In Icelandic folklore, the giant cat that eats people without new Christmas clothes is Jólakötturinn, the Yule Cat.
The name literally means “Christmas Cat,” and the creature is imagined as an enormous, frightening feline roaming the snowy countryside around Christmas. In the best-known version of the tale, anyone who has not received at least one new item of clothing before Christmas Eve risks being eaten.
The story is linked to Iceland’s older wool and farm economy. New clothing could signal that a person had worked productively through the year, while the threat of the cat encouraged children and workers to finish wool-processing tasks. The legend therefore combines a supernatural warning with a practical lesson about labor and winter survival.
Jólakötturinn is often connected with the giantess Grýla and the Yule Lads, but it is not the same creature as either. Grýla is an ogress associated with eating naughty children, while the Yule Lads are thirteen mischievous Christmas visitors. Modern Icelandic Christmas decorations have made the Yule Cat one of the country’s most recognizable holiday monsters.