Boing Boing is honored to have Last Gasp as a sponsor.
In European folklore, the Krampus is St. Nikolaus's dark servant—a hairy, horned, supernatural beast whose pointed ears and long, slithering tongue gave misbehavers the creeps!
The Krampus terrorized the bad until they promised to be good. Some he spanked. Others he whipped. And some he shackled, stuffed into his large wooden basket and carted away, then hurled into the flames of Hell!
Such scenarios were delineated by skilled and imaginative Old World craftsmen, printed on penny postcards and disseminated throughout Europe.
The rare examples featured in Last Gasp's line of Krampus products are, perhaps, the best history has left to offer.
