Growing up in Soviet Russia, I didn’t know what Christmas was, let alone celebrate it. Every winter we did, however, celebrate the biggest holiday of the year – New Year’s. All across the country, ...

These days, Christmas is hard to miss and nearly impossible to avoid. But at various times it has been banned in different countries, including Britain. This is the story ...

(JTA) — Growing up in metro Detroit, I used to watch my Jewish mother, who immigrated from Riga, Latvia, decorate a tree in our living room each December. “But we’re Jewish, so why do we have a ...

As America prepares to celebrate Christmas, some government officials across the country have introduced, in their jurisdictions, guidelines for "inclusive decorating practices" and "neutral language" ...

Christians in Russia's Republic of Tatarstan have celebrated Orthodox Christmas in a church once used to execute prisoners during the Soviet era, the Chuvash St. Paraskeva Church in Kazan, the capital ...

While for many people the frenzy of holiday cooking and feasting is subsiding, for Russians, it's just revving up. During the Soviet era, Christmas was erased from the calendar. But its traditions ...

At my first post-college job, as an entry-level engineer in the Department of Submarine Screening / Demagnetization, at Leningrad’s Central Naval Electrotechnics Research Institute, I was paid a ...

Twenty-five years ago this Christmas, the Soviet Union quietly disbanded. The superpower acknowledged itself as outdated, sending its 15 component republics off to pursue independent paths. There have ...

They line the walls of the gallery, regal in bearing, majestic in attitude, wet of nose. They are the dogs of the Soviet space program — Laika, Snezhinka, Ugolyok, et al. — and they are the subject of ...