What If Everything We Believe About The Krampus Is Wrong?
Weird Darkness: Paranormal & True Crime Stories
Darren Marlar
4.6 • 4K Ratings
🗓️ 11 December 2025
⏱️ 61 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
IN THIS EPISODE: We’re all familiar with the poem “A Visit From St. Nicholas” – better known as, “Twas The Night Before Christmas”. But while we know the poem, we can’t be quite as sure about who wrote it. (The Christmas Poem That Started a Feud) *** One of the great (and now, sadly, lapsed) Christmas traditions is the telling of ghost stories. On one particular year, a British teenager took this pastime to a whole other level. He didn't read about a Christmas Eve haunting. He experienced one. (The Phantom Choir of St. Albans) *** The past few years have made Krampus, the Christmas devil, a star of the big screen. But have you noticed that every version of him is different than the others? This may of course be in part to creative license, but it might have just as much if not more to do with the fact that none of the filmmakers had any idea of just what Krampus truly is, what he is all about, and how terrifying he can be. (Krampus, The Christmas Monster) *** Disaster strikes a small Illinois town on Christmas Eve, stripping away all that was merry and bright for the families who lived there. (The Christmas Eve Mine Disaster)
CHAPTERS & TIME STAMPS (All Times Approximate)…
00:00:00.000 = A Monster Without a Past
00:01:44.770 = Show Open
00:03:40.217 =The Mine That Took Christmas From Moweaqua
00:12:02.466 = *** Krampus: We’ve Been Wrong About This Christmas Monster
00:30:16.273 = *** Did The Wrong Man GEt Credit for the Most Famous Christmas Poem?
00:50:38.898 = *** A Visit From St. Nicholas (‘Twas the Night Before Christmas)
00:53:48.557 = The Singing Ghosts of Saint Albans Abbey
00:59:32.026 = Show Close
*** = Begins immediately after inserted ad break
SOURCES AND ESSENTIAL WEB LINKS…
“The Christmas Eve Mine Disaster” by Troy Taylor: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p97f84v
“The Christmas Poem That Started a Feud” by Henry Litchfield West for Victoriana Magazine:https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/52y4uaan
“Krampus, the Christmas Monster” by Garth Haslam for Monsters Here & There: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/2p8r6ev4
“The Phantom Choir of St. Albans” from Strange Company: https://weirddarkness.tiny.us/ycxyzk7p= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = =(Over time links seen above may become invalid, disappear, or have different content. I always make sure to give authors credit for the material I use whenever possible. If I somehow overlooked doing so for a story, or if a credit is incorrect, please let me know and I will rectify it in these show notes immediately. Some links included above may benefit me financially through qualifying purchases.)
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"I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness." — John 12:46
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WeirdDarkness® is a registered trademark. Copyright ©2025, Weird Darkness.
Originally aired: December 09, 2021
EPISODE PAGE (includes sources): https://weirddarkness.com/Krampus
ABOUT WEIRD DARKNESS: Weird Darkness is a true crime and paranormal podcast narrated by professional award-winning voice actor, Darren Marlar. Seven days per week, Weird Darkness focuses on all things strange and macabre such as haunted locations, unsolved mysteries, true ghost stories, supernatural manifestations, urban legends, unsolved or cold case murders, conspiracy theories, and more. On Thursdays, this scary stories podcast features horror fiction along with the occasional creepypasta. Weird Darkness has been named one of the “Best 20 Storytellers in Podcasting” by Podcast Business Journal. Listeners have described the show as a cross between “Coast to Coast” with Art Bell, “The Twilight Zone” with Rod Serling, “Unsolved Mysteries” with Robert Stack, and “In Search Of” with Leonard Nimoy.DISCLAIMER: Ads heard during the podcast that are not in my voice are placed by third party agencies outside of my control and should not imply an endorsement by Weird Darkness or myself. *** Stories and content in Weird Darkness can be disturbing for some listeners and intended for mature audiences only. Parental discretion is strongly advised.
#Krampus #ChristmasMonster #ChristmasHorror #AustrianFolklore #KrampusLegend #HolidayHorror #ChristmasDevil #Folklore #CreepyChristmas #WeirdDarkness
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | In 2015, a new monster started to appear in American horror movies, a Christmas monster |
| 0:10.0 | named Cranpus. |
| 0:12.0 | The Cranpice's appearance varied from movie to movie. |
| 0:16.0 | Sometimes the creature was dressed like the Santa Claus of American lore. |
| 0:20.0 | Sometimes it was just covered |
| 0:21.4 | in long, white, shaggy hair, but it was always shown with an impressive set of horns |
| 0:27.7 | sprouting from its head. In the movies, there is seemingly no agreement about who or what |
| 0:33.8 | the crampus actually is, past the common details that the creature is horned, hairy, |
| 0:39.7 | and somehow associated with Christmas. |
| 0:42.3 | The reason for this large discrepancy of behavior is simple. |
| 0:45.8 | The authors of the movies knew very little else about the actual crampus themselves. |
| 0:52.0 | You see, the crampus was not a new monster. |
| 0:55.5 | Crampus is, in fact, a very, very old monster, and how ideas about this monster |
| 1:01.8 | managed to travel from its native Austria out to the rest of the world and eventually |
| 1:06.9 | to Hollywood in America is a complicated story. |
| 1:10.8 | What is depicted now in movies as the crampus is very different. Eventually, to Hollywood in America, is a complicated story. |
| 1:16.1 | What is depicted now in movies as the crampus is very different from how the monster started, or even how it is currently thought of in its native environment. |
| 1:21.4 | Many modern theories and fictional stories connect the monstrous crampus back to the religious |
| 1:27.0 | and magical figures |
| 1:28.2 | of the ancient European past. However, there's no actual evidence of this being true. So what |
| 1:35.8 | do we actually know about this creature's past? I'm Darren Marler, and this is Weird Darkness. |
| 1:44.5 | Welcome, Weirdo's. |
... |
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