Most of Europe does Christmas the way you’d expect: a tree, a market and too much mulled wine.
Then there are the places where a horned devil chases you down the street, a log poops out sweets and a 13-metre straw goat keeps getting set on fire. These Christmas traditions sound made up. They’re all real, and you can see most of them on a winter city break.
Here’s where to find them, and when.
Most of Europe does Christmas the way you’d expect: a tree, a market and too much mulled wine.
Then there are the places where a horned devil chases you down the street, a log poops out sweets and a 13-metre straw goat keeps getting set on fire. These Christmas traditions sound made up. They’re all real, and you can see most of them on a winter city break.
Here’s where to find them, and when.
Who comes knocking
Krampus, Austria
In the Alps, St Nicholas doesn’t do his rounds alone. On the night of 5 December, known as Krampusnacht, he brings Krampus: a horned, hairy devil with a long tongue, rattling chains and a bundle of birch rods. St Nicholas rewards the good children. Krampus deals with the rest.
The tradition lives on in the Krampuslauf, or Krampus run, when groups in carved masks and shaggy fur charge through town centres ringing bells and trying to scare the crowd. You’ll find them across Austria, Bavaria, South Tyrol and Slovenia.
Salzburg is an easy place to see one. On 5 December 2026, runs are planned at the Christkindlmarkt at 1pm, on Linzer Gasse at 5pm and on Getreidegasse at 5.30pm, with more in the city’s suburbs from 20 November.
Stay behind the barriers. Krampus runs can get rough: in 2013, eight people ended up in hospital, most with broken bones, after several runs in East Tyrol.
The Yule Lads and the Yule Cat, Iceland
Iceland doesn’t have one Santa. It has 13. The Yule Lads are troll brothers who come down from the mountains one at a time over the 13 nights before Christmas, starting on 12 December. Their names tell you what they get up to: Spoon Licker, Door Slammer, Sausage Swiper.
Children leave a shoe on the windowsill each night. Good children find a small gift in it the next morning. Naughty ones find a rotten potato.
The rest of the family is worse. Their mother, Grýla, is an ogress who eats misbehaving children, and their pet, the Yule Cat, eats anyone who hasn’t got new clothes to wear before Christmas Eve. The stories got so frightening that in 1746, using them to scare children too much was officially banned.
In Reykjavík, you can meet the cat. Every Christmas since 2018, a five-metre Yule Cat lit by 6,500 LED bulbs has stood in Lækjartorg square, from mid-November until early January. Pack something new to wear, just in case.
La Befana, Rome
In Italy, the presents don’t stop at Christmas. On the night of 5 January, Epiphany Eve, La Befana flies in on her broomstick. She’s a kindly old witch who brings sweets to good children and coal to naughty ones, although these days the coal is usually made of sugar.
Rome’s version comes with a market. The Christmas fair in Piazza Navona is named after her, with stalls selling Befana dolls, nativity scenes, handmade decorations and wooden toys. In 2025–26 it ran from 1 December to 6 January, staying open until 1am on most nights, and its programme traditionally ends with the Befana’s arrival in the square on 6 January.
The Mari Lwyd, Wales
Wales has its own midwinter oddity. The Mari Lwyd, or Grey Mare, is a horse’s skull on a pole, decorated with ribbons and glass-bottle eyes, with its carrier hidden under a long white sheet. Its lower jaw sits on a spring, so it snaps shut with a loud clack.
Traditionally, the skull spent most of the year buried in lime and was dug up each December. A party carried it from door to door and challenged the people inside to a pwnco, a battle of improvised rhyming verses sung through the closed door. If the Mari won, it came in for refreshments, and its visit was thought to bring good luck.
St Fagans National Museum of History in Cardiff puts on free Mari Lwyd performances on December weekends. In 2026 they’re on 5–6 and 12–13 December, at 11am and 2pm on the Saturdays and 1pm and 3pm on the Sundays. For the full village version, Llangynwyd in Glamorgan still holds its Mari Lwyd at the Corner House pub on 31 December and on 13 January, the old Welsh New Year.
What goes up in flames
The Gävle Goat, Sweden
Every Advent since 1966, the Swedish city of Gävle has built a giant Yule Goat out of straw. The first was 13 metres tall and weighed about three tonnes. And almost every year, someone tries to destroy it.
Of the 60 goats built so far, 43 have been damaged or destroyed, most of them by fire. In 2001, a 51-year-old American visitor set it alight, claiming he thought burning it was a legal tradition, and spent 18 days in jail. In 2005, vandals dressed as Santa and a gingerbread man shot a flaming arrow at it. In 2016, it burned down just hours after it was unveiled.
Fire isn’t the only threat. In 2023, jackdaws pecked the goat to pieces, drawn by unusually high seed content in the straw. In 2025, Storm Johannes blew it over on 27 December.
Its webcam now has about 100,000 followers in 120 countries. The goat is unveiled on the first Sunday of Advent, which falls on 29 November in 2026. In 2025 it stood on Rådhusesplanaden while its usual square, Slottstorget, was being rebuilt, so check Visit Gävle for this year’s spot.
Catalonia’s toilet humour
Caga Tió, the log that poops presents
In Catalonia, one of the stars of Christmas is a log. The Tió de Nadal has a painted smiling face, a red barretina cap and a blanket to keep him warm. From 8 December, children feed him a little every night.
On Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, they thank him by hitting him with sticks while singing a song that starts “Caga tió!” – politely translated, “Poop, log!” Then someone reaches under the blanket to see what he’s left: sweets, nuts, turrón nougat and small toys, shared by everyone in the room.
The caganer, the pooper in the nativity
Look closely at a Catalan nativity scene and you’ll find an extra figure, tucked in a corner well away from the manger: a peasant in a red cap with his trousers down, doing his business. He’s the caganer, “the pooper”, and he’s been part of the scene since at least the 18th century. He’s said to bring good luck, and children make a game of finding him.
These days the caganer is just as likely to be a footballer, a politician or a royal. An Obama caganer went on sale days after the 2008 US election. When Barcelona’s council left him out of its official nativity scene in 2005, a “Save the caganer” campaign followed, and he was back the next year.
You can buy both at the Fira de Santa Llúcia, the Christmas market held in front of Barcelona Cathedral since 1786, where stalls sell tiós in every size next to rows of caganers. In 2025 it ran from 28 November to 23 December, 10am to 9pm, with a giant Tió for children under 12.
What ends up in the bath
A carp in the bathtub, Czech Republic
In the Czech Republic, the big Christmas dinner is on Christmas Eve, and the centrepiece is fried carp with potato salad. The fish usually starts out alive.
In the run-up to Christmas, stalls with tanks of live carp pop up on street corners. In 2023 there were nearly 3,000 of them across the country, more than 200 in Prague alone. The vendor nets your fish, weighs it and, if you like, kills it on the spot. Some families take theirs home and keep it in the bath until Christmas Eve, although officials now suggest leaving that last part to the professionals.
Don’t throw the scales away. After dinner, many Czechs tuck one or two into their wallets, where they’re believed to bring money in the new year.
The stalls stay open until 24 December, so visit Prague in the days before Christmas to see them.
One “German” tradition most Germans have never heard of
You may have heard that Germans hide a glass pickle in the Christmas tree, and the first child to find it gets an extra present. Most Germans would be surprised to hear it. In a 2016 YouGov survey of 2,057 Germans, 91% had never heard of the custom.
The Christmas pickle is mostly an American tradition. One popular theory is that it was dreamed up to help sell the German glass ornaments that Woolworth’s began importing in 1890.
Which Christmas tradition would you travel for?
A devil at the door, a cat that judges your outfit, a log that needs a beating before it hands over the sweets: Christmas in Europe is a lot stranger than the cards suggest. Dates change every year, so check local listings before you book.
Which one would you go and see? Tell us in the comments.
Fancy somewhere warmer? Read about the things in Sri Lanka that sound made up, and check the holiday rules that catch tourists out before you go. And pin this one for your winter plans.