How does your family celebrate new year/christmas?

[Kuzmich]

Well we don't celebrate Christmas plus Russian christmas is july 6th thanks to Orthodox church not updating its calendar. Anyways we celebrate New Year in basically the same way as you do with Christmas. We have a new year tree which by tradition we decorate, we got presents, we even got a santa clause counterpart. Grandfather Frost and his granddaughter Snegurochka, can't think of direct translation but sneg=snow. No elves though. Anyways my family does it a certain way. We always go back to our apartment in St.Petersburg, thats there my family moved to Moscow from and thats there all my aunts, uncles, and grandparents still live. About three days before december 31, which is the day then we celebrate, women start preparing food, russian salads (nothing like american ones), soup, meat, all the other stuff. Men go and cut the tree in the forest then place the tree in the bucket of water in the corner of the living room of the apartment. Also we bring out the tables and buy all the alcoholic beverages. On december 31st at about 6pm guests start to come in, usually family and close freinds of the family. We chat, smoke , drink in the kitchen because all the food and a large table are in the living room. Around 10pm we start to eat, we do that till 12 pm. At that point we turn on the TV and raise our glasses. Kurants (big clock on top of one of the towers of Kremlin) make 12 beats and the yar ends. After that we listen to the sound of Russian national anthem and after thats over we listen to Presidents speech covering the year that just ended. After that we finally drink and open presents. After we done with that we either go onto the streets and start dirnking, roaming and singing like most of the people, or blow some fireworks or just stay in the house and drink and eat and have good time with the family. Next morning we wake up and fight the hang over, this is how we spend New Year over here in Russia in my family. What about you?

[Jenny]

Decorate for Christmas a month early. Presents for different family members appear here and there under our -fake- Christmas tree. Parents usually go to g-parents house Eve night taking younger siblings with. I usually go to a local get together.

New Years, I dunno. I haven't spent New Years with my family for 4-5 years now. I usually go to a party or two.

No big deal on either one. We have a get together dinner for Christmas and I usually don't come home from New Years till about noon the next day, then I crash.

[x42bn6]

We don't celebrate. I celebrate by revising for March exams.*

[Ntrik_]

we don't, but I celebrate by finishing up my ISU presentations for English and Religion and study for Math culminating that I have to do by first week I get back to school.

and then exams in January.

[TrongaMonga]

Santa Claus as we know it was an invention of Coca-Cola, so, I'd be surprised if Russian had the fat guy. Seeing it was made in the time of communism

Either way, we start early, like in the middle of November, by going to our pine wood (in my father's farm) to cut down a small, nice pine tree. Then, we also get, uh, that green thing that is in trees, only in the north side, and in rocks, don't know the name in english (the green thing in these rocks), so we can make yet another thing I don't know the name in english (this), and then, well, we go as any other family, I guess... In Christmas eve, there's the midnight mess (I hates it, my father makes us all go there, even though almost none of us are christian ), then we open the presents in December 25th.

[Galatia]

Originally Posted by Kuzmich

Well we don't celebrate Christmas plus Russian christmas is july 6th thanks to Orthodox church not updating its calendar.

Its not the Orthodox Church, its the Russian Church that goes with the Old Calendar. The Greek Orthodox Church, for example, follows the rest of the world.

In my family we exchange gifts on Christmas Day and my father cooks his famous turkey (along with some seriously undercooked vegetables, usually potatoes). Then we play some cards. On New Year's Eve we welcome the New Year drinking champagne and eating Virgina Ham with close friends and family. Then we go from party to party untill the sun comes up. This year, though, we are planning on hosting a party in our place (rave party, of course).

[Kitty]

We've always been procrastinators, so we don't prepare that early...a few days before Christmas, we grab a Christmas tree from somewhere. The preceeding week giant Christmas cleaning way done - everything is dusted, arranged, pup away neatly. Once, it was our grandpa who had "friends in high places" since he is a biology teacher, so he know the gardening people. Other times, the tree would come from his backyard, or the town's biologist station...nowadays, it comes from a Canadian Tire parking lot. We drag it home, set up it and decorate it. In Slovakia, we had a ton of beautiful ornaments, but we could only bring a handful into Canada. They're fragile and stuff. So when the Christmas tree is up, the baking begins. Mom used to make cookies - lemony cookies, oatmeal, caramel rice crispies, honey cookies with nuts...my grandmother used to bake all the cakes with cream, rum balls and scones. The day before Christmas, and I have no idea where this tradition started, we made our potato salad. We always had potato salad and fried fish for Christmas dinner. I didn't eat the potato salad until much later, when I've learned to apprieciate really how good that stuff is. The next day is Christmas day - December 24th. The fish-frying begins, everybody gets all dressed up in Christmas stuff. In Slovakia, our grandparents used to come and visit us for dinner. At dinner, there'd be pop for the children (Since we almost never drank pop...either tea or orange juice. Weird, I know. But that made the occasion so much more special.) and some wine for the adults. The first course was cabbage soup with mushrooms and sausages - really, really yummy. The next was potato salad and fried fish. People used to bring real, live fish into their apartment, and kill it there so that they'd have fresh fish for dinner. My parents did that one Christmas, but I really missed the poor fishie. I played with it the whole day. So the next year, and all of the ones later on, they bought frozen fish. One time, we even had grilled shark. After dinner, we'd eat waffles with honey, and our grandparents would smear a bit of honey on our foreheads - for good luck. As the children, we'd go into our bedroom and look at the balconies of the opposing apartment building. People had lights in there and such, we'd cont how many of the balconies are lit, or how many people hae a Christmas tree in the window...while we were doing that, our parents would sneak presents under the Christmas tree, and ring a little bell. The bell was our cue. When we got to the Christmas tree, our parents would tell use that they saw the Christmas angels or baby Jesus bringing the presents...we'd open them, later, our Grandparents would leave and we'd go to sleep. And ever since we came to Canada, we have turkey on the 25th. XD We invite some friends over so eat the turkey with us.

On the New Year, we'd either stay home, or go to a relative's house. At midnight, we'd have a toast - and even I was allowed to drink a little champagne, which I loved. We'd congratulate ourselves on the new year and then we went outside, and had a littlefun with fireworks. We'd watch the big ones the town was having, then blast little rockets of our own. It was always fun.

Also, on December 6 (Which is tommorow! ) Svaty Mikulas, which is St. Nicholas would come and bring tiny presents. What the children were supposed to do was shine their boots and put them in the window. In the night, St. Nicholas would come and put presents in the boots. They were usually little things - fruit, chocolates, oranges, peanuts blah blah blah. This is because according to legend, St. Nicholas saved some praying children from starvation by leaving food in their shoes.

For Tronga: The first thing is moss, the second thing is a Bethelehem model and it's spelled mass, not mess.

[SpX]

We decorate the day after Thanksgiving, on Christmas Eve we go to either my mom's or dad's side then vice versa for Christmas day. On Christmas day, we open presents and stuff. It's all good. Then we just do something, who knows for new year's.

[TrongaMonga]

Mass? The service at the church, mass? Really?

[amrtin77]

christmas tree must be up the day after thanksgiving.. then whenever we feel like it we get the lights up on our house so its sexier than anyone elses this year i put christmas lights on my car everyone loves it in town heehjejejhehj soon i oughta have a picture. freind took a picture of my car, when he gets the film done ill scan it so you can behold the sexiness.

then presents on christmas... and thats bout it.

[Kuzmich]

We do many crazy things then we go out after midnight, drunk and full of food. Last year was crazy, i threw a fire cracker under a car, accidently, but fortunately it hasn't lit on fire. Then we also shot few fireworks in the large area in between apartment buildings. One of those fireworks flew up and broke someone's window on the 8th floor. I remeber we had a lot of fun, but don't remember what exactly, i do remember the hang over.

[Dragnskull]

this year im celebrating it by working -.- that way my lil brother can have a diecent xmas and we can pay bills

[l33t bunny master]

on christmas we open presents and shit...then on new years we do nothing..who really cares about a new year..it was gonna come anyways.

[Nearby-Stalker]

for christmas normally all of my family (aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, mom, not dad, lol) all get together at someones house (this year its my aunts) and we all hang out and talk and shit. Its pretty fun, you get to catch up and shit. Then we eat, and everyone leaves saying "man, im glad i came, well, i came for the free food, rofl", its pretty funny stuff. I normally go cause i get to see everyone. I normally end up on someones computer trying to fix it cause they are newbs and break it =/ On new years i normally dont do anything, this year i hope i can hang out with some friends and get smashed, it would be pretty fun stuff.

[Venice_native]

We have a full blown American Christmas.