A picture of Ded Moroz, also known as Father Frost.
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Origins

Ded Moroz (known as Father Frost in his early years) is from Slavic lore and is kind of a merger of multiple legends. Father Frost was a mean wicked sorcerer who enjoyed freezing people. Ded Moroz’s was described as wearing a blue coat so he wouldn’t be confused with Santa Claus, and often carried a large magical staff. He went through many costume changes throughout the years and sometimes he would wear an elaborate red jacket with white design elements. He also has a long white beard and a hat that resembles the pope hat, or sometimes he wore a hood Like Santa. He wears boots, but instead of a sleigh with reindeer he rides a troika, a horse drawn sled or carriage. He brought his granddaughter around with him, known as the “Snow Maiden” or Snegurochka.

His roots are pagan, and he was considered a winter sprite. He acted as 3 Slavic pagan gods, the god of wind, good, and bad weather, Pozvizd, god of winter, Zimnik, and the underworld god who ruled over frosts, Korochun. He would carry around a large sack and would use it to kidnap children. He would hold them ransom and the parents were told to give him presents in exchange for their children. Over the years under the Orthodox traditions he then became very generous and started to give presents to children instead. He took over some traits from Saint Nicholas.

Eastern European Traditions

In Russia from 1916 to 1935, Christmas trees were considered sacrilegious and banned. Perhaps because the tree originated from Germany and they were enemies during the World War. Later, in the USSR Christmas became their favorite holiday and images of Father Frost began emerging.
In Yugoslavia, he was known as “Grandfather Frost” and would bring presents during New Years, but they didn’t celebrate Christmas, which was outlawed by the Communist regime.

In Croatia, Djed Mraz (Croatian for Ded Moroz) was considered communist and was replaced by Djed Bozicnjak (Grandfather Christmas), and would bring gifts on Christmas. Sometimes Djed Mraz would still bring gifts for the New Year. Children would also receive presents on December 6th from Sveti Nikola (Saint Nicholas). If the children misbehaved, evil Krampus would punish children and warn them to be good.

In Slovenia he was known as Dedek Mraz (Grandpa Frost). He was described as being skinny, wearing a decorative leather gray coat lined with fur. and a round fur hat. He was said to live to in Siberia, but then war broke out between Yugoslavia and the Soviet Union his home was moved to Slovenia’s tallest mountain, Mt. Triglav. They also believed that St. Nicholas (Miklavz) brought presents on December 6th and Santa Claus (Bozicek) brought presents on Christmas Eve. Dedek Mraz would bring gifts on New Year’s Eve. Santa Claus was the less popular of the three, but the three would get along publicly.