From the Cave of the Yule Lads

My dearest …,

There are thirteen of us and we come down off the mountain one at a time, one each night, for thirteen nights. We are not good. We want to be clear about that at the start. But we are fair, and the name in the window tonight was .

You should know what you are dealing with. One of my brothers steals skyr. One slams doors at two in the morning for no reason. One licks the spoons. One just stands at the window and stares, which is honestly the worst of them. We each have exactly one bad habit and we are extremely committed to it.

And here is what that is really about, . Thirteen nights is a long wait, and waiting is the hardest thing anyone asks a child to do in December. So we break it into thirteen small pieces, and each morning there is one small thing in the shoe, and the enormous unbearable wait becomes thirteen bearable ones.

We heard about . Spoon-Licker wanted to leave you a potato as a joke. He was outvoted, but only just, so do check.

One of us will be back tomorrow,
and the one after that is worse —

The Yule Lads

Thirteen Brothers · Sons of Grýla

P.S. — Put the shoe on the windowsill, not by the door. We come in the window. We have always come in the window and we are not changing now.