Where I live it's not Santa who comes to your home on Christmas, but the "Christkind" (=the infant Jesus), often pictured as an Angel with a golden aura and hair and a white dress. But we celebrate another holiday besides Christmas which is called "Nikolaus"-Day. Like Santa, Nikolaus is an old, tall man with a long white beard and a jute sack in which keeps presents for all good children. It's celebrated on the 6th of December and you usually get your boots full of sweets and things like that. Nowadays Nikolaus is dressed in a red gown (like Santa) but traditionally he was a bishop so he was dressed in white with a bishop's cap.

The first time I remember being told about Nikolaus coming to our house I must have been about 5 years old. I clearly remember that day, because I was really really scared since Nikolaus had a grumpy old helper called "Knecht Ruprecht" who hid bad children with a birch. Isn't it mean to tell children something like that? I mean, which child is always nice and well-behaved? I even had nightmares about Knecht Ruprecht.

I'm sorry if I told you things you already knew, but I'm not sure if Nikolaus and Knecht Ruprecht are known in other countries, too, or if there's even a holiday on the 6th of December.

the tale about Nikolaus is actually better than the one about Santa