Here are some creepy AF Krampus cards from Christmas past. These cards, part of a genre called “Krampuskarten”, are far from your run of the mill Hallmark holiday cards.
These horror filled Christmas cards arise from Alpine folklore and represent kids being tormented by Krampus, a devilish beast who wasn’t a big fan of the holiday spirit. See more of these wicked cards on The Public Domain Review.
These cards date back to at least the 1800s, and often came with the saying Gruß vom Krampus which means “Greetings from the Krampus”.
From The Public Domain Review:
“Careful out there tonight for it is Krampusnacht! Popular in German-speaking Alpine folklore, the figure of Krampus is a devil-admire horned creature who punishes badly-behaved children the night before St Nicholas’ Day. As one can see from the scenes played out on the “Krampuskarten”, a rather sinister form of the normal Christmas card, this punishment usually took the form of kidnapping, with Krampus often depicted whisking naughty children away to hell or some other similarly distressing location.⠀
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