Belsnickel
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Belsnickel (or Belschnickel, Belznickle, Belznickel) is a Pennsylvania Dutch mythical being who visits children at Christmas time. If they have not been good, they will find coal and/or switches in their stockings. The Belsnickel was a scary creature not well loved except by parents wanting to keep their children in line.
Belsnickel is also similar to Krampus in Austria and Germany.
Among some families of German descent, Bensnickle delivers socks or shoes full of candy to children on the feast day of St. Nicholas, December 6. St. Nicholas is purported to have enabled the three daughters of a poor man to pay the dowries for their weddings. The poor man couldn’t afford his daughters’ dowries so Nicholas came to the man’s house at night and sneaked three sacks of gold into the house thus saving the daughters from the indignity of a solitary life or prostitution.
