1/ I am now continuing my Russian New Year Twitter American Education Course To Make Know What We Celebrate. Today, Lesson 2: Grandpa Frost. (The usual disclaimer: everything below is 100% factual and true, despite the light, or in this case very dark, tone of the narrative.)
2/ Grandpa Frost, or Dedushka Moroz, is a mythical bearded giftman who makes his appearance on New Year's Night, distributing presents to children who may or may not have studied the works of Vladimir Lenin with due diligence over the course of the year. 
3/ Said diligence, as well as behavior appropriate to a fierce Russian patriot, is the determining factor to the children’s eligibility to receive free-of-charge presents from the terrible and magnanimous Grandpa. Other factors may involve school grades and manufacturing quotas.
4/ Grandpa’s origins date back to ancient times, when he was one of the pagan Eastern Slavic gods, in charge of quaint Russian things like winter, snow, famine, and freezing to death. Over the centuries, he has gradually morphed first into a fairy tale character and then...
5/ ...into the Soviet-era New Year icon, persevering in the latter capacity to this day. Grandpa's place in the holiday cannon was officially solidified by Joseph Stalin in the 1930s as the celebration of New Year was allowed again and a stern fatherly figure felt necessary.
6/ Grandpa Frost wears a long fur-lined coat and a similarly manufactured hat. Unlike the sad American imitation Santa, who apparently has elves murder polar bears for the lining of his coat, Grandpa Frost does his animal-murdering himself, as attested by the club he also carries
7/ Children who haven't behaved as becoming a Young Communist Pioneer over the course of the year are sometimes told that the club shall be used on them in lieu of the presents from Grandpa Frost's bag. According to Grandpa himself, “whoever touches my staff, shall never wake up”
8/ Grandpa Frost’s preferred method of transportation is decidedly ground-borne sleigh pulled by a team of three horses, though he isn’t above traveling on foot or skis. He enters children’s homes proudly and directly, through a front door, occasionally bothering to knock.
