Are you familiar with our Yule Lads?

Illustrated overview of the 13 Icelandic Yule Lads with Grýla and Leppalúði, showing the date each lad arrives.

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, Stekkjastaur (Sheep-Cote Clod), arrives on the night of 12 December while the children are sleeping. The last one comes on Christmas Eve, and the final lad heads back to the mountains on 6 January.

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!