This is Krampus. Santa's little helper is a terrifying demonic beast that helps him deal with naughty kids. He literally exists to scare children straight.
Most Krampuses have thick fur, sharp horns, cloven hooves, fangs, and a long, pointy tongue. They usually wear loud bells and chains, which they thrash around for effect, and carry a whip or birch branches to beat kids with.
They also often brandish a basket or sack of some sort, meant to transport kids to hell (or the nearest river).
Most Alpine towns feature an annual Krampuslauf, or Krampus Run. It usually takes place on December 5, the night before the feast of St. Nicholas.
Anyone can dress up as the Krampus. The wooden masks they wear are typically handmade, intricate, and absolutely terrifying.
Increasingly, towns featuring Krampus Runs have had issues with drunken Krampuses getting a little too rowdy. They're known to chase people across town, beating them with their sticks, getting a little too into character ... and you never know who's hiding behind those masks.
Though no one quite knows for certain, this tradition is often believed to have begun when the Moors raided European towns, kidnapping locals and selling them into slavery.
Legend has it the Krampuses' chains symbolize a binding to the devil by the Christian Church, and the birch branches hail from ancient pagan initiation rites.
Krampus punishes misbehavior. He is the opposite of St. Nicholas, a warm and friendly old man who rewards good kids with candy and gifts.
Parents threaten their kids with Krampus all year long, arranging for him to show up in their homes should their threats go unheeded.
When he and his associates show up, he'll start reading off a list of every time a kid has misbehaved in the past year, while said kid trembles in terror under the watchful eye of Krampus, birch branches in hand twitching.
Krampus is so insanely scary that he was actually banned a few times — alternatively by the Catholic Church and the Austrian government, and later during WWII for allegedly being a product of Social Democrats.
In fact, Krampus is so terrifying that one Austrian town warned visitors ahead of time, so that they wouldn't be afraid when drunken monsters were seen running through the streets.
Krampus has been having a resurgence in Europe recently, and has even caught on in the US. A new Universal Studios movie called "Krampus" is now playing nationwide.
