Krampus is Back for Another Day of Scares

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Photo Credit: Joe Dean

Three Minnesotans clothed in long-haired goat pelts and wearing intricate wood-carved masks stalk through the UW-Milwaukee Student Union. In front of their pointy ears, long curved horns sprout from their foreheads. Each mask holds a signature ghastly look, from a fixed gaping mouth bearing pointed teeth to one with a permanent grimace. Yet, despite their terrifying appearances, with their bells clanking as parade around the union, attendees, instead of running in fear, come to them with phones and cameras in hand.

“They were like The Beatles,” says Tea Krulos, the founder and organizer of the Milwaukee Paranormal Conference and Milwaukee Krampusnacht, “everyone was mobbing them to get their picture.” In 2016, after seeing information about the Bavarian and Austrian legend of the half-devil, half-goat Krampus circulating online for years, he reached out to the Minnesota Krampus group to ask them to come to the first Milwaukee Paranormal Conference.

Tea had not only noticed pictures and information from the likes of artists like Monte Beachamp about Krampus, but he also saw other cities that were having Krampus-related events from Bloomington, Ind., to New Orleans, La. “This was really strange to me,” says Krulos, “that a city that is famously founded by Germans doesn’t have any sort of Krampus celebration.”

After seeing the interest in Krampus at the Milwaukee Paranormal Conference the next year, he set out to create the first Milwaukee Krampusnacht at the Lakefront Brewery. Krampusnacht is a tradition dating back more than 500 years; it was created during the Lutheran reformation where Krampus, a pagan creation, was set up as a companion to St. Nicholas and would beat or steal children as punishment for particularly bad behavior the day before St. Nicholas Day, Dec. 5. For Krulos, though, Milwaukee Krampusnacht isn’t necessarily just a German cultural event. It is a fun holiday event for everyone, no matter the age, no matter the culture or religion. The event gives a chance for attendees to bring their own mythical figures from around the world to the celebration, and as one attendee told Krulos, “Krampus is the spice which balances out the sugar” of the often-saccharine holiday season.

Starting Out

Around the same time the idea of Milwaukee Krampusnacht was stirring around Krulos’ head, another group that would eventually become Milwaukee Krampus Eigenheit was organizing over a Facebook group. Rob Schönecker, founder of the Milwaukee group, ex-marine and retired Milwaukee firefighter, had an interest in buying a traditional Krampus costume for years after speaking with members of the Minnesota Krampus group at German Fest. After obtaining a used Austrian Krampus mask and new goat pelts, he was ready to play the part. Krulos eventually approached Schönecker about the idea, and now with Krampuses at his disposal, Krulos started planning Milwaukee Krampusnacht 2017.

Along the way, Izzy Jaecks joined the group and was eventually made the president of Milwaukee Krampus Eigenheit. With a background in leatherworking, Jaecks was able to construct the first iteration of her costume out of Harley Davidson saddlebags and faux-fur in the last three months before the scheduled Krampusnacht. Jaecks says she comes from a family “that gets things done on our own; you need something, you make it yourself.”

As Krampusnacht was on Tuesday that year, Krulos was able to make a deal with Lakefront Brewery. In exchange for using the venue for free, he was going to bring a lot of people to the bar on an otherwise slow day. The brewery accepted at first, but they called Krulos in, sometime later, for a meeting to ask him some questions. “I was watching a video on YouTube... I was wondering: Are you going to be shoving children in bags and hitting them with sticks?” asked one of the employees of Lakefront Brewery, Krulos laughed and said, “No.”

This is just one of many aspects that Krulos says has changed during the Americanization of the event. “It’s evolved,” says Krulos. “Our Krampusnacht celebration is based on that tradition, and we try to capture the spirit of it, but it’s an event that’s happening in Milwaukee in 2019.”

The first Milwaukee Krampusnacht initially expected to bring in a couple hundred attendees. Instead, the Facebook page made for it quickly blew up and got thousands of responses. The demand was so high that tickets had to be cut off at 500, Lakefront Brewery’s maximum capacity.

Since the success of Milwaukee Krampusnacht 2017, Krulos has continued to work with now 20 performers in Milwaukee Krampus Eigenheit and now hosts the event at the Bavarian Bierhaus. This year’s Krampusnacht boasts a wide number of events and activities, including live music, a KinderKrampus parade where children will make their own Krampus masks and show them off around the Bierhaus, a vendor hall selling ceramics, original artwork, Christmas tree ornaments imported from Germany and more. In addition, for the second year in a row, Milwaukee Krampusnacht will be teaming up with Toys for Tots for a toy drive.

All of this will lead up to the Krampus Parade where members of Milwaukee Krampus Eigenheit and others will don their costumes for characters like Krampus, St. Nicholas, various Angels and much more. Krulos even mentioned that he expects and encourages to see similar characters and traditions like Krampus at the event—like the Yule Lads from Iceland, who are mountain-dwelling pranksters, and Mari Lwyds from Wales, whose costume is made up of a horse skull on a stick with a white sheet to cover the wearer.

Resurgence of Krampusnacht

“Oh my god, what is that?” mutters a passing woman in a café, seeing Jaecks’ mask on the table. Unlike other Krampus masks, it’s more animalistic, resembling a pig with a ram’s horns, with a long, red tongue hanging from its gaping mouth. Black leather makes up the face, and two ears stick out from the head between black goat fur that covers the rest. Jaecks mirrors the mask with a top hat with two spiraling horns emerging from the brim in-between tufts of hair. 

“I think [right now,] there is an emphasis on crafts and traditions in general where people are caring more about the simple things in life. People want to get back to something that’s more visceral, so a pagan tradition like Krampus fits into that,” says Jaecks about the event and the resurgence of Krampus.

“It’s old school fun,” says Schönecker, sitting beside Jaecks, casually dressed in a t-shirt that displays his tattoo sleeves. Schönecker, as amateur woodcarver, says he loves “the art of [mask making].” In an age of hyper-consumerist spending during the holidays, it seems that all three could agree on the need for a stress-free, fun holiday event for everyone.

“It’s an interesting mix of people, everyone from heavy metal kids, to a 90-year-old woman named Erma who remembers being told about Krampus when she was a young girl growing up in Austria,” says Krulos, though he does advise parents of young children to look up videos of Krampus parades if they are unsure about bringing them along.

On Thursday, Dec. 5, Krampus—or rather, many Krampuses—will once again roam the halls of the Bavarian Bierhaus, maybe stealing a beer from you, posing for a picture or tossing your kid around if they aren’t too scared. If the successes of the past event are proof of anything, it will hopefully be another scary fun time at Milwaukee Krampusnacht 2019… You just better hope you haven’t been too bad.

Krampusnacht takes place on Dec. 5 at the Bavarian Bierhaus, 700 W. Lexington Boulevard, Glendale. For more information or to purchase tickets, visit milwaukeeparacon.com/krampus.