Nuuttipukki

On Nuutinpäivä, there has been a tradition a bit analogous to modern Santa Claus, where young men dressed as a goat (Finnish: Nuuttipukki) would visit houses. Usually the dress was an inverted fur jacket, a leather or birchbark mask, and horns. Unlike Santa Claus, Nuuttipukki was a scary character (cf. the Alpine Krampus). The men dressed as Nuuttipukki wandered from house to house, came in, and typically demanded household residents for food and especially leftover alcoholic beverages. In Finland the Nuuttipukki tradition is still living at areas of Satakunta, Finland Proper and Ostrobothnia. However, nowadays the character is usually played by children and now involves a happy encounter.

A Dialectical proverb from Noormarkku says: Hyvä Tuomas joulun tua, paha Knuuti poijes viä or "Good [St.] Thomas brings the Christmas, evil Knut (Nuuttipukki) takes [it] away."

By North Utsire