Slovenia's stack of Santas
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Tiny Slovenia has not one, not two, but three Santa-like figures who bring children gifts over the festive season. Known as "the three good men," their coexistence is the curious result of a mixture of Communist and western Christmas traditions.
Before the arrival of socialism, the main winter holidays in large parts of the former Yugoslavia were the feast of St Nicholas on 6 December and Christmas on the 25th.
When Yugoslavia became Communist, the aethiest authorities sought to play down the former Christian holidays and promote the secular New Year holiday instead.
This meant out with St Nicholas and Božiček (Santa Claus), and in with Father Frost or Dedek Mraz, as he's known. This figure, based on Russia's traditional Father Frost, also has a long white beard and distributes presents, but wears a decorated grey leather coat and a round fur cap. Although originally from Siberia, when socialist Yugoslavia fell out with the USSR in the 1940s, he quickly found a new home on Mount Triglav - Slovenia's highest mountain.
Unlike in many former socialist states, where Father Frost was seen as a symbol of Communist oppression and quickly fell out of favour once the regimes fell at the end in 1989-90, in Slovenia he is still regarded with affection - perhaps because here he wisely adopted local traditions.
Nevertheless, since 1990 Father Frost has had to adapt to sharing the chimney with St Nicholas and Božiček, but he seems not to mind to much. In fact the "three good men" are on occasion even seen in public together, getting along famously. And the children of Slovenia are certainly not complaining either!
