• Knecht Ruprecht, a figure in Germanic folklore, is often depicted as traveling with Santa Claus?

Facts on topics related to Knecht Ruprecht

Christmas Day

• Robert Louis Stevenson donated his birthday, by formal deed, to Henry Clay Ide's daughter, Anne, because she was born on Christmas Day?
• in 1937, Harry Osman was the last footballer to score a goal on Christmas Day at Southampton's The Dell stadium?
• the world's first all-electronic television receiver was demonstrated on Christmas Day, 1926 by the Japanese researcher Kenjiro Takayanagi?

Christmas

• Christmas is traditionally celebrated in Agnone, Italy, with a torchlight parade known as Ndocciata? (2006 event pictured)
• Ludwig I of Bavaria was inspired to commission the Court Church of All Saints (pictured) in the Munich Residence after attending Christmas mass at the Palatine Chapel in Palermo?
• Mayor Tom Weisner once considered outlawing untimely holiday decorations, when citizens of Aurora, Illinois, complained of Christmas decorations abounding during the summer?
• Chrissy Snow from the American sitcom Three's Company was actually named "Christmas Snow"?
  
• Doctor Who spoofs range from a 1964 novelty Christmas single by the Go-Go's called "I'm Gonna Spend My Christmas With A Dalek" to two sketches on Saturday Night Live?
• Hugo Jaeger's personal collection of photographs includes colour shots of Adolf Hitler on a cruise in 1939 and of the Nazi leader attending a Christmas party in 1941?
• Tirggel, traditional Christmas cookies from Switzerland, are said to have originated as pagan offertory cakes, cut in the shape of sacrificial animals?
• collecting Toyon branches for Christmas became so popular in Los Angeles, California in the 1920s, that the state passed a law forbidding collecting?
• in the Catalan region of Spain, a Caganer is often tucked away in some corner of a Christmas Nativity scene where he is not easily noticed, because he is defecating?
• shortly before Christmas 1942, an alleged Nazi spy was captured by the Garda in Castletownroche, a small Irish village?