When I was doing research for a feature film about the Germans from Russia, I tried to find out as much as I could about how these people lived… including their Christmas traditions. One of my best “sources”, of course, was my own Oma. She was a German-Russian who lived in the Soviet Union (until she came out during WW2).

Being the Soviet Union, it was illegal to openly celebrate Christmas. From what I understand, her family would wait until the New Year, since New Year’s was a big celebration for the Communists. She remembers her family cutting off a branch from a fruit tree and wrapping the branches papier-mache-style (with old newspapers). That was their Christmas tree! Then, they’d hang ornaments from the branches. Some of these ornaments were pretty fancy; from the times of the Czar.

Of course, when they came out during the war, there was little thought to saving those ornaments. Although, I’d loved to see what they looked like!