Krampusnacht, Milwaukee's Most Paranormal Christmas Party

It's the most terrifying time of the year...

Santa Claus, St. Nicholas, Baby Jesus in the manger... Christmas is a wonderful time full of joy laughter, and monsters! What?! Why would Christmas have monsters?

Because not all little boys and girls will be good if you just show them the carrot...

...sometimes you need the stick.

And nobody has a bigger Christmas stick than Krampus, the Christmas Punisher.

You can read more about the history of Krampus here, because we've talked about him extensively over the years.  But to make a long story short, in Austria in the 19th Century, instead of just getting coal in your stocking if you were a bad kid, St. Nick brought along a demon who would tie you up in a sack and drag you to Hell. So, awesome, right?

I grew up near Milwaukee and our city is very influenced by the German settlers who came here in the mid-to-late Nineteenth Century (like my Allison and my great-great grandparents, I even just saw his Civil War Union Army papers. He came over from Germany, fought for Wisconsin in the war and THEN became an American citizen) and then started the breweries (Pabst, Miller, Schlitz) that literally made Milwaukee famous. One of those breweries was started by Jacob Best, whose son-in-law was famous Milwaukee ghost Frederick Pabst whose beer famously won a Blue Ribbon 1000 years ago and they're still bragging about it.

Anyway, there's still a beer named "Jacob Best" and it was the first one I ever tried when my father let me have a taste at a Thanksgiving party when I was a child and I promptly gagged and ran outside to spit it out. Here's there most memorable commercial from the 1980s.

And the area where Krampusnacht is held is called "Best Place" and it's at the old Pabst Brewery near downtown Milwaukee and yes, you can still get beer from Pilot Project Brewing which makes their beer in Milwaukee and makes special beers for Krampusnacht in particular. Every year I make sure to try it and every year it's amazing! This year, I might even have two...

Anyway, the first time I went to Milwaukee Krampusnacht wasn't even in a haunted capacity. One of the organizers, Tea Krulos, is the cousin of the drummer in my band, Sunspot. And we discovered he was a fellow weirdo while interviewing him for a podcast that we used to do where we would write a song every week about a paranormal topic. Tea started the Milwaukee Paracon in 2015 and he became an amazing Milwaukee ghost host shortly after (it's one of the reasons why we're the best ghost tour in most towns that we operate in... we hire people who know something their stuff) and then helped create this one of a kind Wisconsin event (the second biggest in the United States.) Parties always need music, so we were happy to provide some rock n' roll for the original Krampusnacht, which you as you can see in the picture below was a huge party (and even after staying out late and playing and partying, I remember working on the title track for our 2022 album, The Strangest Frequency, the next morning...)

For the past few years, one of my favorite parts  of course is the American Ghost Walks Krampusnacht Parade, which is a ton of fun and it shows off everyone's costumes... in 2024, it was led by our Madison Ghost Host with the Most, Lisa Van Buskirk, wearing a living Baron Samedi American Ghost Walks outfit, followed closely behind by me in the Cthulhu mask with my sister Allison as Krampus, and more of our family members representing three generations of Milwaukee weirdness and we are proud to be part of it.

Here's everyone getting ready for the Krampusnacht parade and it's wild to see everyone in costume. This is worth the price of admission right here (and you can purchase tickets right here...) Just to see everyone walking the Streets of Old Milwaukee together in the craziest Christmas costumes you can imagine.

There's stuff to do for the kids as well, with a Kids Krampus Hour kicking off the festivities and of course they'll go crazy in the vendors area where you can find unique Holiday gifts and even better, most of them are made by Milwaukee artisans. It really is a community event where the best of Brewtown comes together. I think we're all proud of the community and open-ness, and it's an honest-to-goodness testament to Cream City and its people.

This is also one of the only times of the year that you'll be able to get a ghost tour from my sister, Allison Jornlin, who started ghost tours in Milwaukee. She did all the original research, she put in all the work, she was the one asking hotel workers, waiters and waitresses, bartenders, and everyone else about ghost stories before the Discovery Channel made it cool. She is an amazing resource on paranormal in Wisconsin and you'll have access to her on the Milwaukee Krampusnacht Ghost Bus Tour (more details at the bottom of this post...)

Anyway, hope to see you at Milwaukee Krampusnacht this weekend, once again you can grab your tickets here. It's Milwaukee's most paranormal Christmas party and we here at American Ghost Walks, can't wait to celebrate with you again!