Picture Santa Claus. Y’know – red suit, carrying a big ‘ol bag of gifts, just eatin’ cookies and lovin’ life.
Now picture the demonic, hell-spawned nightmare version of that and boom – you’ve pretty much got the Krampus. And to all a good night.
The Krampus is pretty much the best Christmas tradition you’ve (probably) never heard. The “Christmas Devil” comes out of an old German Christmas story of a creature that looks like Satan and Mr. Tumnus from The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe had a baby. A terrifying, demonic, be-horned baby.
But the Krampus isn’t just a creepy as hell threat to bad kids. If you’ve been naughty, he freakin’ beats you with sticks before dragging you to the underworld. Kinda puts a new meaning to the whole, “he sees you when you’re sleeping, he knows when you’re awake” thing…
The Krampus may be an old legend, but he’s kreepin’ his way into mainstream culture. I mean, there’s a movie that just came out called Krampus. And now, here in Chicago at Rotofugi, Gary Baseman has an exhibit up that features his “Wild Girls” with the jolly X-Mas devil.
You might recognize Baseman’s style from the Cranium designs he’s done. Check out his art pieces of the Krampus definitely ruining the holidays for these children forever! And check out the rest of his Rotofugi gallery here.
