The Kallikantzaroi of Mount Pindus

Deep in the Pindus mountain range, the kallikantzaroi are said to emerge from underground every year during the Twelve Days of Christmas (December 25 to January 6). These grotesque goblin-like creatures spend the rest of the year underground sawing at the World Tree that holds up the earth — but every Christmas they surface to wreak havoc on villages.

Shepherds in the Zagori villages of Epirus still nail iron horseshoes above their doors and burn a thick log continuously throughout the twelve days to keep the creatures away. A shepherd near Metsovo claimed in 2019 to have found strange three-toed tracks in fresh snow circling his flock.