Reddit mentions of Christmas Curiosities: Odd, Dark, and Forgotten Christmas

To piggyback on this, it might be useful to explain why the legend of Krampus is not so wide-spread. As cited in the book Christmas Curiosities (an excellent collection Victorian-era Christmas prints and an examination of the weird traditions they show), prior to the late 1800s, printed media was very expensive, to the point that most people who weren't part of the upper class wouldn't normally encounter it. Without TV, radio, or even printed media to give people an idea of "This is the normal way to celebrate Christmas." holiday traditions were much more localized before this time. There would be Christmas traditions not only exclusive to countries, but to certain areas of countries or even specific towns.

As technology in printing became more widespread and cheaper, you get things like ads, calendars, and post cards that kind of normalize things like how to celebrate Christmas and who Santa is and what he looks like and what he does. However, during the early years of mass printed media, you see these weird traditions on display, because people were making cards and ads out of the way they had always celebrated Christmas. So, you see angels and/or baby Jesus delivering presents instead of Santa, Santa variously looking like an elf, a saint, a skinny old man, or the fat man we know today. Sometimes he brings switches for the naughty children, sometimes a helper like Krampus does it instead.

Krampus was particularly popular in German countries and even in the US among the German immigrant population. It is likely that he is drawn from earlier pagan traditions. However, the whole association with this devil-like figure at Christmas fell out of favor in most places and today, it's mainly localized to Austria, Slovenia, and Croatia.

Good. I want more folklore pops. I've loved Krampus since Grossman introduced him to me in this book.