The Icelandic Yule lads

The Christmas season in Iceland is filled with peculiar traditions. One of the most interesting ones is that Iceland has 13 Santa’s or Yule lads as they are also commonly known.

The first mention of the lads appeared in a 17th century poem where they are described as evil trolls who are especially hostile towards children. With the centuries their image began to soften and instead of monstrous creatures the lads turned into pranksters who enjoy playing tricks on people. At first there was confusion about the total number of the Yule lads, but in the end it was decided that they should be 13. Christmas in Iceland also lasts for 13 days, from December 24th to January 6th.

In the 20th century the lads became more influenced by the more conventional red-clad Santa Claus and around the 1930’s they started to bring gifts for well behaved children. The children would put their shoe in the window and each night one of the 13 lads would come in the night and slip a small gift into the shoe. If the children had behaved badly they ran the risk of getting a potato. This tradition has remained strong to this day.

Despite their modernization the lads still live in the mountains. They have also kept their descriptive Icelandic names such as Hurðaskellir, “Door-Slammer”, who goes around slamming doors and disrupting people’s sleep. Another one is Þvörusleikir, “Spoon-licker” who loves nothing more than stealing wooden spoons and licking them.

The Yule lads’ parents are also an important part of Icelandic folklore especially their mother, Grýla, who unlike her 13 sons has still kept her terrifying image of abducting misbehaving children and eating them.

Click here to read more about Christmas in Iceland

Holiday sale on Starmon mini start-up kit

To celebrate the festive season Star-Oddi is running a special offer on Starmon mini logger kit. 

The kit includes the Starmon mini temperature recorder (in plastic housing), communication cable and the SeaStar software, all for the price of €375*.

Since its release 10 years ago, Starmon mini has been preferred by oceanographers world-wide due to its reliability, accuracy and durability. Internal battery is replaceable.

Offer is good through January 15, 2011.

For more information, please contact us at star-oddi@star-oddi.com. See Starmon mini technical specifications.

*Some exclusions apply

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Star-Oddi has been manufacturing and developing DSTs since 1993. The data loggers are used for various studies, such as fish tagging, fishing gear studies and oceanography. You can find our whole product range here. The following sensors are available:

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