Russian Santa Claus originally had a pagan origin, because in Russia there were always frosts, and people in those ancient times deified natural phenomena. Therefore, in Russia, Santa Claus must have been, he personified winter frosts, freezing enemies, pests and ordinary people, with whom he was angry.

Ancient Santa Claus could not be fully kind, then many people suffered from the cold and even froze to death. Therefore, the pagan character was far from the modern kind grandfather with gifts. With the advent of Christianity, everything began to change, Orthodox priests and monasticism made a lot of efforts in order to wean the people from the old faith and superstitions. Gradually, the image of Santa Claus changed, became kinder and more festive.



Writers, artists and ordinary people have endowed Santa Claus exclusively light qualities... Santa Claus has become associated with the New Year, home comfort and generous gifts. But in the 1990s, our grandfather was threatened with oblivion.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, a steady tendency was formed to borrow cultural values, symbols and a variety of ideas from Western culture and lifestyle. Santa Clauses began to appear more often on New Year's holidays. It seemed that a few more years would pass, and Santa Claus would remain only in memories, and on New Year's Eve only American Santa Claus with a bottle of Coca-Cola would come.

Today, Santa Claus is not in danger, every New Year, the kind Russian Grandfather Frost comes to us. Now let's look at Soviet vintage photos from the 1980s and dream that year to come prepares for us.