The Icelandic Yule Cat is the mythical animal said to eat people who do not receive new clothes before Christmas.
Known in Icelandic as Jólakötturinn, the Yule Cat is a gigantic feline in Icelandic Christmas folklore. The story traditionally warned people that anyone who failed to receive at least one new item of clothing by Christmas might be eaten. The threat encouraged household work and the completion of wool processing before the holiday.
The Yule Cat is connected with the folklore of the Yule Lads, but it is a separate creature. In modern retellings, the warning is often softened into a humorous explanation for the custom of giving clothing as a Christmas present.
The legend became especially prominent in written Icelandic tradition during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Its exact story varies, but the association with new clothes and Christmas remains its defining feature.