Mother Krampus

Three days before Christmas, the Engel family—parents Tom and Sarah, daughter Beth, son Max, and Tom's mother, whom the family calls Omi—prepares for the holidays. Despite his family's dysfunction, Max still believes in Santa Claus and writes him a letter with Omi's encouragement. Sarah's sister, Linda, brings her family and bulldog Rosie to come visit and stay for the holiday, along with their cantankerous Aunt Dorothy. This fuels tension, as Tom hates Linda's husband Howard, and Linda's children Stevie, Jordan and Howie Jr., don't get along with Max or Beth. When his cousins mockingly read his letter to Santa, Max attacks them and lashes out, yelling that he hates his family and Christmas. His father attempts to comfort him by telling him that even though the holidays are chaotic, he should always love his family. Despite his father's efforts to cheer him up, Max angrily tears up the letter and tosses it out his bedroom window. Later that night, a severe blizzard engulfs the town, causing a power outage. The next day, Beth ventures out to check on her boyfriend. A large, horned creature chases her. She hides beneath a delivery truck, but the creature leaves a jack-in-the-box, which seemingly comes to life and kills her. When Beth does not return home, Tom and Howard search for her. They find her boyfriend's house in ruins. Tom narrowly saves Howard from The Snow Beast, an unseen monster in the snow. They return home and board up the windows. That night, a living gingerbread man lures Howie Jr. to the chimney, chains him up and kidnaps him. The family tries to save him, but are distracted by a fire that burns down their Christmas tree. Omi explains that the creature hunting them is Krampus, an ancient demon who punishes those that have lost the Christmas spirit. When she was a child, her family lost their spirit due to the hardships of the war in Europe. She eventually lost hope and wished for everyone to be taken away, summoning Krampus. He and his helpers attacked her family’s village and dragged everyone (except her) to the Underworld, leaving behind a bell-shaped bauble with his name on it. The family remains skeptical of the story until the house is overrun by violent living toys that appear from presents Krampus left behind. Jordan is devoured by Der Klown, the same demonic toy that took Beth, who also seemingly eats Rosie. The family fends off the toys and more gingerbread men, until Krampus's minion elves leap in through the window, taking Howard and Dorothy, along with Linda's newborn baby, Chrissie. Tom leads the rest of the family to an abandoned snowplow on the streets, while Omi stays behind to face Krampus, who emerges from the fireplace and attacks her with his bag of toys. Outside, Tom, Sarah, and Linda are dragged under the snow by The Snow Beast that attacked Howard earlier while Stevie is captured by the dark elves. Krampus confronts Max and gives him a bauble wrapped in pieces of his discarded letter. Realizing that he was responsible for summoning Krampus, Max chases after the demon and confronts him at the edge of a fiery pit. Max begs to sacrifice himself to bring his family back. Krampus laughs and tosses Stevie into the pit. Max sincerely apologizes for losing his spirit, telling him he wanted Christmas the way it used to be, and Krampus, recognizing this as truth, tosses Max into the pit anyway. Max awakens in his bed on Christmas morning and discovers his family alive and well, concluding what happened was just a nightmare. However, after finding Krampus's bauble among the presents, the family exchanges troubled looks. Meanwhile, Krampus uses hundreds of enchanted snow globes in his underworld lair to watch the houses he has tormented, with the Engel family's among them.