Christmas vs New Year in Russia The most solemn and widely celebrated holiday in Russia is New Year, rather than Christmas as in most of European countries and the U.S. It used to be different in royal Russia. People celebrated Christmas widely and paid less attention to the New Year night. There were lots of Christmas traditions like caroling, people were visiting each other and making presents. But after Revolution it has changed. The unofficial, but supported by the government, religion in the Soviet Union became atheism. All religions were banned and there were even religious persecutions. Of course, in such a situation people didn't celebrate Christmas widely. Since New Year was a secular holiday instead of Christmas, it became the main public holiday and united people of different nationalities together.