German club met after school to celebrate St. Nicholas Day, or Sankt Nikolaustag on Tuesday, Dec. 6.  Over 30 students showed up and they ate a variety of German desserts including Pfeffernusse (a type of spice cookie) and Stollen (a german fruit cake). German Club watched the American film Krampus and learned about holiday cultures of Germany with Larry Anderson and Eric Hasselschwert, German teachers.

Clang. Clang. Clang. Krampus flickers his slippery tongue as long heavy chains drag naughty children in his path to the woods. Every year St. Nicholas visits children around the world before the morning of Dec. 6. Children put their shoes outside their door on St. Nicholas Eve and wake up the next morning to chocolate coins and other various goodies.

However, knowledge of St. Nicholas’ dark companion Krampus did not increase until the comedy horror film Krampus was released in 2015. Krampus makes special visits to bad children with his elves and leaves coal or sticks in their shoes. The half-goat half-demon comes from German folklore, but has spread to other regions of Europe. Krampus has been commercialized, and even Austria has begun to sell collectible figurines, horns and chocolates according to National Geographic.

“Each region of Germany has it’s specialty. Krampus comes from the south, the mountain areas of Austria and southern Germany,” Anderson said. “You would never find a Krampus figure up in Hamburg or Dresden. It just varies from place to place.”