Have you seen those Yule Lads?

Four of the original 13 Yule Lads, photo taken around 1757

They have all sorts of funny names like Skyr-gobbler, Window-Peeper, Gully-Gawker, Meat-Hook, Spoon-Licker, and Door-Sniffer, their names describing their modus operandi over the Christmas Season, starting on December 13th.  Each one arrives in turn, leaving 2 weeks later, with the last one leaving on January 6th. I won't tell you here what kinds of mischief they have been up to over the centuries .....let me tell you, you DO NOT want to know what they have been up to!  Their parents are Grýla and Leppuleði, trolls who live in the mountains with their black cat.  Luckily for the rest of the world's children, the Jolasveinar are virtually unknown outside of Iceland. And we are happy for that!

Lately it has been rumored that these naughty guys are to blame for much of Iceland's economic woes and the parents of Iceland's most notorious banksters and politicians are now in the middle of a major identity crisis.

"We just thought they were rather harmless and had no idea they would have such dissastrous effects on the moral fiber of our children" lamented one parent.

In 1857, around the time a guy named Klaus from Finland was awarded the international "Best Choice Ever" for Santa Claus award, the Yule Lads noticed that they still had a ways to go if they ever hoped to compete for the pre-eminent role of Father Christmas in their latter years.  It has been very touch and go for them in this department as the kind and benevolent qualities of Saint Klaus have been a bit beyond them.  However, to their credit, we have noticed some changes over the years including the donning of the de-rigeur red suit and placing of gifts in children's shoes if they have been good.  They who? The Yule Lads or the children?  A profound question.

Here are two of them chatting together in a shop in Hveragerði where they were greeting customers and were overheard discussing the possibility of buying a much needed corset for their mother Gryla.

A few days before Christmas they came to our house!!!  These guys are still up to tricks and are seen here pilfering a type of sausage that they helped themselves to from the fridge, without asking mind you!

Can you believe these guys?  Taking our Christmas leg of lamb out of the freezer in hopes of making off with it without me noticing?

Hey!  That's our leg of lamb you got there! Note the sac bulging with canned goods which they are not bringing to us-- they are taking from us!

You see? I told you they are making progress in their moral development!  In a rare display of repentance they decided to give back everything except two candy canes  which they took from the Christmas tree.  They  also decided that putting it all back in the washing machine was of course the most logical place.

 

After doing summersaults, they are off in the rescue jeep.  That's the jeep that rescues them out of all their disgracefully un-Christmas like behavior.  However, like I said, they have made huge progress over the centuries so this is really not too bad compared to what they used to do several hundred years ago.

The last one, named Candle-Beggar, steals candles or at least used to when they were made of tallow, which is edible.  He must have been desperately poor to have to eat candles.....but that was then and this is now.  Really not sure what he does now with wax candles, but the good news is that he leaves on January 6th when we can all rest easy.....sort of.....until next year.