to tree, or not to tree

I grew up with the Russian New Years tree (yelka), Ded Moroz ("Grandpa Frost" ala Santa), and Snegoorochka (no translation, no equivalent). I gotta say, I've been missing it. I remember fondly getting the tree with my dad and helping him decorate it with ornaments, and waking up early the next morning to find chocolates and other candy hanging on the tree. New Year's eve, presents would appear under the tree, to be opened at midnight (or whenever my little self would get tired). The tree was a national symbol of celebrating the new year, completely devoid of religious meaning. Coincidentally, an overwhelming majority of Christians in the former USSR are Orthodox, who (secretly) celebrated Rozhdestvo (loosely defined as "the birth") sometime in the middle of January. As far as I know, Rozhdestvo is a purely religious holiday that would be sacrilege to commercialize.

Either way, since my family came to the US we gave up our New Years traditions. No more trees, or decorations or gifts. I wouldn't call my family religious, but having the ability to finally publicly admit to being Jewish, I suppose there was no desire to pick up a Christian holiday. Among Jews, even the appearance of Christmas decorations is a big no-no. But I do miss it. I've been told that Christmas in the US being a national commercial holiday rather than a religious celebration these days, but it still feels "dirty" to celebrate it.

Anyways, I just ran across this interesting article about the Western Christmas creeping into Russia. It's pretty funny in certain places, to me at least. Enjoy.