It’s beginning to look a lot like Krampus around Chicago.
If you haven’t met the mythical holiday figure yet, consider yourself lucky — or on the perma-nice list. This towering half-goat, half-demon adorned with horns, a long red tongue and chains and birch rods is the antithesis of Santa’s rosy red cheeks and jolly laugh, and he’s also coming to town this month in a big way.
For the first time, Christkindlmarket will host the already sold-out, one-day-only Haus of Krampus attraction Dec. 14 (with take-home Krampus plush toys for sale), while Martyrs’ is bringing back its annual Krampus Fest artisan market on Dec. 13, along with photo ops with the creature of the hour. And 13th Floor Haunted House Chicago will get in on the seasonal scary fun too, transforming its annual haunted house into a frightening winter wonderland Dec. 12-14.
While Krampus was born centuries ago in Europe, his recent explosion in the United States is all thanks to one Chicagoan: graphic designer/illustrator Monte Beauchamp, who featured the beast in his comic zine 20 years ago.
“Krampus became more than a fad in America. It became a cultural phenomenon … and it all started here in Chicago,” Beauchamp recently told the Chicago Sun-Times.
So, who is Krampus and why is he pushing aside the jovial sugar plums in our heads and filling them with nightmares?
“Krampus is essentially the dark counterpart to St. Nicholas,” said Samantha Lundeen, director of membership, museum and development at DANK Haus German American Cultural Center in Lincoln Square. Whereas Santa packs his red velvet sack with presents for all, Krampus threatens to fill his with the naughty bunch on Krampusnacht.
“As many get ready to celebrate St. Nicholas Day and leave their shoes out on the night of Dec. 5 to get goodies as rewards for being good or well-behaved, Krampus is there at the same time as the enforcer,” Lundeen said. “He’s the scary bad cop to St. Nicholas’ good cop, to stoke some fear in the naughty children and get them to behave better.”
While there’s no known origin story that pinpoints the exact birth and time of Krampus, he’s been a folkloric antihero for centuries in the European Alps, including Germany’s Bavaria region, Austria, Switzerland, Slovenia and northern Italy. In early December, many of those regions host annual Krampus runs, elaborate parades where costumed beasts roam the streets.
“Krampus comes from pre-Christian traditions in Europe, when there was a lot of stories and folk traditions, gods and goddesses in the wintertimes that were associated with darkness, cold and the fear and scarcity that came along with winter,” Lundeen said. This duality of the light and the dark, the good and the bad, is common throughout European storytelling, she said, pointing to the original Grimms’ fairy tales, which were meant to teach morals.
“When Christianity began to spread, like so many other pagan traditions, these stories were incorporated into the new traditions to make things more reachable and convert more people,” Lundeen said. “This is when we see Krampus as a figure become tied to St. Nicholas.”
In the late 1800s, Krampus’ popularity started to spread outside the remote parts of the Alps thanks to a series of illustrated postcards — Krampus cards — that were exchanged between families and friends, featuring wild depictions of the mysterious holi-beast and his victims.
Krampus’ Chicago connection
When Beauchamp got his hands on some of the cards from a “fellow ephemera aficionado,” it changed everything for American holiday traditions.
Originally from Moline and a graduate of the fine arts program at Southern Illinois University, Beauchamp spent years in the design departments of CNA Insurance and Arthur Andersen. He also worked as the advertising art director for Frank J. Corbett, McCann Healthcare and Robinson & Maites. On the side, the North Center resident was assembling an award-winning self-published comics zine called “BLAB!” full of illustrations and vintage ephemera.
Beauchamp introduced America to Krampus in its pages in a feature about century-old postcards in 2000. The issue became so popular, it led to a partnership with comics publisher Fantagraphics to produce the first book in America about the character, 2004’s “The Devil in Design: The Krampus Postcards.”
“Prior to acquiring those early cards, I had never heard of Krampus,” Beauchamp said. He was drawn in by what he called “the exquisite full-color printing technique and illustration styles of the early chromolithographic postcards.” Beauchamp estimates the oldest item in his collection is from the 1890s; he is still scouring auctions and other marketplaces for more.
Soon enough, rabid fans began scanning images from the book to put on the internet, and “Krampus in America caught on like wildfire,” Beauchamp said. “Next thing I knew, those very same images were being bootlegged on every type of merchandising imaginable — from T-shirts to coffee mugs.” Licensing teams from popular television shows including “Supernatural,” “The Colbert Report,” “Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations” and “NCIS” began calling him too. The 2015 “Krampus” horror movie from Universal Pictures only helped push the character into the mainstream.
Beauchamp believes there’s a key reason: Krampus has “livened up our winter holiday season,” he said. “What we had was a jolly Santa and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, which was good for kids but bored the adults.”
The Krampus intrigue
Certainly there’s a case for Beauchamp’s argument. At Christkindlmarket, the idea to create Haus of Krampus (a decorative attraction inside the heated Timber House) came from fans, said Leila Schmidt, senior manager of marketing and intercultural communication at German American Events, which organizes the annual market. “We always do a post-market survey every year to find out what merchandise and what events people are interested in, and the biggest interest is always anything cultural,” she said.
Furthermore, attendees of the market’s Culture & Cheers tours (available Thursday through Sunday mornings) always get amped up anytime they stop by the lifelike Krampus near the Bavarian imports booth. “People are like, ‘Oh, this is so cool. I wish there was an event that involved Krampus,’” Schmidt recalled. “So we thought, ‘Let’s make it happen.’” Haus of Krampus sold out within two weeks.
“There’s always an interest in dark, mysterious stories. That’s why horror, mystery and thriller genres are so popular,” Lundeen said. This week, DANK Haus is opening a German Christmas traditions exhibition where people can learn more about Krampus and his history.
“As the world becomes smaller and more accessible and we have this boom in the internet and social media, people are able to see other countries’ traditions more,” she added. “I think those are all probably working together in a great way.”