Christmas elves - but not quite Santa's work forces

Steinn Sigurðsson, the Icelandic blogger at Dynamics of Cats celebrates Yule the old-fashioned way: with yule elves:

Today is the 12th of december, and there are 13 days until christmas.
This means, of course, that the first of the yule elves came to town this morning.

As you know, Bob, there are thirteen of the Yule Lads, or jólasveinar, as we call them.
And they are not really elves, since their mother is a troll.
The childstealing, cannibal Grýla, of legend.

They come to town, one each day until christmas eve, and then leave in order, starting christmas day and finishing on the 6th of january.
They leave small treats or presents in the shoes of good children, if the kids know to leave their shoe out by the door or window. Strangely, our neighbour kids do not seem to have caught on to this, yet.
If you are naughty, you get a potato.

Their arrival is critical, since any child who is so naughty as to not get a single piece of clothing, candle or a game before christmas eve, will be eaten by jólakötturinn (the christmas cat - big as a house it is, silent, deadly).

That is cool.