I think by now we're all pretty au fait with the concept of Krampus - and Krampusnacht celebrations - but the Sky History channel website has shared brief introductions to three other twisted, seasonal characters (Knecht Ruprecht, Belsnickel, and Père Fouettard aka Father Whipper aka Spanky) for inspiration and edification.
Climb down this chimney to find out more, then get to thinking how you could adapt these "monsters" to your roleplaying system of choice.
Of course, for those who can stomach such things (and this is definitely not one for the kiddies) if you want a genuinely shocking, contemporary tale of this time of year then you can do no better than checking out 2016's The Devil of Christmas.
This was the first episode (and Christmas special) of the third season of Inside No. 9, one of the U.K.'s finest anthology horror series.
This was my first exposure to the show and by the end I was thinking "what have I just watched?" (in a good way) and found myself compelled to stream the entire show, starting with the first season, on BBC iPlayer.