Krampus is back to menace the streets of San Antonio this Friday after the city’s first parade dedicated to the yuletide folkloric figure drew a crowd of 10,000 last year with its viral debut.
The inaugural event wasn’t without its controversy, though, as fundamentalists raised holy hell about the festivities and urged city leaders to shut them down.
However, as this year’s parade approaches, the critics appear to have fallen silent. At least for now.
San Antonio’s second annual Krampuslauf, or Krampus parade, will commence from historic German biergarten and halle Beethoven Männerchor at 7:30 p.m. on Friday. Lineup begins at 6:30 p.m., and a pre-party starts at 4 p.m.
The parade, much like such events held for centuries in Germany and Central Europe, celebrates a folkloric demon called Krampus who punishes wicked children by whipping them with a switch or carting them off to Hell in a basket.
Dubbing itself the “fastest growing and most unapologetic Krampuslauf in America,” the once-controversial San Antonio parade has seen little pushback this year despite last year’s cries that it would open a portal to hell.
On Black Friday of 2024, local fundamentalist groups held a press conference on the steps of City Hall, warning that celebrating the ancient yuletide tradition in San Antonio would bring natural disasters, rape and murder to the city.
But the parade came and went, the portal didn’t open, and thousands had a great time.
In fact, organizers delighted in the absurd idea of the portal, even creating merchandise around it and naming their website after the bizarre, apocalyptic warning.
Maybe, just maybe, San Antonio is settling into the reality that this annual tradition isn’t going anywhere, and it’s not hurting anybody.
Celebrating German culture
This year, the parade features a new, expanded route, now a 1.7 mile loop beginning and ending at Beethoven Männerchor.
The pre-party and after-party will also take place at bierhalle and community spot, a longtime hub of Gemütlichkeit (friendliness, cold drinks and good cheer).
Located at 422 Pereida , Beethoven Männerchor houses the oldest singing society in Texas and has served as a self-professed “guardian of German heritage” in San Antonio for 158 years.
“Beethoven Männerchor has always been dedicated to the preservation of German songs, music, language and culture in San Antonio, and Krampus is a big part of our German folklore,” Beethoven Männerchor Secretary and Treasurer Ken Weber said in a statement. “We’re happy to host the parade that brings Bavarian and Alpine lore to the forefront of San Antonio’s curious public.”
This year’s celebration is also a memorial for Beethoven Männerchor’s late president, David Uhler, a vocal supporter of last year’s parade who was quoted in the Current arguing that fundamentalist protesters, not the parade itself, were scaring kids in attendance. Uhler saw Krampus as a celebration of the German and Bavarian history he was so proud to preserve.
“David Uhler believed a night like this could bring fresh voices to the Beethoven once more, and on Dec. 5 we’re doing exactly that,” Krampus Parade Grand Marshal Bob Crittenden said.
The parade has moved from its previous after-party destination at Hermann Sons Rathskeller, the tiny German heritage bar that originally commissioned Crittenden to create a parade that led participants to its bar. Hermann Sons held the original Krampus Party in 2023, before Crittenden conceptualized the parade and the surrounding media storm turned it into a citywide sensation.
New digs for 2025
Hermann Sons, a bar that could only accommodate 200 revelers, was scheduled to host last year’s afterparty. However, it wasn’t prepared for 10,000 people to show up, and scores of revelers were turned away.
Though Beethoven Männerchor won’t be able to accommodate a crowd of 10,000 either, it’s substantially larger than the tiny basement bar.
Hermann Sons has also distanced itself from the parade following the onslaught of complaints it received over the event, according to people familiar with the situation. Over the past year, some members of the King William Association also sought to distance the organization from the neighborhood parade, even threatening to move it.
However, the relocation never happened.
It’s hard to imagine the parade anywhere but King William, a historically German neighborhood originally called Kaiser Wilhelm and jokingly referred to by San Antonians of yore as “Sauerkraut Bend.”
Krampus catches on
Krampus parades have been an Alpine tradition for hundreds of years, and more recently, organizers have begun staging them in U.S. cities, including New York, Seattle, New Orleans and Los Angeles.
Certain things have always been true about Krampus: he looks like the devil, though the tradition traces back to pre-Christian pagan roots. Since the dawn of Catholicism, the folkloric baddie has worked in partnership with St. Nicholas to ensure boys and girls are on their best behavior. And he always prowls the streets Dec. 5 in celebration of Krampusnacht, the eve of St. Nicholas Day.
“At its heart, Krampus is a gentle reminder that even mischief has its price, wrapped in horns and holiday cheer,” Krampus Parade Grand Marshal Crittenden explained. “This year, over 300 marchers are carrying that old Alpine story forward.”
For this year’s San Antonio parade, the number of participants have doubled, now including 31 krewes and 300 Krampuses.
But without the controversy whipping the city into a frenzy, the size of this year’s crowd remains to be seen.
Since the whirlwind of last year, the parade has matured, and maybe the city has as well. Throughout the year, parade organizers kept the folkloric demon in the local zeitgeist with public appearances including the Current’s Best of San Antonio party. They also celebrated their first foray into Fiesta with a pachanga introducing Krampus’ local primo, the Devil in the Dancehall — who goes by “Kiko” to his friends.
This is just one way in which San Antonio Krampus Parade is carving its own path, both honoring ancient traditions and creating new traditions that are uniquely its own and puro San Antonio.
And though this new tradition is only two years old, the celebration that blends Mexican-American and German folklore fits the city like a stuffed Christmas stocking.
It’s as if Krampus has been here this whole time — at least in our nightmares.
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