Fani Papalouka, Nikolaos Politis, and Haris Sakellariou collected variants of the story.
One day, the mother asked for one of them to go to the mill to grind flour; Marbo insisted on sending Kallo.
When they stole a fine dress for her, she said she needed other things, a coat, an umbrella, a comb, face powder, and anything she could think of.
The goblins of the title, the Kallikantzaros, live beneath the ground, trying to chop up the tree that holds up the earth.
When it is nearly down, they know it is Christmas and come up to make mischief; they are driven back down at Epiphany, when the Greek Orthodox priests bless the waters.