In just one week, Iceland’s Yuletide lads will start coming down from the mountains to cause mischief in all Icelandic homes. I’ll keep you posted as each arrives, but if you’re visiting Reykjavik before then you can see some of these Christmas creatures in various places around town – and if you note the location you can even enter the ‘Christmas Creatures of Reykjavik’ competition being run by visitreykjavik.is.

I spotted this Yuletide Lad pacing outside the bookshop/cafe on Skólavördustígur Street, with the lit up spire and clock of Hallgrímskirkja church visible to the right..

The creatures appear as animated projections on walls downtown, and are really rather cute, though the first one I saw gave me a bit of a fright when I was walking down Skólavördustígur and glimpsed the strange creature running along a wall beside me

Another place to spot Iceland's Yuletide Lads is on milk and cream cartons in the lead up to Christmas.