Celebrating the holiday with 13 Santas, their troll mother, and their demon cat
More than 160 countries and over 2 billion people celebrate Christmas every year. Some celebrate for religious reasons, while others celebrate for cultural ones. It’s safe to say that the United States celebrates the holiday season like no one else.
We gorge ourselves on the iconography of Christmas trees, presents, and Santa Clause. We ever tend to release more Christmas movies than there are actual days in December.
But that may not be how everyone else celebrates the holiday.
Each country has its own unique way of doing Christmas. Some traditions and customs may be relatively new, while others have been around for centuries. Some traditions might have even evolved and changed. Perhaps one of the more interesting and obscure Christmas traditions is in Iceland.
On the surface, Iceland’s Christmas looks no different from our own: decorated trees and colorful lights draped over houses. Yet, unlike America, their customs are rooted in centuries-old folktales and legends based on pagan beliefs of ghosts and goblins.
And they all revolve around 13 different Santas.
The United States has Santa. The United Kingdom has Father Christmas. Some Latin countries have Papa Noel. But for Iceland, they just don’t have one gift-bringer, they have 13. And they are called the Yule Lads.
Yule Lads are often depicted as troll men or natural spirits who come down from the mountains one by one from December 12th to Christmas day. Kids leave shoes on their window sills every night. Good children receive small gifts and candies in their shoes. Bad children receive potatoes.
Each Lad has a particular name which represents the trick or prank that they pull when they arrive in town. Their pranks are harmless, though some may be liable to wake you up in the middle of the night or even rob you of some of your food.
There’s Sheep-Cote Clod, who likes to harass the sheep. Gully Gawk likes to hide in gullies until the coast is clear and steal milk from inside the barn. Stubby is a bit on the short side and likes to eat the leftover crust and crumbs from pans. Spoon Licker is thinner than his brothers, and, you guessed it, he likes to steal and lick spoons.
Pot Scraper and Bowl Licker are very similar to their brothers, They like to steal pots and lick the leftovers clean and steal the food from the bowls underneath beds. Door Slammer likes to slam doors and wake people. Skyr Gobbler likes the Icelandic yogurt skyr and is known to help himself to it. Sausage Swiper hides in the rafters and steals sausages being smoked.
Window Peeper likes to peer inside windows and steals anything he might see. Door Sniffler has an impressively large nose and uses it to find bread. Meat Hook has a hook and will use it to steal meat. And then there’s Candle Beggar, who will follow children home and take their candles.
Today, the Yule Lads are known as benevolent troll men who don’t look too dissimilar to Santa Claus. They have large white beards and wear old Icelandic peasant clothes. There was a time where they were depicted in red to more represent the jolly gift-giver that many know and love. More interestingly is the fact there used to be canonical 82 Yule Lads.
These festive lads didn’t use to be all jovial, however. There was a time where they were quite mean, almost downright evil. And they didn’t give off the appearance of kind old men. They almost resembled monsters, fowl and haggard creatures of the mountains who were keener on eating children than giving them gifts. They were a tool used to discipline children. The stories that were told were so terrifying in fact that they were banned from being told in 1746.
Honestly, it’s not really the Lads who are at fault here. That blame goes to their mother.
The Yule Lads are all brothers and sons to a gigantic troll named Grýla.
Stories and poems of Grýla have been told since the 13th century, making her one of the oldest legends in Iceland. It wasn’t until the 16th century that she started becoming a Christmas icon–for better and worse.
While the Lads have become docile over the centuries, Grýla has remained as scary and horrid as ever. She’s depicted having hooves and thirteen tales, sometimes horns and a beard. During Christmas time, she travels down from her mountain home and steals bad children with a large sack. Then she takes them home, where she boils them alive and eats them as a stew.
Grýla also has a troll husband named Leppalúði. He’s a lazy creature who usually stays home and does nothing. Grýla is known for abusing and berating him, an unfortunate kindness given what she did to her other two husbands.
One she killed. The other she ate.
Perhaps the strangest of all the family members, and Icelandic Christmas customs for that matter, is the Yule Cat.
The Yule Cat is a large and ferocious cat who stalks villages and eats those not wearing new clothes for Christmas. It’s undoubtedly rooted in the age-old tradition of getting new clothes as Christmas gifts, though it's odd that we should give punishment to those who don’t have new clothes. What if some families can’t afford new clothes every year?
More likely, this tradition and tale are based on farmers giving their farmhands new clothes each year in decades past. Or even as a way to pressure those same farm hands to finish their weaving and knitting jobs before the holidays.
It’s hard to imagine Western Christmas icons like Santa, reindeers, and elves as malevolent children eaters and food stealers. Although… Santa is quite fond of his milk and cookies, isn’t he?