WARNING: The following article contains spoilers for the Chilling Adventures of Sabrina holiday special, "A Midwinter's Tale," available now on Netflix.

In its first season, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina wove together European folklore and assorted other beliefs to create a fascinating mythos for Greendale's witches. That continues in the holiday episode, which, in keeping with the season, embraces some of the spookier elements of yuletide tradition from Northern and Central Europe.

If you think Christmas is the perfect time for ghost stories, then Chilling Adventures of Sabrina has you covered. Likewise, if you prefer Jolly Old Saint Nick with a touch of the devil, the episode is right up your chimney, so to speak. But if you're curious about the folkloric influences on "A Midwinter's Tale," we can take care of that..

Yule Log

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: A Midwinter's Tale

At the heart of "A Midwinter's Tale" is the desire by Sabrina (Kiernan Shipka) to use the winter solstice as an opportunity to make contact with the spirit of her late mother, whom she briefly encountered in Limbo during Season 1. In the folklore tradition of some European cultures, the shortest day of the year is a liminal time, like Halloween, when the boundary between our world and the otherworld (whether that be of the dead or of the fairies, the two were often interchangeable) could be more easily crossed.

REVIEW: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: A Midwinter's Tale Is Your New Holiday Tradition

Although the ancient origins of the yule log remain up for debate, the insistence by Aunt Zelda (Miranda Otto) that it be burned by dusk to dawn on Dec. 21 to ward off spirits is certainly in keeping with ancient custom. In addition to warding off the winter chill, the log was thought to guard the home against witchcraft; its charred remains were kept to safeguard against everything from toothaches to house fires to mildew. So, when Mary Wardwell (Michelle Gomez) snuffs out the fire, she leaves the Spellman home vulnerable to an assortment of otherworldy threats (although we have to wonder what happened to the protective wards put in place in Season 1).

Yule Lads

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: A Midwinter's Tale

With the yule log no longer ablaze, Spellman Mortuary is effectively transformed into a haunted house, besieged by invisible, giggling spirits. Although Cousin Ambrose (Chance Perdomo) initially believes they're plagued by poltergeists, they prove to be Yule Lads, mischievous pranksters from Icelandic folklore. Although their numbers have changed over time, there are widely believed to be 13 Yule Lads who descend from the mountains beginning 13 days before Christmas, with one Lad each night doling out a gift or a punishment (say, a rotten potato) to a child.

RELATED: Why Cousin Ambrose Is On House Arrest On Chilling Adventures of Sabrina

While in modern lore the Yule Lads might steal household items, slam doors or harass livestock (each one has a favorite activity), in the past some were known to be less playful and more murderous -- even going so far as to eat children. The Yule Lads in "A Midwinter's Tale," described as the impish spirits of children come down from the mountains, don't actually harm any of the Spellmans, but there's clear indication that they might: baby Leticia is left in a preheated oven; kitchen knives are dropped from the ceiling around Aunt Hilda (Lucy Davis); and Ambrose is menaced by corpses in the morgue.

Gryla

Gryla on Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: A Midwinter's Tale

To rid their home of the Yule Lads, Zelda summons their adoptive mother Gyra, "a very dangerous witch" who has spent the past 1,000 witch seeking to replace the son she ate during a time of famine. In her original form, Gryla was a terrible giantess, or troll, from Icelandic myth who had an insatiable hunger for children, whom she would abduct and boil alive. She eventually devolved into a nursery bogey associated with Christmas. The mother of the mischievous Yule Lads, she descends from the mountains at Christmastime to sniff out bad boys and girls, and, yes, devour them.

RELATED: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Season 2 Gets Promo, Release Date

On Chilling Adventures of Sabrina, Gryla is still formidable, but she's been transformed into a fierce protector of children who, when she hears Leticia cry, senses that she's without a mother, and claims the baby as her own. Of course, Zelda later uses Gryla's protectiveness to their benefit, by putting her on the trail of a certain child-abducting yule demon.

Bartel

Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: A Midwinter's Tale

Krampus, the goat-like demon from Central European folklore, has enjoyed popularity in recent years in Western entertainment, starring in a half-dozen horror films and appearing on assorted television series. Usually depicted as a companion of Saint Nicholas, he's a shadowy figure who punishes misbehaving children, although his origins most certainly predate Christmas, and Christianity. For "A Midwinter's Tale," Chilling Adventures of Sabrina turns to Krampus' southern Austrian cousin (or perhaps merely southern Austrian incarnation), Bartel, but the effect is virtually the same.

RELATED: Chilling Adventures of Sabrina Was Made to Piss Off the #HimToo Movement

The holiday episode places a new spin on the fearsome figure, disguising him as the crotchety Mr. Bartel, who's played Santa Claus for years in Greendale. While Krampus and similar yule demons were known to beat bad boys and girls, toss them into streams or even abduct them to hell, each year Mr. Bartel quietly finds "the prettiest, the most special child to harvest," and transform him or her into one of the mannequins populating his Christmas display. Thankfully, he's no match for Gryla, and is turned into a different kind of holiday decoration.

Streaming now on Netflix, Chilling Adventures of Sabrina: A Midwinter's Tale stars Kiernan Shipka as Sabrina Spellman, Ross Lynch as Harvey Kinkle, Michelle Gomez as Mary Wardwell/Madam Satan, Jaz Sinclair as Rosalind Walker, Lachlan Watson as Susie Putnam, Chance Perdomo as Ambrose Spellman, Lucy Davis as Hilda Spellman and Miranda Otto as Zelda Spellman.