Thread: Christmas in Russia

I love learning about regional culture and I love Christmas. So I was wondering if the Russians on this board would care to share their Christmas traditions? Like, when is it celebrated, how do you decorate (if you do), traditional meals, etc. I'm looking for general, national traditions and family traditions alike. thanks!

-nichole

They get Christmas trees for New Years. I knew a Muslim and she was talking about her Christmas tree and I said, "you're a Muslim," to which she responded, "yes, but I'm Russian." Their Christmas is the orthodox date, Jan. 7 .
http://www.cityvision2000.com/millenium/feature.htm

Russian Christmas is mostly religious and somber holiday (and much less celebrated by families than New Yeer). New Year celebration on the other hand is a MUST and is pure fun, because nowadays it incorporated such "christmas" traditions as gift giving, Christmas trees (called New Year trees in Russia) and Ded Moroz (Russian Santa Claus). I might add that Ded Moroz has little to do with Russian Christmas (or even unwelcome there) since he's a pagan character.

Russian Ded Moroz (Grandfather Frost) - is a favourite children fairy tale! He wear a long loose fur coat, have a magic staff, ankle-length beard and friendly smile. He like to listen to children's verses. He usually praise them with successes of past year and give them presents from his bag. Sometimes he leave presents under New Year Tree.
He is a spirit, a part of winter. In summer he and his grand daughter Снегурочка (the most approached translation "Snow girl ") live in the town Великий Устюг.

My family has American Christmas, a New Year's Party and then a big meal (think Thanksgiving but bigger and less sober ) and attend a wonderful church service on Jan. 7. It's a fortnight of joy, weird Uncles and gluttony. For the past 2 years, however, I've abandoned my family's New Year's Party for other parties, that don't involve singing and an alcohol limit.)