Are you familier with our Yule lads?

Sausage Swiper, Spoon Licker, Pot Scraper, Window Peeper, and Candle Beggar – have you ever heard of those brothers? They are sons of two of the most hideous ogres ever known in Iceland, Grýla and Leppalúði. Actually they are thirteen altogether, and we call them Yule Lads.

In the thirteen days before Christmas the Yule Lads come down to the cities and farms from the mountains one by one – mostly to cause trouble – and return again in the same way on the days following Christmas. The first one is coming tomorrow, on December 12th, or to be precise, in the middle of the night, when the children are sleeping.

The Icelandic Yule Lads do have something in common with the more international Santa Claus though – at least some of them leave presents for children, but only if they leave a shoe out on the windowsill. Naughty children wake up only to find a potato in their shoe…

For further look at the Icelandic Yule lads - click here!