Christmas isn’t just the cold, and never has been. After all, one of the greatest tales of the season, Charles Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, is, unmistakably, a ghost story.
Entering the cultural consciousness roughly around the same time as A Christmas Carol was Krampus, a creature who inspired dread and terror in the naughty children of 19th-century Austria and southern Germany. Early depictions on Krampuskarten (Krampus cards) show him as a hairy, soot-blackened, Pan-like figure, but as time passed, Krampus came to resemble the devil of the Christian religion, with red skin, horns, and a sneering face. He takes his name from ‘Krampn,’ a Bavarian term for something that is shriveled or dried out. But as fearsome as he is, he never appears on his own. He is firmly tethered to St. Nicholas, serving as the yin to the jolly old elf’s yang: Santa Claus and anti-Claus.
Jeanne Bertoia, proprietor and co-founder of Bertoia Auctions of Vineland, New Jersey, explains: “Our vision of Santa is if you’re bad, you get coal in your stocking. The lore [in Austria and Germany] is on December 6, St. Nicholas comes and brings gifts for the children who behaved. But for kids who were badly behaved, they get punished. That’s why Krampus carries a birch rod – to hit kids. He would put children in a sack and take them away, to drown them or eat them or take them down to hell,” she said, adding that Krampus is “creepy-looking. My grandkids would be scared to death to see him, but I think the concept of Krampus is to scare them into behaving well.”
Details of an undated German Krampus figure with a fearsome devilish face and a sack full of naughty children who he intends to carry away, which sold for $1,700 plus the buyer’s premium in November 2017. Image courtesy of Bertoia Auctions and LiveAuctioneers.
In November 2017, Bertoia Auctions offered a striking vintage Krampus figure. Standing 33in tall, it had bushy black hair, a red face with a psychotic expression, chains in its grasp and a sack full of yowling, weeping tow-headed children, clearly doomed to a grim fate. It realized $1,300 plus the buyer’s premium. While noting that she has never seen another of its type, Bertoia agreed that the frightening figure proved appealing because it embodies the characteristics that are expected of Krampus. “That’s what Krampus is known for, that’s what he is,” she said, adding, “And that’s why I think he’s not as popular. He’s not the most lovable of figures.”
Krampus figures certainly exist, but in far fewer numbers than those of Santa Claus and belsnickels, as Götz C. Seidel, auctioneer at Ladenburger Spielzeugauktion GmbH of Ladenburg, Germany, acknowledges. “Krampus is more rare than Santa Claus, of course, because he was the dark side of Santa Claus,” he said, but adds, “Christmas things of good quality don’t go down in price, and that’s true for Krampus figures.”
While Krampus came into being in Austria and regions of Germany, Seidel says Krampus figures are collected “everywhere” and consignments come from a broad range of places. “Many things go to other countries. Many people born in Germany or Austria have left those countries [their countries of birth] in the last 20 years. These people are collecting their own history,” he said, going on to state that some of the best material is now sourced outside of Krampus’s home territory, which suffered losses when it was hit hard in World War II. “There’s more interesting stuff in America. The most interesting comes from old collections. Some go back to Germany and Austria on the market.”
A larger-than-life-size Krampus head mask, described as “evil” and looking very much like a red devil, sold for $2,000 plus the buyer’s premium in November 2020. Image courtesy of Bertoia Auctions and LiveAuctioneers.
A spate of movies released in the 2010s, some of which were straightforward horror movies and others horror-comedies, helped raise the profile of Krampus and spread his legend past his region of origin. But Bertoia and Seidel concur that interest in Krampus material is not driven by fans of horror – it’s all Christmas collectors. Bertoia, in particular, cites greater overall rising interest in holiday displays as a potential influence. “If you collect the full gamut of the holidays, if you collect all the holidays, Krampus seems to fit in moreso,” she said, noting, “In major Christmas collections, there are always a few Krampuses. Some don’t like Krampus, but want a Krampus piece because it’s part of the holiday lore … Holiday figures are popular in general. Easter is the weakest of the holidays, though that has become more popular. And a lot of collectors have holiday collections out year-round.”
Just such a choice Krampus piece that came through Bertoia was a carved wooden toy showing the creature, depicted as a half-man, half-animal rather than a red devil, pulling a two-wheeled, sled-like cart with a child seated in it. Estimated at $1,000-$1,500, it sold for $2,250 plus the buyer’s premium in November 2020. This is another Krampus figure that Bertoia hasn’t seen before or since – “the most unique Krampus figure we’ve had” – and it was an action figure, of sorts. When you push the cart, the wheels move, and wires attached to Krampus’s feet move them in turn. “We felt it had great craftsmanship, great imagination, and was a one-off,” ideal for display, she said. “It’s a different perception of Krampus. He doesn’t have the sack, but he’s still stealing a child by pulling it in a cart. That made it esoteric.”
Two of the best-selling Krampus pieces offered at Ladenburger, each in an October 2016 auction, were a Krampus in a cart pulled by a goat, which achieved €3,100 (about $3,300) plus the buyer’s premium, and a standing head-nodding Krampus figure with a papier-mache head and body, which earned an identical sum. Both depicted Krampus as a red devil. Seidel said that he thought the devil-like Krampuses sold better, but was quick to add, “If it’s original and old, that’s the most important thing.”
Though Krampus is certain to find favor with Christmas skeptics and humbugs who would adore a subversive take on the dominant winter holiday, as well as committed fans of the holiday who have a sense of humor about it all, the fate of Krampus is inexorably and forever tied to that of St. Nicholas, aka Santa Claus. “I don’t want to call him a go-along, but Krampus is a go-along with St. Nick,” said Bertoia, and cited figures to back her claim. “When you get into the advanced level of holidays, Christmas material has sold for $30,000-$50,000. With Krampus, the high points are $1,000-$2,000. Just right there, the price point is less. There’s not as strong a market for Krampus.”
Still, being a go-along can be a good thing. In October 2019, Bertoia offered an early German Santa Claus board game in excellent condition that had a beautiful illustration of Santa on the cover. One of its five cards had an image of a black-bodied Krampus with its long tongue sticking out and holding a bundle of sticks as well as a colorful paper chain. It attained $1,500 plus the buyer’s premium, handily besting its estimate of $250-$500. “It’s a very rare game,” Bertoia said. “I think the price is because of Santa more than Krampus, but I think Krampus makes it more interesting. That’s why we showed it.”
It seems that as long as Christmas has its collectors, Krampus will, too. In an era when collectors’ clubs have been on the wane, Bertoia cites the existence of the Golden Glow of Christmas Past, which counts more than 2,000 members, more than 600 of whom turned out for its August 2023 convention in Washington, D.C.
“Everybody loves the holidays. Most people have good memories of them, but if Krampus visited, maybe they weren’t so happy,” she said. “Young children behave well hoping that Krampus won’t come, because that would be worse than coal in your stocking.”
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