SAINT NICOLAS OR SANTA CLAUS?      

Christian Orthodox church doesn't know about the institution of   Santa Claus. There are Saint Nicolas and Father Christmas, though. However, the institution of giving gifts for Christmas has roots in the antique rituals of celebrating Saturn from the 17^th to 25^th December when relatives gave each other candles or clay dolls. By taking Christianity, the institution of gifting was assigned to Saint Nicolas who lived in the 4^th century.

When in 336 celebrating of Christmas was officially introduced in Rome, in Europe there was a set of customs connected with the appearing of the new sun and renewing of the nature. Here's the origin of decorating the Christmas tree, which was an oak tree with the Slavs.

Here we come to three legends of Saint Nicolas. While he was a bishop in Little Asia, he heard of a nobleman so poor that his daughters couldn't get married. He felt sorry for the man and he was going three nights in a row to throw little bags full of gold coins through the man's window. That's why on some icons he was presented with three bags and is considered to be a protector of a family. According to the second legend, he's considered to be the protector of children. Dropping in an inn, he found out that the owner of the inn killed children, baked them and served their flesh to the guests. He went to the kitchen, made a cross across their dead bodies in order to bring them back to life and he punished the owner. According to the third one, he was considered the protector of sailors. While sailing to the Holy land, the ship was caught in a storm, threatening to get the boat drowned. Saint Nicolas prayed, made a cross across the sea, and the storm disappeared.

Orthodox Father Christmas isn't a Santa Claus that has his visualization. He isn't an actor or a character from fiction stories. He's  the Christ himself, Christmas itself The custom of giving gifts to children for Christmas can be connected with the gifts that were given to Christ by wise men.

Santa Claus came to Serbia with partisans, after the Second World War. Beside the fact that he doesn't have any religious meaning, he doesn't have any particular time when he gives gifts to children. He comes both before and at the very New Year night.