New Year's Eve in Russia

When I was growing up in Russia the New Year was The official Winter Holiday. I've never even heard of Christmas. Everyone I knew, and all the businesses celebrated New Year's. There were there same decorated fir trees everywhere and the presents under the trees, except they were exchanged on New Year's Eve. The presents were distributed not by Santa Claus, but Ded Moroz (Grandpa Frost, not Father Frost! Ded means grandpa. Father is papa or otez.) and his charming granddaughter Snegurochka. Ded Moroz was basically the same guy as Santa, just a bit more pagan. His granddaughter Snegurochka had a very sad life - she died every spring, because she couldn't help herself and kept on falling in love with a human. She was ever trying to stay with her new boyfriend, instead of going back to the North Pole. She kept telling her granddad that she was old enough to think for herself, and shortly after he left for the North Pole, she was hit by the warm rays of the spring sun and melted. She kept refusing to learn from her mistakes. She could have at least tried to survive as a vampire would - by sleeping through the day in a cold, dark basement. But she was a particularly stubborn and romantic soul, and kept on melting every time she fell in love, without even giving her new lover an option to save her. I think any guy would be glad to keep her alive if he was told how. But she never told them, and they all ended up going crazy and committing a suicide after she melted. I preferred to believe, like most other little kids, that she returned to the North Pole with her grandfather right after the New Year's ball. I went to that ball like the clockwork, until I became too old for it (somewhere around ten eleven, I think). At the ball there was a gorgeously decorated fir tree, and a concert, and after the concert Snegurochka gave every child a colorful paper satchel with candies to take home. That moment with Snegurochka was my favorite part. She was very pretty, with blue eyes and a blond braid all the way down to her hips, wearing sparkling blue coat with fluffy white trimming and a hat to match. I stared into her face, hoping she wasn't falling in love this year. She was grinning happily the whole time, and was thinking, "Oh, no! Not again!"