Object Class: ᴋᴇᴛᴇʀ

Special Containment Procedures: Web traffic and law enforcement channels worldwide are to be monitored for evidence of SCP-4666 activity, and particularly for cases of stalking or reports of anomalous phenomena involving families with young children.

Should a Weissnacht Event be suspected to be in progress, the nearest Containment Task Force is to be dispatched to attempt containment of SCP-4666. Standard PDP/VIII Humanoid First Contact Protocols apply.

Media coverage of family deaths attributed to SCP-4666 is to be suppressed or falsified to make said deaths appear as non-anomalous home invasion murders. Forensic evidence and SCP-4666-A instances collected by non-Foundation agencies are to be confiscated, and witnesses amnesticized.

Description: SCP-4666 is currently believed to be a single, exceptionally long-lived humanoid entity of unknown origin. Survivors of Weissnacht Events typically describe SCP-4666 as a very tall (between 2 m and 2.3 m) elderly male of European descent, with an extremely emaciated appearance. The entity always appears completely naked, even when observed outdoors in freezing weather.

Though the nature and extent of its anomalous properties remain uncertain, SCP-4666 appears capable of instantaneous or near-instantaneous travel to any location north of 40°N latitude, and possibly to any location on Earth.

SCP-4666 activity occurs exclusively within a period of 12 consecutive nights every year, from the night of December 21-22 to the night of January 1-2; this period is known as SCP-4666’s “active phase”. During this phase, in what are termed "Weissnacht Events", SCP-4666 will appear at dwellings in one or multiple locations north of 40°N latitude. In all known Weissnacht Events, these dwellings have shared the following characteristics: isolated rural location, home to a family with at least one child under the age of 8, and situated in an area with snow cover lasting throughout the duration of the event.

Weissnacht Events consist of the following general progression:

Nights 1-7: Children will report seeing SCP-4666 in the vicinity of their family's dwelling. The entity will typically be observed watching the dwelling from a distance, such as from across a nearby field or from the edge of a neighboring forest. In some cases, children will report waking up at night to find SCP-4666 watching them sleep through a window.

Nights 8-11: Family members (including the parents) will report sounds of footsteps coming from the roof or the attic. An extremely unpleasant odor will also frequently be noticed inside the dwelling. No cause for these phenomena will be found. As a result, parents will often begin to suspect that their family is being stalked, or even that their dwelling might be "haunted".

Night 12: Over the course of the night one of two scenarios will occur:

The first, and most common, is that SCP-4666 will kill all members of the family save for one child under the age of 8, whom it will abduct. SCP-4666 will inflict incapacitating injuries to family members while they are sleeping, then herd them into a single room of the dwelling where it will proceed to kill them in view of each other. The method of killing varies with the event, and will typically be preceded by some form of torture, which appears to serve a ritualistic purpose (see "Weissnacht Events Log" below).
In the second scenario, which has occurred in roughly 15% of known Weissnacht Events, SCP-4666 will not harm the family. Family members will report hearing footsteps inside their dwelling during the night, though no signs of forced entry will be found. In the morning children will discover presents at the foot of their beds; these will consist of toys crudely crafted from the remains of human children (see "SCP-4666-A Instances Log" below).

The criteria, if any, by which SCP-4666 determines the outcome of a Weissnacht Event are unknown.