Kallikantzaros

The Kallikantzaros are bad winter goblins from Greek folklore. They spend most of the year living deep inside the earth, and they emerge during winter. When they appear, its often believed to be during Winter Solstice, while the season is darkest. Once they emerge from underground, trouble starts! They will hang around on the surface until the sixth of January, or at Epiphany as the days gradually get longer. While they're out and about, they cause many types of damage and mischief. It's believed that while they're spending the rest of the year underground, they're not asleep at all, but trying to cut the roots of the World Tree that keeps everything together using a great big saw. They're described as nocturnal dark shadowy looking creatures with long tails. It's said that they're blind, and they eat small animals like worms, frogs and slugs. The Kallikantzaros speak with a lisp, although they fear fire, holy water and sunlight. They can spread havoc wherever they go. Able to pass down chimneys, they can also find a way to enter locked houses by just sliding into cracks, under doors, windows and squeezing through keyholes. They enjoy stealing food, making a mess, noisy and breaking things. Regarded as stupid and unable to count, so people use this to protect themselves from the Kallikantzaros. 

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A Little Match Girl

"A Little Match Girl" is an 1845 story by Hans Christian Andersen. It's one of the most darkest and saddest fairy tales for children and it's set during Christmas time. The story setting is midwinter and it's snowing heavily. While everyone is making ready for the holidays, just one girl is suffering outside in the cold. The only thing that keeps her warm is a box of matches. She was supposed to sell it but as the weather was too cold, and she had nowhere to live, so she lit one match at a time to keep warm until they burned out. Each match she lit, gave her visions of a cooked meal, a warm room, a sparkling indoor tree full of decorations and gifts. People ignored her as this was going on. She saw a shooting star and understood it meant someone had died. She remembered being told this by her grandmother, the only person who ever loved her but who had died a long time ago. She lit a match and saw a vision of her loving grandmother, which made her so happy that she lit all the other matches to keep the vision lasting longer. Then the grandmother lifts her up and holds her, carrying her away. It wasn't until the end of the story that we find out the girl had died of hypothermia. This story is a grim reminder of misery and poverty that innocents have suffered.

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Jack Frost

This is an English folklore about Jack Frost, which is actually a figure that brings cold, winter and ice itself. He's a type of elemental being, a nature spirit and a member of the faerie folk. He turns lush green leaves dry, brittle and brown. He ends the lives of flowers. He puts icicles and frosty particles everywhere, turning it cold and dead. He brings the deathly chill that kills fruit, crops and wildlife. Animals have to find various ways to hide from Jack Frost. In legends, poems and films, he's either a friendly being or a scary entity. He covers windows in fern like frost, bringing the dense cold air to bite at fingers. Some people used to think he carried a paint brush to colour the green leaves red, brown and yellow. The origins of Jack Frost derives from Anglo Saxon and Norse stories, but the Finnish also have a story about him. It's believed that he's a similar character to Old Man Winter, who didn't just bring the cold but also brought famine due to cold ruining harvests as well as winter related illnesses. He's believed to look like a  tall man with a pale blue complexion, white hair and bright blue eyes. He's depicted as dressed in white clothes covered in leaves. He carries a staff made of wood similar to a shepherd's crook or a wand.  

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White Witch

One of the most evil characters in children's fantasy is the White Witch from the Chronicles of Narnia book series by C.S. Lewis. The White Witch is responsible for bringing endless winter in the world of Narnia, making everyone's lives miserable. That winter period lasted for a hundred years. It was also her nature to ban the celebration of Christmas and Yuletide. Anyone that dares to do so are turned to stone by her. The White Witch has allies, in the form of monsters and dangerous wolves that make up her police. Those who serve the White Witch include demons, dwarves, wraiths, hags, ogres, werewolves, giants, gigantic bats, ghouls and other scary creatures. Originally she didn't come from Narnia itself. She was from another world called Charn and her name was princess Jadis. She came from a family of tyrants and a war broke out. During a war with her sister, she invoked a dark spell so that everyone and everything on Charn would die, except for herself. Then she ruled an empty world alone as the last queen of Charn. Later she entered a sleeping spell and was woken by children from Earth who entered by a portal. Jadis ended up at Narnia where she attacked Aslan the Lion, and sought to control the world. Her cruel winter tyranny doesn't last when four children enter Narnia from Earth through a wardrobe in "The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe". 

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Wendigo

One of the most frightening monsters associated with winter is the Wendigo. Described as a half dead looking creature without eyes. Its a giant in stature, which could be up to 10 feet tall, reaching up to the pine trees! It gives off a nasty odour that reeks of decay. It is humanlike in form but later versions added horns and antlers on its head! The appearance may vary in different places across the Americas. This creature is from Native American folklore, and is much linked with famine, the severe cold, greed and cannibalism. Its heart if made of ice. The wendigo eats human flesh, leaving traces similar to frostbite, it can also create frost damage to the body. It can invoke feelings of anger and cannibalistic cravings during winter famines. Also described as an evil spirit. According to the Ojibwe People's Dictionary, the wendigo is a "winter cannibal monster". It's got missing cheeks and lips after eating itself! The wendigo is said to prey on humans, especially children. Some believe the wendigo can possess people, and they eventually become full of hate and cannibalistic, their bones turn to ice. They can either be cured by drinking heated fat from a bear or they can be killed. The winter has driven some people to commit terrible murders and cannibalism so that there is a term in psychiatry called "wendigo psychosis". In modern times, the wendigo has been portrayed as a nicer looking deerlike ghost instead of a rotting giant corpse. Despite all of its evil reputation, the Athabaskan people regard the wendigo as owning ancestral wisdom.

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Mount Everest

One of the creepiest locations is Mount Everest, the biggest mountain on Earth. Besides it's breathtaking beauty from a distance, it's actually a very haunted place. Mount Everest is a graveyard littered with corpses. There are so many people hoping to climb the treacherous mountain that they end up passing away in severe conditions without being fully equipped. Even those prepared and experienced with mountaineering have died on this grim mountain. One of the corpses is nicknamed "Green Boots" and is used as a landmark for climbers and travellers. Some people have taken selfies beside the famous corpse, and one person died sitting next to Green Boots. Besides the countless dead, many of which are unidentified, there are supernatural legends. Often ghosts and shadow figures have approached climbers begging for food. Some believe those are the lost spirits of those who perished on Mount Everest. Besides eerie wandering phantoms, there have also been unusual flying objects or winged creatures seen there. The most well known mystery of all is the Yeti monster, described as looking like a large hairy apelike being covered in dark or white fur. The local Sherpa people have cultural beliefs of the mountain and value it as a sacred site. To them it's as though the endless tourists and climbers have disturbed the place. Also many sceptics believe that the paranormal sightings could be down to hallucinations being at a high altitude.

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