Video: Snowman Scares Holiday Shoppers

Scare Prank: Snowman Holiday Shopping Fun

California-based magician Rich Ferguson recently dressed up like a snowman whose sign keeps dropping. Not knowing there is someone standing in the snowman suit, holiday shoppers pick up the sign and attempt to place it back in the snowman’s hands, only to be be scared when it comes to “life.”

Video: Krampus

Krampuslauf Graz 2010

Krampus is the Christmas Demon of Germanic folklore whose job it was to punish the kids on Santa's Naughty List has been featured here before.

The Krampus is a holiday fixture that’s popular in the Germanic countries. Created to really enforce the whole “better watch out” Christmas ideology, the Krampus is the pure evil that must exist to balance out St. Nick’s pure goodness. Legend has it that when the Krampus discovers a bad-apple kid, he grabs the tot with his tongue, throws the kid in a sack, and takes them back to his home for dinner.

And while most people assume he is a better-left-forgotten relic of less gentle times (or less gentle places), he appears to be having a resurgence this year, being featured everywhere from Buzzfeed to FearNet to The Awl to NPR. He's getting a piece of the Christmas merchandise blitz and of course he has his own website. There is Krampus music and he even speaks in his own defense. And of course, he has a 'Folk Death Metal' band named after him.

But the biggest Krampus Kontroversy is the result of television's food maven Anthony Bourdain, who wrote and had animated a cautionary Krampus story for the holiday edition of his show, which was rejected by his bosses at the Travel Channel. Fortunately, you can still see it on YouTube. Happy Holidays!

Video: Krampus Parade

We Americans totally need to begin working the Krampus into our Christmas traditions - anything to make Christmas a little more like Halloween.

Gallery: Krampus

Image Credit Flickr User Rubber Slipper in Italy

Nope, that's not supposed to be the devil, or even that Tim Curry villain from Legend. It's the Krampus! According to the legend, the Krampus is the monstrous creature that accompanies St. Nicholas on his annual sleigh ride around the world in order to warn and punish all of the world's naughty children as St. Nicholas rewards the good children. He may only be one of St. Nick's many companions, but he is certainly the most frightening.

He gives those song lyrics a whole meaning: Oh You better watch out,  You better not cry,  You better not pout, I'm telling you why. Krampus is coming to town!