Christmas vs New Year 🎄 Catholics vs Orthodox Russians Let’s start with the basics. Christmas in the western Catholic world is celebrated on the 24-25th of December, while the Orthodox Russian world (and some other orthodox countries) celebrates it on the 6-7th of January. Do people in Russia celebrate Christmas as Western people do? In general, No! The major tradition is to celebrate New Year’s Eve - December 31st. But I guess all orthodox religious Russians do celebrate Christmas as well as some atheists because for them it is just a holiday! But as I mentioned, New Year’s Eve is an absolutely huge celebration with lots of fun, food, drinks, gifts, even in some cases music, dancing. It’s predominantly celebrated in families at home, but some people go to restaurants too. Youngsters can gather with friends and something fun) Why do people in Russia celebrate NY more than Christmas? I guess there are some historical and demographic reasons. The tradition comes from Soviet times - in that period people didn’t celebrate Christmas at all. Also, as you know, Russia is a huge and a very diverse country, so not all the population are Christians.