DETROIT – If you’re a fan of Theatre Bizarre and the Marche du Nain Rouge, you’re going to love Krampus Night.
If you don’t know, Krampus has been around for centuries, mostly in European folklore, as the balance to Santa. While Santa awards the good children with gifts, Krampus punishes the bad children. He’s usually depicted as a half-goat, half-demon.
The Krampus spirit has been in Detroit for the last 9 years with the annual Krampus Night Holiday-ish Charity Extravaganza that features a badly rehearsed holiday-ish variety show, festive-ish film shorts, the Naughty List Bazaar, bad gingerbread house competition, fugly sweater contest and, most importantly, a charity toy and food card drive for Toys For Tots and Burners Without Borders Detroit.
And added this year, a parade! It happened on Dec. 6, and it was an amazing turnout of costumed Krampus Night fans.
Uniquely Detroit’s Alex Atwell went to the first Krampus Night Parade -- watch his feature story in the video player above.