Ep. 74 - The Origins of TERRIFYING Victorian Christmas Creatures

My Victorian Nightmare

Genevieve Manion

History

4.7 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 22 December 2025

⏱️ 40 minutes

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Summary

On today's episode, Genevieve will discuss the Yule Cat, Krampus and the Yule Goat, as well as a few other deeply disturbing monsters that roam the countryside, looking to slice children open and replace their insides with straw and rocks every Christmas. Some of these creatures have ancient origins, but they all really shined in the Victorian era. Subscribe to the Newsletter! ⁠⁠https://myvictoriannightmare.myflodesk.com/myukzmys04⁠⁠ Subscribe to the Patreon free trial for ad-free listening! ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/cw/MyVictorianNightmare/membership⁠ Instagram Post For Today's Episode: https://www.instagram.com/p/DSc6zghjr3L/?img_index=1 References For Today's Episode: “Ghost Story” - The Halifax Courier and Guardian, Nov. 19th, 1853. “The Human “Double” - The Spiritualist, Jan. 14th, 1870. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yule_cat https://education.turpentinecreek.org/2023/12/09/the-spooky-legend-of-the-yule-cat/ https://blogs.loc.gov/folklife/2025/12/krampus-origins-and-development-of-a-winter-devil/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/P%C3%A8re_Fouettard https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Knecht_Ruprecht https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gr%C3%BDla https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perchta https://www.tumblr.com/themousefromfantasyland/635704522538450945/the-creatures-of-yuletide-the-yule-goat https://www.wisfarmer.com/story/life/2018/12/20/yule-goat-holidays-and-good-crops/2369257002/ https://www.hachettebookgroup.com/storey/the-yule-goat/ https://london-overlooked.com/chelsea/ https://www.curiousarchive.com/emilie-sagee-bilocation-doppelganger/ https://english.nepalnews.com/s/explainers/the-rise-fall-and-acquittal-of-nepals-buddha-boy-everything-you-need-to-know/ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and welcome to my Victorian nightmare. I'm your host, Genevieve Mannion,
0:09.1	and I'm here to talk about mysterious deaths, morbid fascinations, disturbing stories, and otherwise spooky events from the Victorian era.
0:19.6	Because to me, there's just something especially intriguing,
0:22.6	creepy, and oddly comforting about horror and mayhem from the 19th century. So, listener discretion
0:30.8	is advised.
0:46.2	Hello, friends, and welcome to this my 74th episode, which is a Yuletide episode.
0:57.0	I thought that I would get us all into the holiday spirit with an episode about terrifying origins of some very upsetting Christmas creatures and how they terrorized,
1:00.2	mostly children in the Victorian era. How's that sound?
1:10.0	I love horrible Victorian Christmas history. It is violent, it is ghostly, it's pretty threatening, and the Christmas cards that these folks cooked up are the most disturbing things that you'll see all year.
1:16.7	We are so lucky that so many of these terrifying seasons greetings have been documented and exist all over the internet.
1:25.7	Many of which I have been posting on the Instagram over the
1:28.3	last two weeks, so do treat yourself to some Christmas nightmare fuel and take a look at what the
1:34.1	Victorians were sending to each other to spread some holiday cheer. The link to today's post is in the
1:39.9	show notes. I posted one the other day. That's just a man who is broken through ice on a lake
1:46.5	and children are throwing snowballs at his head as he's reaching for dear life out of the
1:52.1	frozen water. It says with the season's greetings underneath them, it is impossible to
1:57.8	understand what in God's name they were thinking with some of these.
2:01.8	I do not have a single friend right now who isn't plagued with anxiety and stress, so I am
2:07.8	sharing loomy gummies with all of them. Consistent, mellow, and super delicious. Loomie gummies are
2:14.0	specifically designed to make you feel good, not stoned. Whether you're looking
2:18.8	for an end-of-day de-stressor, a midday mood boost, or help getting the best sleep ever,
2:24.4	loomy gummies has a strain that's right for you. I like to use their gummies specifically to help
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