Krampus

We always want to do Christmas right. Last year, we posed for pictures with the delightful Hipster Santa, complete with a man-bun, a Christmas cardigan, taxidermy and a bicycle. Now that we live in Pittsburgh, we want to find those Christmas traditions that are very Pittsburgh. So on Krampusnacht we headed to Market Square so that Jasper could meet Krampus!
Krampus comes in the evening on December 5 to Germany to punish bad children, and he was making a special visit to Pittsburgh.  To our surprise, we discovered many "Krampi", in wildly different but consistently fearsome costumes. When we arrived, they were cavorting around the square. Soon St. Nicholas rounded them up and paraded them around the square. At the end of the parade, St. Nicholas and several of the Krampuses jumped onstage and began to play death metal versions of Christmas carols. I'm not a death metal fan but I found them oddly uplifting! Other Krampuses roamed around allowing admirers to take selfies. It was great fun!