With Jim, we came up with the idea of gift/wish lists. Each of us got a list that other chooses presents from. The list should be big so you don’t know what is gona be chosen for a gift – this way it is a surprise. One doesn’t have to stick to the list, but it helps to get what other actually wants. Slowly over the years the list idea spread over to our other relatives.
I like western tradition of exchanging gifts. It makes me feel a bit like a kid. I have never got christmas gifts until I got together with Jim and his family started to give me some. So I joined in the tradition. When I was growing up, religion was illegal. Not as illegal as during my parents’ time, when one could loose a job for walking into a church once, but still – no one celebrated Christmas. There were regular public celebrations of more pagan traditions though and they were financed out of government budget, funny enough.
The decorated tree is still called – the New Year Tree. The industries now are trying to invent and promote, similar to western, gift exchange tradition for New Year (you know –to sell lots of stuff too) as christmas is still seen as religious. Russian christmas is on 7th January. The celebration mainly consists of standing many hours with a candle in hands through a church service and only really religious ones bother with it.
