"Santa, we found someone even creepier than you."

BOO! It's the annual running of the Krampuses.

 If the Christmas Doctor Who doesn't have a Krampus, it's missed a trick. Krampus is of course Saint Nicks' shaggy, old-religion, child-beating-after-it's-put-them-in-a-sack assistant. As Christoph Waltz explained to Jimmy Fallon "there's an old medieval tradition that is still kept alive in the mountains, where the young men... put on sheepskin and huge carved wooden masks and cow bells, and they get drunk... and storm like the riders of the apocalypse, through the village." The Austrian kids seem to love it. 

 

Really though, I'm just looking for some context in which to post one of my all-time favourite Christmas clips, see below. It too features children beaming inexplicably at a horrific, What-Am-I-Please-Kill-Me costume and is if anything even more terrifying than Krampuslauf, because in this clip the kids are now sharing a car with it. Where are its eye-holes? Has it seen that dog? Will the howling of the siren ever stop? Ably heckled by Mystery Science Theatre 3000's Kevin Murphy, Mike Nelson and Bill Corbett under the "Rifftrax" banner, here is the finale from probably their greatest find - Pirateworld's dismal promotional feature: "Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny". Enjoy.