Looked this up. It's legit. The cat eating children without new clothes by Christmas was a warning against laziness. It comes from the reality that people who hadn't processed their wool into warm clothing by Christmas were likely to freeze to death over winter.
Discussion
I wouldn't be surprised if there is truth in the origins to it:
A cat finds a frozen corpse after a winter that's lean on rodent quarry and is found nibbling at it as it thaws.
gently, gently, i dont think stories can be reduced this way, made sense of this way, without it becoming a rather 'star systems slipping thru fingers' endeavor
