MOSCOW (AFP) -- Efforts by Father Christmas to muscle in on the franchise once held solely by Grandfather Frost are meeting stiff resistance in Russia as the battle for festive season sales gathers pace.

The Santa Claus-Ded Moroz clash is part of a broader picture in which Western, and sometimes Eastern, products and motifs compete for shelf-space with traditional Russia-made goods, according to officials at Detsky Mir (Children's World), a five-storey department store devoted to meeting the needs and whims of children in Russia's capital.

Differing calendars mean that the sales war in Russia will just be hotting up as Western families are sitting down to their December 25 turkey and stuffing.

With two different Christmases observed by Orthodox and non-Orthodox Christians, "new" and "old" New Years and Soviet-era traditions spread over a period of three weeks, Russia's festivities tend to be taken a la carte, according to cultural, religious or political sensibilities.

But for most of the country's 145 million inhabitants spread across 11 time zones, the night that counts is that of December 31, when the midnight chimes from the Kremlin's Spasskaya Tower will be the signal for Russians everywhere to raise their glasses.

New Year's eve is above all an occasion that reunites families, relatives and close friends in a riot of overindulgence and gift-giving, which means that more and more companies are adopting strategies to optimize their share of the seasonal market.

With more than one-third of annual sales made during November and December, Detsky Mir launches preparations for the end-of-year splurge several months in advance, import manager Maria Kuchkova said.

Last year for the first time they called in professional designers to lay out and decorate the ground and lower floors in time for a festive-season launch date of November 1.

Mountains of stuffed toys, piles of boxed dolls, strings of curtain lights, arrays of games and decorations lined the 6,000 square meters spread over the two lower floors devoted solely to toys.

The goods on sale and decorations are increasingly European in style, though the Chinese are also carving out a market niche, Kuchkova said.

With next year being China's Year of the Monkey, a number of shelves were given over to varieties of stuffed or plaster apes.

Well over half the toys on sale are imported, notably from Germany, Britain, Spain and the United States, though the proportion is falling as Russian companies adapt to the market, and local producers are coping better with meeting the demands of lower age-groups where technical gadgetry is less important.

The public is becoming much more discerning, demanding and knowledgeable, Kuchkova said.

"They come in knowing exactly what they want, whether to choose a Santa, an angel or a Ded Moroz for their tree," she said.

To the uninitiated, Santa Claus and Ded Moroz are sartorially hard to distinguish, though the Russian favors a longer coat, not always red, with folk motifs and is often escorted by an all-white snow-queen teenager called Snegurochka.

Diversity is essential to meet the varied demand, whether that of the wealthy "new Russians," torn between buying an expensive imported item or a locally-produced traditional product, or a poorer Russian who has to choose between a single, high-quality expensive purchase or several cheaper presents.

In Kuchkova's experience there is a clear preference among Russians, even those of modest means, for quality over quantity.

Rising prosperity levels mean that Detsky Mir sales are likely to break new records in 2003, with the spending continuing until the year's last few hours.

December 25 will be an ordinary working -- and spending -- day for all but a small, non-Orthodox minority of the country's Christian community.

Russia's festive marathon concludes on January 14, with the start of the "old" (Julian calendar) New Year.