that time people believed that ghosts of vegetation and fertility, a harvest of grain and vegetables depended on them, inhabited the trees. At the end of December when days became longer and new "sunny" year was started, people went to a forest and hanged out "gifts" for ghosts on branches of the biggest firs to make them kinder and give good harvest. But when Peter I died people stopped setting Christmas trees. Only tavern holders decorated their houses with them, Christmas trees were set all the year round.

In 20-s of the past century Bolsheviks forbade celebrating New Year coming, because they call it "bourgeois whim" and "old regime tradition". Moreover in their opinion New Year's Eve is too close to Christmas. As you know Bolsheviks were against Christian faith and Christian holidays. From this point of view onwards Christmas tree "went underground": only some families made up their mind to celebrate New Year with Christmas tree secretly. In December 1935 the member of the