How many Yule Lads, according to Icelandic folklore, visit children in the 13 nights before Christmas? 13.
Icelandic folklore features 13 Yule Lads, or jólasveinar, who arrive individually during the 13 nights leading up to Christmas. Each has a different name and mischievous specialty, such as stealing food, slamming doors, licking spoons, or scraping leftovers from pots.
The figures are traditionally the sons of the mountain-dwelling trolls Grýla and Leppalúði. Older stories portrayed them as frightening pranksters who could menace or abduct badly behaved children. In modern Icelandic tradition they are more playful: children leave a shoe on a windowsill, and each visiting Lad may leave a small gift. A disobedient child may receive a rotten potato instead.
The Lads are not 13 versions of Santa Claus arriving together. They appear one by one, beginning on 12 December, and depart individually after Christmas, with the final departure on 6 January. Their number and personalities also varied in older regional storytelling before the modern set of 13 became standard.