For almost a hundred years, we, Russians, have celebrated the New Year the way Westerners celebrate (what's left of) Christmas. What was once a religious ban under the Bolsheviks turned into a custom, largely freeing up the Orthodox Christmas--on January 7th--from consumerism.

Of course, many of us living in North America get to celebrate both the Gregorian- and Julian-calendar Christmas as well as the New Year and the Old New Year (on January 14th). And my name day comes up on January 27th, making the first month of the new year quite festive and masking the breakneck pace of Time's passage somewhat.