by Isobel Leybold-Johnson, swissinfo.ch

With Christmas becoming increasingly commercialised, the custom of St Nicholas, which is celebrated on December 6 in Switzerland, has been fighting back.

St Nicholas, who is known as Samichlaus in Swiss German, dispenses gifts of chocolate, nuts and fruit – as well as sage advice – to children.

This differs from the more Anglo-Saxon tradition of Father Christmas, the ubiquitous jolly old man who delivers presents and fills stockings that are opened on Christmas Day.

But the difference between the two is not always clear nowadays, especially in cities, which is why, on November 12, the Roman-Catholic church in canton Aargau decided to host the first ever “Samichlaus Synod” at Wislikofen.

Attending were the volunteers who each year don St Nicholas costumes to carry out visits to children either on December 6 or on the weekend closest to it.

“It was a way of honouring their work, especially in this European year of volunteering,” organiser Claudia Mennen told swissinfo.ch.

In fact, so popular was the synod that all of the 90 places were quickly snapped up, with a further 40 Samiclauses having to be turned away.

A bishop

The tradition goes back to the fourth century Nicholas of Myrna, a bishop in what is now Turkey, who is the patron saint of children. That is why Samichlaus is often dressed as a bishop, complete with mitre and staff, and doesn’t always wear red. He does, however, have a white beard.

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A mitre and staff – St Nicholases, all attending the synod, in their traditional form (Keystone)