In Belgium and the Netherlands it's Sint-Nicolaas (Sinterklaas) who brings the presents on December 6th. Christmas does have a Santa Claus (Kerstman) because of modern culture, but you'll mostly see people gifting presents themselves, instead of Santa gifting them.
Yep, these are the Dutch /Flemish names but Wallonia (south Belgium) has the same in French : Saint Nicolas, who brings gifts to kids on Dec 6, and Père Noël at Christmas (but he isn't as present, and christmas tends to be the family gathering meal and gifts exchange between humans, rather than from the magic winter dude.
Olentzero is no ordinary old man that brings presents to kids on Christmas, he's a charcoal burner that is also a Jentil, a giant in the Basque mythology.
He was originally a pagan, but some say he stayed behind and converted to chrisitanism when he saw Jesus about to be born, while the other jentilak escaped. Other less favorable interpretations say he converted and betrayed the rest of the jentilak, showing the people their locations so they could be killed.
All these are modern interpretations for Christmas because afaik originally he was supposed to be somewhat evil.
He is also shown as a shepherd, although Jentils would naturally be shepherds I guess. Also another clarification, Gentile are not just giants, but ancestors of Basque people that did not descend from mountains and forests and thus didn't get civilised and shrink.
A note on Deda Mraz/Дед Мороз - these days it's 100% conflated with Santa Claus, with the red robe and reindeer. If there is any old Slavic tradition there, it's been completely lost.
But they were all of them deceived, for another gift giver was the real one, in the lands of humanism, where the seculars live, in the fires of reality, there it was known that the true gives of gifts and indeed gifts themselves, were our fellow mortals.
Happy holidays everyone! May your days be merry and bright and thank you for being such a great community Lemmy!
Well not exactly. Yule and similar words are used as the word for Christmas in Scandinavian languages but it used to refer to a non-christian tradition. Scandinavian countries are generally not very religious and I personally don't like the association of yule with christianity.