whan i was little, New Year's Eve smelled of elm-tree, and frosty air and mandarins. decorations for the xmass tree were all made of glass and some glowed in the dark. the most popular were balls (small, big, some with patterns, some without, some with the whole story painted on), and twisted icycles. and pine-cones dusted with glass sugar. those were typical. but there were also brigantines, and stars, and huts with snowy roofs, and mushrooms, and apples, Ded Moroz (Father Frost) and Snegurochka (his granddaughter. the rest of the family being an unsolved mystery); there were little girls and little boys, and little cosmonaut boys in helmets. the box with the fragile treasures wrapped in last year's newspaper and cottonwool would be taken down from the furtherest corner in the pantry, and the careful unfolding and decorating would take the whole day and the entire family. and it smelled of mandarins. and snow:)

do you have your xmass tree up yet?