A week after Santa Claus makes his rounds, children in Slovenia are visited by another jolly old elf: Dedek Mraz, or Grandfather Frost.
The origins of Grandfather Frost lie in the political situation of postwar Slovenia: After the Communists took power in 1945, St. Nicholas -- named after a saint -- was deemed an entirely inappropriate bearer of gifts. Therefore, the authorities decided to import Russia’s Ded Moroz and rename him Dedek Mraz.
But then a remarkable transformation took place. A Slovenian painter named Maksim Gaspari entirely redesigned the old man giving him a thoroughly Slovenian look. Grandfather Frost’s coat became adorned with traditional Slovenian patterns and he was given an old-fashioned dormouse hat, much like the one worn by Slovenian country people through the centuries.
Dedek Mraz even got a new home in Slovenia. Unlike Santa Claus with his workshop at the North Pole, it is said that Grandfather Frost lives in the wilds beneath Triglav, Slovenia’s highest mountain.
Through books, poems, greeting cards, and television, Grandfather Frost became an integral part of the holidays as celebrated in Slovenia. Even though he visited children on New Year’s Eve, he slowly replaced St. Nicholas in the imagination of the country’s children.
When Communism collapsed, some predicted the inevitable demise of Grandfather Frost as just another relic of a discredited regime. Unexpectedly, however, he managed to survive the turbulence of Slovenia’s independence and the arrival of Santa Claus from the West. Many parents continued to prefer a genuinely Slovenian bearer of gifts to a generic, globalized elf made famous by Coca-Cola advertisements. Besides, Dedek Mraz had become an established part of Slovenian popular culture.
Today, three bearers of gifts make their seasonal rounds in Slovenia. The old-fashioned St. Nicholas visits children on St. Nicholas’s Day on December 6, Santa follows him on Christmas Day, and Slovenia’s own Grandfather Frost caps off the festive season on New Year’s Eve. Despite some good-natured competition between the three bringers of jollity, many Slovenians believe that all three can coexist – a sentiment certainly shared by Slovenia’s children.
