The Krampusse Parade

Next year when I'm planning our vacations I'm going to give some serious thought to finding a town that hosts a Krampusse (plural of Krampus) parade. The best parades are in Austria where they have been honoring the Krampus for hundreds of years.

There are a few places in the U.S. that have started having Krampusse parades. Philadelphia hosts Krampaslauf;  Bellingham, WA, hosts KrampusCon; Bloomington, IN, had a parade and festival this year too. It's still pretty rare, but I have hope that it will grow. I'm much too busy, but maybe you can start a parade in your town. I promise to attend- or at least blog about it.

I just want to put this thought in your head before the weekend: The Krampusnacht Festival in Klagenfurt, Austria. Most Krampus festivals take place around the time of our Thanksgiving vacation plus some so we can all head to Austria next year instead of to grandma's house!

Klagenfurt supposedly hosts one of the largest festivals in the region.  There is a wild parade and pub crawl with as many as 1,000 costumed Krampusse. Crazy! You can also start your Christmas shopping at the Christmas Market. It sounds wonderfully disturbing. Can you think of a better way to kick-off the season? 

And, just to sweeten the deal, there is a Krampus Museum less than 15 miles away in Suetschach. I have no idea what their website says, but you can ask your Austrian uncle to translate for you.