Christmas Time with the Yuletide Lads

The belief in about the Yule Lads goes back to the olden days in Iceland. They are trolls who originally were known for making mischief and stealing things around Christmas time. This mischievous nature is reflected in their names, and starting on 12 December, the first of the lads or jólasveinar as they are known in Icelandic, will be coming to town.
Each day until Christmas day, for your entertainment we will be featuring one of these meddlesome folk.

The lads and their parents, Grýla and Leppalúði, were useful for scaring children into behaving themselves. "If you're not good, then Grýla will come and eat you!" The family pet, the Yuletide cat, was said to come and take all those who didn't get new clothes at Christmas. New clothes and shoes were a reward for having been obedient and hard-working throughout the year, and the lazy didn't get any, and so the cat took them.

Around the beginning of the 20th century, the modern Santa Claus appeared on the scene, and Icelanders became aware of the Scandinavian Julenisser, gnome-like creatures who were kind to children. The Yule lads began to develop into a mixture of Julenisser, Yule lads and Santa Claus. The modern Yule lads are funny old men with child-like minds and behaviour. They have retained some of their mischievous nature, although these days they have learned that they will usually get what they want if they only ask for it.

The change from mischievous trolls to kind gift-givers works quite well. All a child has to do is to put a shoe on the windowsill, and in the morning there would be a gift inside the shoe. If the child had been bad, there might be a raw potato instead. The origin of this tradition probably lies in the foreign custom of hanging up stockings on Christmas Eve, to be filled by Santa during the night.

But this wasn't all. The Yule Lads had always dressed in rags before, but to reflect their new image, they adopted the dress of Santa Claus: red trousers, red tunic, black boots and the classic red hat with white fur trimming. If you ever visit Iceland in December, chances are you will see these lads scampering about, entertaining children in shopping centres and generally having fun.

In the old days, the Lads would arrive one a day, for 13 days before Yule, and then leave one a day for 13 days after Yule. This is why Icelandic children get shoe gifts for 13 days before Christmas. Lucky them!