Is it always in Soviet time In our country, the New Year was a holiday?

The best holiday

We now have a lot of holidays - both religious, and secular, and personal. But the only common holiday for all is New Year. Almost everyone is getting ready to celebrate the New Year. Men thoroughly "inspect" the Christmas tree markets, choosing the most fluffy Christmas tree and, with a look of triumph, bring the "forest beauty" home. Women buy so much food that would be enough for a modest wedding, and children can be called to order only by saying that Santa Claus does not give gifts to naughty children. And all this pre-holiday fuss is filled with a premonition of happiness, miracle, fun. The phone does not stop, the intoxicating aromas of some kind of “signature” dish, prepared only once a year, are heard from the kitchen, champagne is cooled on the balcony, peacefully adjacent to the “basin” of Olivier and tangerines in the bag. And also - new clothes, hairstyles, gifts hidden until the time, sweets, sparklers. And you have to have time to prepare everything before eleven in the evening in order to spend old year.

And with the first battle of the Chimes, having listened to the congratulations of the First Person of the country, open the Soviet champagne and drink with the last blow, having managed to make the most secret wish. And you can no longer fuss, exchange gifts, proclaim ingenious toasts and be completely sure that everything unpleasant is left in the past, and the future is bright and joyful, that everything will be as we wished for ourselves. The Christmas tree sparkles with lights, the table is bursting with dishes, celebrities congratulate us from the blue screen, and this holiday will continue for more than one day. Everyone has long been accustomed to such a celebration of the New Year, this scenario is from our Soviet past.
The history of the celebration of the New Year in Russia begins, perhaps, with the reign of Peter Alekseevich, a great lover of reforms and an adherent of the Western European way of life. Tsar Peter I, by his decree, ordered to celebrate the new year 1700 and the new century on January 1, decorating the dwellings with branches and trees of pine, spruce and juniper. So, 7208 from the creation of the world was replaced by 1700 from the Nativity of Christ. AT tsarist Russia It was customary to decorate Christmas trees only in noble, landowner houses. The peasants did not celebrate the New Year, only Christmas and the Christmas holidays that followed before Epiphany.

For a Soviet person, this was a special, most long-awaited holiday. They started preparing for it in the summer. Although the main elements of a home holiday have been preserved since Soviet times, in those days, preparing the New Year in the traditional form was almost heroic, and many now recall that painstaking work with nostalgia.

People prepared for the New Year in the USSR long before it came: due to the fact that it was difficult to get food, everything they needed was bought several months in advance and carefully stored until the right moment. Now it’s hard to imagine it, but in order to get the main ingredients, for example, Olivier salad, you had to try hard: there was no mayonnaise, green peas, sausages in the free sale - they started stocking up in October. With great difficulty, they also got the main drink of the holiday - Soviet champagne.

So we also decided to prepare in advance and remember in a nostalgic selection how it was.

At first, the New Year was not an official public holiday, but most families traditionally celebrated it along with Christmas, and the holiday was considered a family holiday.

For the first time, the New Year was officially celebrated only at the end of 1936, after an article by a prominent Soviet figure Pavel Postyshev in the Pravda newspaper.

“Why do our schools, orphanages, nurseries, children's clubs, palaces of pioneers deprive the children of the working people of the Soviet country of this wonderful pleasure? Some, none other than "leftist" benders, slandered this children's entertainment as a bourgeois idea. This wrong condemnation of the Christmas tree, which is a wonderful entertainment for children, should be put to an end. Komsomol members, pioneer workers should arrange collective New Year's parties for children on New Year's Eve. In schools, orphanages, in pioneer palaces, in children's clubs, in children's cinemas and theaters - there should be a children's tree everywhere! City councils, chairmen of district executive committees, village councils, public education bodies should help arrange a Soviet Christmas tree for the children of our great socialist homeland.

1960 Costumes and Christmas decorations reflected the power of the country: divers and cosmonauts on the Kremlin tree. The first satellite has already been in orbit, and the film "Amphibian Man" has not yet been made.

Tickets for the New Year tree for children were also difficult to get. You also need a gauze snowflake costume or a bunny outfit. The gift, which included caramels, apples, and walnuts, was given to the parents by the trade union committee. The dream of every child was to get on the main Christmas tree of the country - first in the Hall of Columns of the House of the Unions, and after 1954 - on the Kremlin Christmas Tree.

It was only after the war that the traditions of celebrating the New Year in the USSR began to really take shape. Christmas decorations began to appear: at first very modest - made of paper, cotton wool and other materials, later - beautiful, bright, made of glass, similar to decorations of pre-revolutionary Christmas trees. By the end of the 1960s, mass production of toys for the Christmas tree was established, and you could buy quite a few simple options made of plastic, usually with Soviet symbols.

Festive table

Prepare for the holiday in advance. Firstly, you need to purchase products - that is, “get it”, stand in hour-long lines, get sprats, caviar, smoked sausage in grocery orders.

Those who had a familiar seller in a grocery store could afford cognac for 8 rubles 12 kopecks on New Year's Eve, semi-sweet Soviet champagne, and tangerines.

Or stand in line for a long time, as in this photo.

Outfits and gifts

Every Soviet woman absolutely needed a new fashion dress- it could be sewn with one's own hands or in an atelier, in rare cases - bought from black marketeers; the shop was last place where you could find something.

New Year's gifts are another obstacle for Soviet citizens in the process of preparing for the New Year. There was a tension with any goods in the country, and with beautiful goods it was even worse, so our parents went to visit, taking champagne, sausage, preferably Servelat, canned exotic fruits (pineapples), boxes of chocolates. Women were given for the holiday soviet spirits, which were in abundance in stores, for men - colognes.

"Nothing paints a woman like hydrogen peroxide." - this joke becomes relevant on the eve of every New Year celebration in the Soviet Union. The phrase "beauty salon" then did not know even the most fashionistas. They signed up for hairdressing salons in a few weeks, preparing hairstyles, makeup and the whole “New Year's look” required maximum time, ingenuity and independence from Soviet women - sometimes friends did hairstyles.

The last stage of preparation is to wipe (repair) the TV, which, according to the postman Pechkin, is “ the best decoration New Year's table. "Carnival Night", "Irony of Fate", "New Year's Adventures of Masha and Vitya", "Blue Light", "Morozko" - Soviet movies, programs and cartoons in the morning, without which not a single Soviet citizen could imagine a festive night.

They were carefully collected by our grandmothers and kept by our mothers. Because for some Soviet citizens, new toys were a luxury, while for others, old Christmas balls are associated with good memories and are dear as a memory. Many toys have become the subject of private collections. People are happy to collect and exchange old New Year's toys and showcase their collections online.

Bright Side presents a selection of Soviet Christmas decorations. They are not as bright and elegant as modern ones. But they cause a warm wave of nostalgia for those times when we believed in Santa Claus and waited for the New Year like a miracle.

Christmas decorations are fraught with special magic. Their fragility, subtlety, golden luster awaken a feeling of fragility and transience. The world cannot always be brilliant. The holiday doesn't last forever. So these graceful trifles reflect bright light for a short time and ... again find themselves in the bowels of boxes and cabinets for the whole coming year. Until the new Year...

However, these unshakable for us glass and cardboard toys, from a historical point of view, are very young. More recently, decorations were different. wonderful tree, near which amazing events took place in Hoffmann's beloved Nutcracker, carried other outfits on its branches. "A large Christmas tree was hung with many gold and silver apples. Candied almonds, colorful candies and other wonderful sweets hung from each branch like buds or flowers."

The first Christmas decorations were edible. Candies in silver-golden wrappers, curly gingerbread, waffles, cookies, nuts, apples, tangerines, pears, grapes and even eggs flaunted in abundance on the Christmas tree branches. Although, if you look into the very depths of centuries, you can see and completely unusual Christmas tree. The first coniferous trees began to decorate the ancient Germans. They used firs for rituals, attached burning candles to their branches and laid out colored rags on their fluffy paws.

According to one version, the custom of using a Christmas tree as a Christmas tree was born in the first half of the 16th century in the territory of modern France, in Alsace. According to another, the first "Christmas" tree was cut in his garden by the German reformer Martin Luther, being under the impression of the wondrous glow of heavenly stars, breaking through the sprawling spruce branches. He lit candles on his spruce, which symbolized the stars of Christmas night from that time on.

In addition to candles, they began to decorate the fir tree with fruits, they personified gifts to the baby Jesus. The first among the fruits were apples, since spruce was considered a paradise tree that bears fruit. New customs came in the 17th century. As a matter of fact, it was then that the "ancestors" of modern toys appeared. And even though, according to today's understanding, they were "home-grown", some of them were not lacking in grace. At first, materials were used that were always at hand - empty eggshells were covered with a thin layer of chased brass, ordinary fir cones were gilded. Tin wire was rolled up, twisted into a spiral, then flattened: silver tinsel was obtained. Artificial roses were made from paper, stars and snowflakes were cut out of silver foil. Even from sheets of brass, some craftsmen managed to carve figurines of fairies and elves.

Gradually, artificial fruits and sweets made from glass and cotton wool appeared. It is believed that the indispensable on the current spruce glass balls appeared due to a poor harvest of apples. As if not a single apple had been preserved in local cellars before Christmas, and the forest beauty would have stood without the traditional fruit. But no! The glassblowers of a small German town took a chance and made a replacement - round balls. So in the middle of the 19th century, in 1848, in the town of Lauscha (Thuringia), Christmas balls, popular in subsequent years, were born. They were made of transparent or colored glass, coated on the inside with a layer of lead, and decorated on the outside with sparkles. Almost two decades later (1867), a gas factory was opened in Lausche and, with the help of gas burners with a flame, very high temperature began to blow large thin-walled balls. The lead reflective coating was replaced with silver nitrate. Around the same time, glassblowers went beyond the spheres themselves.
There were birds and animals, pipes and bunches of grapes. Finished goods covered with gold and silver dust. Women and children were engaged in coloring. Laush remained in history as the first major global manufacturer Christmas decorations.

At the beginning of the 20th century, "glass toy craft" was taken up by Bohemia, which was then part of Germany. And a new address appeared on the Christmas tree map - the city of Yablonets. The Japanese, Poles and Americans mastered this business much later. There was a period when the fashion for decorating the Christmas tree suddenly changed. At the turn of the century, shiny tinsel was sent to the shelves. A Christmas tree designed in silver-white tones was welcomed. Later, figurines made of paper, cardboard and straw came into fashion. The factories of Dresden and Leipzig became famous for the manufacture of these toys.

Leipzig was proud of toys made of embossed gilded and silver cardboard, it seemed that they were made of the thinnest metal sheet. Dresden - an unprecedented variety of "plots" - numerous animals, musical instruments, spinning wheels, steamers and even horse-drawn carriages!

Apparently, similar toys decorated the Christmas tree described in the poem by A. N. Pleshcheev.

Children's gaze toys beckon...
Here is a horse, there is a top,
Here is the railroad
Here is the hunting horn.
And the lanterns, and the stars,
that burn with diamonds
And golden nuts
And transparent grapes!
Christmas decorations in Russia

In Russia, the first toys were German. Later opened and own production- in St. Petersburg and Klin. In addition to glass, papier-mache was used - paper pulp mixed with glue, plaster or chalk. Then the products were covered with bartolet salt, due to which their surface acquired a shine and became more dense. In the middle of the 19th century, numerous artels bred, which engaged in the production of garlands and chains made of thin foil in the form of needles, long thin threads from the same foil, later nicknamed "rain".

For the manufacture of Christmas tree decorations, cardboard and wood, metal sheets, straw and paper were used. Similar toys were produced by special cardboard workshops. Cotton toys were very popular. The wire frame was covered with cotton wool, while the faces of the dolls were made of papier-mâché or porcelain and painted. Decorated with Christmas trees and wax figures of angels, they, alas, were short-lived, as they melted from the heat.

In the twentieth century, carved wooden figurines also appeared - they also found a place on hospitable Christmas trees. In some families, the Christmas tree was not only decorated, but also its trunk was “ennobled” - it was wrapped with white paper, cloth or pharmaceutical cotton, sprinkled with Bertolet salt. "Hid" and the cross, to which the tree was attached.
Practical advice was published for its readers in 1909 by the Niva magazine: “The foot of the Christmas tree can be arranged as follows: they lay the cross in which the Christmas tree is embedded with green moss, dry grass and Christmas tree branches, among which pebbles can be placed in some places; then they install cardboard or cotton mushrooms with a small family, and if you put a plush hare among this green pile, which can very often be found among children's toys, then it will be very beautiful under the tree.

At the end of the 19th century, the Christmas tree was waiting new surprise. The English telegraph operator Ralph Morrison decorated it with a garland of electric light bulbs. Here, the Americans have already "taken" the championship - the first electric garland decorated the New Year tree in front of the White House in 1895.

XX, rich in various events, brought new plots for Christmas decorations. In the USSR, the crowning Christmas tree " star of bethlehem"replaced the red five-pointed with a hammer and sickle. Paratroopers and hockey players appeared, polar bear, delivering mail to the conquerors of the Arctic, kids different nationalities. Later, they were joined by orderlies, planes, astronauts. The year 1937 was marked by balloons with portraits of Lenin and Stalin.

The appearance of cardboard mailboxes for New Year's letters dates back to the beginning of the 40s. XX century, at that time glass and cotton wool became an unaffordable luxury. Mailbox not oversized matchbox, hid in itself a candy or a small coin. Crystallized crystals of salt made amazing snowflakes! The wire frame was dipped into a saturated saline solution, and after a few hours the toy was taken out and dried. During the Great Patriotic War at home they also made glass balls. Burnt out conventional or removed from Christmas garland light bulbs were painted or pasted over with multi-colored paper ...

today toys self made again at the peak of popularity. Some of them demonstrate the skill of professional artists, while others, although not so magnificent and exclusive, bear the warmth of a home. A native, cozy home, where, as in former Russian homes, adults and children made the holiday, literally, with their own hands...

It's no secret that many residents of our country associate the New Year with Moscow, or rather with the chimes on the Kremlin's Spasskaya Tower. With the chimes, we make wishes, see off the old year and hope that the next year will be more successful. Let's see how they used to celebrate the New Year in Moscow.

Christmas tree in the Georgievsky Hall of the Kremlin, 1950-60 The most important Christmas tree in Moscow and the country is now in the Kremlin, and the second most important Christmas tree has always been in the columned hall of the House of the Unions, next to the current State Duma.

The celebration of the New Year in the form in which we celebrate now, we still owe to Stalin. Before the revolution, as in other countries, Russia celebrated Christmas with a Christmas tree and gifts, which was immediately banned by the Soviet authorities, but only in 1935, before the new 1936, it was decided to put up Christmas trees again, make holidays for children, call Santa Claus and the Snow Maiden, but everything was prescribed to be done exclusively on the secular New Year, which we still do.

Now it’s hard to imagine, but this is Arbatskaya Square in 1959. In the background you can see the entrance hall of the Arbatskaya metro station of the blue line, which we continue to use now, but we enter it from the left side, through the new building, and not through the original large front entrance . The fact is that under Brezhnev a huge complex of the Ministry of Defense was built around this vestibule, and the Stalinist vestibule still stands in his courtyard, which is very clearly visible on the satellite map.

Outbound trade " children's world"- one more, probably the most new year's place Soviet Moscow.

And so in the late 1950s, the "Children's World" itself looked on the Lubyanka.

In those years, Muscovites, even low-income ones, tried to put a Christmas tree in their house for children, decorating it with cardboard and glass toys, mushrooms, balls, tinsel, "beads", even multi-colored light bulbs, they put Father Frost, Snow Maiden under the Christmas tree, children - their own favorite toys, etc., and the "crown" was crowned with a star or a spire. They also hung sweets, chocolate medals, tangerines.

Vechernyaya Moskva newspaper: “A few hours remain before the New Year. There is a lot to do: visit a hairdresser, go to a store, and send a congratulatory telegram. In a word, you need to hurry. New 1961".

New Year's decoration of "Children's World", 1970-71.

"Children's World" in the 1970s

Christmas tree in the Kremlin Palace of Congresses, 1971

Tin chests from the Kremlin Christmas trees still gather dust in many apartments on the mezzanines. Grandmothers loved to store threads, buttons and other household items in them.

Partner News

The editors of the site congratulate you on the upcoming New Year and offer for review an excerpt from the article "What a country, such a Christmas tree" about the history of celebrating the New Year in the USSR from the Ogonyok magazine.

After 1917

Russia switched from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar, adopted by most Western countries. The difference between the old and new styles "moved" the New Year's holiday to the height of the Orthodox Christmas Lent. This played into the hands of the Bolshevik atheists.

Soon, one of the slogans for the formation of socialist culture was the cry of the party: "Everyone to fight the religious intoxication!" New Year's holiday falls under the hammer of anti-Christmas propaganda. Here is one of the poems of those years:

"Christmas is coming soon -
Ugly bourgeois holiday,
Connected from time immemorial
With him, the custom is ugly:
A capitalist will come to the forest,
Inert, true to prejudice,
The tree will be cut down with an axe,
Letting go of a bad joke."

1928

The war against the Christmas tree continues. The reason for the next outburst of indignation was the announcement of the Univerpochta posted in Pravda about the distribution of sets of Christmas tree decorations. Letters from indignant readers rained down in the editorial office of workers' and peasants' newspapers: “As an atheist who conducts anti-religious propaganda among students and workers, I am surprised why the newspaper Pravda publishes in its announcements throughout the USSR that the Univerposhta offers CHRISTMAS DECORATIONS ... I propose to the Univerpochta put on display for the fact that she contributes to the old way of life, sending out all kinds of tinsel and various rubbish to decorate Christmas trees.

1935

In the mid-1930s, ideologues changed tactics and began to interpret the Christmas tree as an attribute not of the Christmas, but of the New Year holiday. The finest hour of the green guest was 1935, when, for the first time during the Bolshevik rule, at the initiative of P. Postyshev, a member of the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR, a children's New Year's party was organized in Kharkov. After 11 months, the secretariat of the All-Union Central Council of Trade Unions issued a decision: "Since the celebration of the New Year has become and is a national holiday and is celebrated by the working people, this holiday must be legalized."

1937

The New Year is celebrated widely and pompously. In Moscow, in the Gorky Central Park of Culture and Culture and on Manezhnaya Square, two of the largest Christmas trees have been installed. On the first of January, a ball-carnival of excellent students took place in the House of Unions. Since that time, a tradition has begun to specially arrange children's New Year's holidays in the premises of the former Nobility Assembly.

1938

The leader did not like the idea of ​​dividing trees into main and non-main ones. When in October 1937, Kaganovich asked Stalin: “Where will we put the main Christmas tree?”, He replied: “We have all the main Christmas trees.” These words were taken literally and regarded as an order. From among the paratroopers of the agitation squadrons, detachments of Santa Clauses urgently began to form in order to throw new Year gifts to the most inaccessible parts of the country. This action, according to its organizers, clearly promoted the capabilities of Soviet aviation and paratroopers. Other settlements on the eve of 1938, propaganda trains, propaganda cars and snowmobiles left, civil planes took off, skiers and even special couriers on reindeer teams set off.

But the Christmas tree in the House of Unions was out of competition. Miracles were expected from the first step. At the top of the stairs, decorated in the form of a fabulous mountain, there was a red-star plane. Then all the people followed the conquest of the Arctic, and the names of the polar explorers were known to everyone Soviet child. The hall of the Arctic, specially equipped in the House of the Unions for the time of Christmas tree performances, was constantly overcrowded. The most attractive exhibit was a huge model of an icebreaker under construction. However, the children did not get bored in other rooms either: in one they looked at the outlandish animals brought from the zoo, in the other they met with the heroes folk tales and popular Soviet children's books, in the third they were offered attractions for every taste. But the center of the holiday was a beautiful Christmas tree, on which ten thousand Christmas-tree decorations with worker-peasant and communist symbols sparkled in the beams of spotlights.

1945

The New Year holiday in 1945 turned out to be joyful and bright for those times. In the center of the Hall of Columns there was a 26-meter Christmas tree. The role of Santa Claus was played by the then popular artist Mosestrada S. Preobrazhensky. He has played this role for many years. On the main staircase, young guests were greeted by mummers playing musical instruments. The children especially liked the hare orchestra. "Hares" played carrots instead of pipes. Amusements worked in the foyer: swings, ferris wheel, carousel. Puppet jazz was played in front of the "magic room" under the direction of the conductor Gutalin Gutalinovich...

1947

On December 23, 1947, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, January 1 was declared a "holiday and non-working day." In essence, from that time on, the phrase “The main Christmas tree of the country” gained official status.

1953

Scenarios for children's New Year's performances in the House of Unions were written by Stalin Prize laureates Lev Kassil and Sergei Mikhalkov. Of course, not a single performance was complete without praises to the “great leader”. So, at the end of the interlude of the meeting in 1953, the wings parted and a portrait of the father of the peoples was opened in front of the children in the whole scene, and Father Frost and the Snow Maiden sang:

“We will stand in a friendly circle at the Christmas tree
And sing with the whole country:
“Hail, our great Stalin!
Hail, our dear Stalin!”

1954

After Stalin's death, Christmas trees received the "right to enter" the Georgievsky Hall of the Grand Kremlin Palace. For the first time, the Kremlin was opened to the lucky ones who received new year invitations. One of them was 14-year-old excellent student Mark Orlovsky, whose father died a heroic death at the front. Remembering that time, Mark Mikhailovich says that he walked around the fairy-tale palace, stunned with happiness. He, a native Muscovite who grew up in a communal apartment, could not even imagine that there were such luxurious halls in his city. The very possibility of entering the forbidden Stalinist citadel seemed incredible. Neither New Year's performance, no chic gift could stun the boy as much as the very opportunity to walk freely around the Kremlin ...

Cotton wool snow, a Christmas tree on a cross, a shooting serpentine and other attributes of the holiday come from the Soviet Union

Deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR communist Andrei Mikhailovich Chepelev, his wife Zoya Vasilievna, educator kindergarten, son Volodya and daughter Tanya during preparations for the New Year. 1985

Meeting the New Year is one of the main holidays of the Soviet people. They prepared for the celebrations in advance and very carefully: the New Year was celebrated by all sectors of society and representatives of all nationalities.

Now it seems that the New Year was always celebrated. In fact, in the Soviet Union, the presidium decided to celebrate it only in 1947. At the same time, January 1 was declared a day off. Until that moment, the communists claimed that "only the one who is a friend of the priests is ready to celebrate the Christmas tree." Nevertheless, after the war, the holiday of the church Gregorian calendar was returned to Soviet citizens: a celebration, absolutely alien to the ideology of the party, entered the everyday life of the Soviet people. Thus, a grandiose contradiction was born, getting used to which, the people laid the foundation for the Soviet New Year's magical realism - and the most controversial holiday became a favorite for the whole country.

The second day of the New Year became non-working only in 1992, and the five-day new year holidays, which together with Christmas form a long January weekend, appeared in 2004. Since then, many Russians began to disperse in all directions, instead of gathering with the whole family at the festive table with Russian salad and herring under a fur coat.

Christmas tree

The Samorodsky family of engineers and their guests listen to an address by US President Ronald Reagan, broadcast on Soviet television. 1988 (Photo: Alexander Konkov/TASS Newsreel)

Buying a Christmas tree in the USSR was a troublesome business: Christmas tree markets too often came across lopsided or flat specimens. However, buying a Christmas tree is only half the battle, because the installation required time and labor. Someone knocked down a wooden cross with a hammer, in the middle of which a tree was attached, and someone filled an ordinary bucket with bricks and sand to fix the trunk. Then the bucket was wrapped in a white sheet, sometimes cotton wool was laid out. On the resulting "snow" they put Santa Claus and the Snow Maiden from papier-mâché - in paper outfits and with rosy cheeks.

This was followed by the most joyful part of the preparation. A garland with light bulbs, large balls and small toys were hung on the Christmas tree. Then the tree was richly decorated with tinsel and rain. It remained to apply the final touch - to attach the top, the most popular version of which was the red Kremlin star.

Kristina Dikova, Director of Florista:

- In the Soviet Union there was not much choice - New Year's trees were bought at Christmas markets. These Christmas trees were not always distinguished by their beauty, but they were guaranteed to spread a coniferous smell around the house, which, mixing with the aromas of tangerines and salads, created festive atmosphere. Many made do with artificial trees. Often, plastic Christmas trees were stored on the mezzanine for decades, and once a year they were dressed in garlands made by a skilled father of the family from small light bulbs. Trees were decorated with walnuts wrapped in foil, snowflakes and garlands cut out of colored paper, as well as glass toys, rain and tinsel. Live spruce was placed in a bucket of water so that it would stand longer and needles would fall less.

Now there are fluffy pines on sale, if you wish, you can buy blue spruce or fir. There is a tendency to decorate the house with coniferous trees in flowerpots: for the New Year they are decorated with toys and garlands, and after the holiday they are kept on the loggia. Some species in the spring can be planted in open ground in the country, and southern trees can be left in the apartment as house plants. In the 21st century, florist designers make special winter bouquets and table compositions of needles, tangerines, cones, nuts, berries and candles. Wreaths are gaining popularity spruce branches with decorations that can be hung on walls or doors.

New Year's decor and outfits

Ivan Efremovich Buyanov, an old-timer Makaryeva (in the foreground), during preparations for the New Year celebration with his family. Kostroma region. 1989 (Photo: TASS Newsreel)

main characters New Year's decor in the USSR, garlands and rain traditionally became, windows, if possible, were decorated with colored light bulbs. A technological novelty of the 1980s was the so-called light music - a garland that was connected to a TV set so that it blinked in time with the sounds of the air. There was not so much music on television, so often the garlands continued to flash in unison with the speeches of the members of the Politburo.

In terms of clothing, Soviet people were very kind to the New Year. Women bought dresses in advance and did their hair - as a result, in December, the permanent shortage of clothes in stores experienced a seasonal aggravation, and in hairdressing salons there was a flea market and confusion. Sometimes, for the sake of haircuts and styling, women stood in queues, worrying about the fate of hot dishes - by that time the salads were already ready and they were waiting for the holiday on the balconies along with cakes. There was not enough space for all the treats in small Soviet refrigerators.

For matinees in schools and kindergartens, children's costumes were sewn on their own. The especially skilled ones had a chance to impress: children in intricate outfits immediately caught the eye among similar snowflakes and bunnies. Mothers went to the tails of the chanterelles fur collars, and a girl in an unusual costume could feel like a prom queen. On this day, children were allowed to dye their hair and curl their hair, and the highlight of the matinees was masks made of painted papier-mâché. Now these artifacts have become collectibles. The eerie overhead faces of the heroes of fairy tales made an indelible impression: children in the masks of a goat, fly agaric or Cipollino looked especially strange.

Alexander Korolev, head of the architectural bureau Alexander Korolev:

- In the 40-50s of the last century, mass production of holiday attributes was not established. This had a positive effect on the aesthetics of toys: the decorations were man-made. Christmas decorations were produced by the artel method, painted by hand, used natural materials- cotton wool and beads. At one time, there were even toys in the form of birds with real feathers.

In the 70s - the era of universal standardization - the production of holiday paraphernalia was put on the conveyor and the country was filled with typical toys. In each house one could find a standard set: plastic snowflakes, Santa Claus, silver rain, shiny balls and a Christmas tree spire. Many were looking for holiday sets from the GDR: such sets differed from their domestic counterparts and brought variety to the usual decoration of the holiday. To make the decor homely, Soviet citizens glued lanterns and garlands, cut out snowflakes, and mastered the art of origami.

From the 1940s to the 1970s, there were mostly natural Christmas trees in the houses. The first artificial versions were made of rough plastic, they were expensive and did not look very aesthetically pleasing. In the early 80s, more sophisticated polyethylene options began to appear. It was considered the greatest chic to get a silver artificial Christmas tree that looked like rain.

Special effects and postcards

Steelworker Fyodor Zakirov and his family on New Year's Eve. 1984 (Photo: Boris Klipinitser/TASS Newsreel)

salute in new year's eve could only be seen on Red Square - or on TV. However, to create special effects, the Soviet people had their own recipes. The sparklers were the most New Year's Eve: they tried to light them before the solemn countdown of the last seconds of the outgoing year. At midnight, the general rejoicing was reinforced by the soaring ribbons of serpentine and explosions of firecrackers, from which confetti scattered. Small plastic figures flew out, and the children immediately rushed to the floor to find them.

Nowadays, confetti is also used for holidays, but more often they fly out of special guns, blasters and ceiling installations. Types and forms have also evolved: modern confetti vary from foil squares and artificial snow to multi-colored leaves, hearts and stars. Alas, not all popular Soviet special effects survived: paper caps and toy pistols that fired loudly with these caps disappeared along with the cracker figures.

Another indispensable attribute of the New Year is holiday cards, which were signed by the whole family and sent by mail. This phenomenon is partly due to the institution of distribution: after graduation, graduates traveled to different cities of the Soviet Union, spreading relatives throughout the country. Children signed postcards for grandparents, moms and dads, and decades later these artifacts became a source of emotion at family gatherings. A collection of postcards over the years was often kept in candy boxes. Images on postcards were Soviet and life-affirming. In one of the popular stories, Father Frost's sleigh drove along Red Square against the backdrop of the Kremlin; in 1980, the Olympic Bear turned out to be next to Grandfather. Other humanized animals also became heroes of the drawings: hares, wolves, foxes and birds surrounded by winter landscapes.

Maria Nikolaeva, Head of MAD Architects Bureau:

- Among the postcards came across real masterpieces: sometimes they were painted by famous artists and animators. Now such postcards take pride of place in the collections of art of the Soviet era.

The heyday of the Soviet postcard fell on the 50-60s of the XX century. The series dedicated to the space theme became the most spectacular and stylish. On one of the postcards, a Soviet rocket is carrying Christmas tree to Venus, on the other - an astronaut drinks on brotherhood with the Moon, on the third - boys in spacesuits dance around a Christmas tree in outer space. Santa Claus rushing on a sleigh racing with a rocket, a boy flying on top of a satellite - there was a lot of absurdity and naive optimism in the drawings, but this is precisely the secret of their charm.

Festive feast

Workers of the Baku plant of domestic air conditioners (from right to left) engineer Tariel Hajiyev with his son Sanan, his wife Zeynab and their mothers Sabiga Hajiyeva and Gyulara Guliyeva during the celebration of the New Year in new apartment. 1984 (Photo: Becker Abram, Tavakalov Albert/TASS Newsreel)

Preparations for the main holiday began in advance: Soviet families bought sausage and looked for scarce canned food - green peas, sprats, cod liver, squid and krill for salads. On New Year's Eve, folding holiday tables were opened in the rooms, families solemnly seated themselves between the wall-slide and a large carpet on the opposite wall. There was a ringing of crystal and festive sounds of the New Year's "Spark" on TV.

A vase with Abkhazian tangerines, a box of chocolates, "Soviet" champagne, Olivier salad, as well as options for puff fish dishes: "Mimosa" or herring under a fur coat, were always present on the table. Vinaigrette, beet and carrot salads were prepared less often. The free space between the main courses was occupied by plates with homemade pickles: they were relevant not only because they are good for snacking on vodka, but also because fresh vegetables were available only in season. It was believed that the New Year's table should be full of food - in this case, the abundance in the house will remain for the whole year.

These days, the return of religion and the unification with Christmas is gradually making changes to the festive menu. Those who observe the Advent fast abstain from meat, fish, dairy products, eggs, and alcohol. And although this is not a mass phenomenon, festive table becomes less heavy on the stomach. With the collapse of party ideology, Christian motifs began to return to New Year's design - for example, winged angels. And the star in the minds of Russians began to turn from the Kremlin into Bethlehem - a symbol of the birth of Jesus Christ. The long weekend finally connected the calendar New Year with the Christmas holiday. Nevertheless, such an essentially anti-Soviet holiday is still associated primarily with the USSR - after all, it is in this country that modern Russians have learned to truly widely celebrate the New Year.

With the participation of Ekaterina Aistova

As in the days of the Soviet Union, the New Year to this day remains one of the most beloved holidays among Russians. In all houses, they decorate a Christmas tree, prepare treats and buy gifts for the closest and most dear people. But still, the changes that have taken place in life since the collapse of the USSR could not but make adjustments to the main holiday.

Waiting for a holiday

The tradition of decorating a Christmas tree arose even before the revolution - then it was an invariable attribute of children's holidays, round dances were danced near it, celebrating Christmas. But in the early Soviet Union, the green beauty was a forbidden attribute - they saw signs of anti-Sovietism and bourgeois manners in it. True, already in 1935, the Christmas tree returned to the life of Soviet citizens and since then has become an invariable symbol of the New Year. Until the 60s, only living forest beauties stood in the houses, and only then artificial ones began to appear on sale.

Mornings in kindergartens

Although the scenarios of matinees differed from each other in actions and characters, they still had a common leitmotif - goodness and friendship defeated evil, children saved Santa Claus, the Snow Maiden from evil wizards and helped the holiday to take place. The gifts were sweets, which were packed in colorful bags or cardboard boxes.

Christmas tree decorations and decoration of apartments

In 1937, balloons with portraits of leaders and members of the Politburo were even released. A variety of cucumbers, apples, corn cobs, mushrooms, pears, berries demonstrated the importance and success of agriculture. Toys in the form of lanterns, animals, birds, houses and household items - watches, light bulbs, teapots, samovars were also unchanged. In the collections of Christmas decorations one could find a reflection of the development Far North and the Arctic (pilots, polar bears, polar explorers), the popularity of the circus (clowns, elephants, dogs), successes in the space industry led to the appearance of rockets and astronauts on Christmas trees, in war and post-war times - soldiers, guns, tanks. Heroes of fairy tales and cartoons were popular toys. Toys on clothespins were released in a separate series, which quickly settled in every family.

Christmas trees were decorated with glass beads, toys made of beads and glass beads, colorful tinsel and rain.

They tried to decorate the apartment in those days. There was no abundance of decorations for the interior in the stores, so I had to turn on my imagination. The whole family cut out snowflakes - from white paper, napkins or foil. Moreover, there were no generally accepted stencils, everyone who picked up scissors was a designer. Later, together with the children, they began to make beads from strips of colored paper - they were folded into rings and connected to each other in a chain. In Soviet times, a tradition was born to attach colored rain to the ceiling - its edge was twisted into a piece of cotton wool, moistened with it, and as if by magic, it stuck to the whitewash.

Scarce products and the menu of the New Year's table

The most popular products for purchase were green peas, which were an indispensable component of the traditional Olivier; serverat, which was taken with "sticks"; loaves of boiled sausage, the most popular of which was Doctor's; salted herring - as a separate snack or the basis of everyone's favorite "fur coat".

The invariable attribute of the New Year's table was "Soviet champagne", vodka and tangerines. Many people bought chicken, which was in short supply at that time, which was extremely rare on the shelves and was sold "no more than 2 pieces in one hand."

On the New Year's table in almost every house one could see jelly, aspic, beetroot salads, vinaigrette, mimosa, Russian salad, fish dishes, stuffed chicken. In some families, pies, dumplings or manti were traditional treats.

The most popular Christmas gifts

Sometimes they gave Soviet cufflinks, ties - but for some it was considered bad manners. Children were most often given only sweets.
A special part of the congratulations were New Year cards. They were always chosen with trepidation and personally signed to each addressee, handed over personally or sent by mail. Kind, colorful, bright postcards kept a whole bunch of emotions and memories.

New Year's address

It is interesting that at the end of the 80s there was an unusual tradition - the celebration of the New Year was accompanied by a mutual exchange of congratulations with the citizens of America. Then US President Ronald Reagan addressed the citizens of the USSR, and Mikhail Gorbachev congratulated the Americans. This was the case between 1986 and 1988.

And in the Soviet Union there was a wonderful tradition of sending postcards to relatives and friends.
Perhaps many remember at least one of this collection.