Russians are unique, stuck between the West and the East, we take a bit from each of them. We are a mix of cultures, seasoned with our pagan roots and communist past. We’ve only been decorating Christmas trees for less than 200 years (thanks to Germans for this tradition), our Santa Claus (Ded Moroz) was invented around 1930s by the Soviet authority as a collective image of Russian pagan folklore to give a holiday to Soviet children in place of Christian Christmas. Now we, modern Russians, also use Chinese horoscopes as a new year tradition. It is sort of required to have a little figurine or something of a symbolic animal of the upcoming year in your house when you are welcoming New Year.