In the Franche-Comté area of France, Tante Arie descends from the mountains on Christmas Eve bearing presents for good children and switches or dunce caps for the wicked ones.
She sometimes appears as an elderly woman in traditional dress, accompanied by her donkey Marion. In this form she is said to be the reincarnation of Countess Henriette de Montbéliard (1385-1444) an aristocrat famed for her charity.
In other tales she is rather more daunting figure with iron teeth and the feet of a goose.