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10 New Year rules by Evelina Khromtchenko
1. New Year — this is the situation when I always make “old school” decisions, and I have no regrets about it. It’s a family celebration, and any bold experiments are unacceptable.
2. You can celebrate this night with family and friends everywhere but you have to make this situation much comfortable for everyone. if you have a friend or relative who tends to spoil the mood of the majority, it is better him not to be invited.
3. The Christmas tree must be natural and must smell like pine. We decorate it with old Christmas toys – some of them are my family relics, some of them from my antic collection.
4. You should meet the New Year wearing new dress or almost new dress that brought good fortune. Try to get rid of the clothes that “didn’t work” and in which you had negative life situation.
5. Your home should be clean and vases with oranges and nuts are necessary in every corner of the room. There should be smells of cinnamon, ginger and fresh baking. One grandma should bake Napoleon cake, second one – pastry.
6. You should buy plenty of gifts and they should be diverse: the first-one should be useful from your point of view, the second-one should be necessary for the person according his conception of life, the third-one must be unexpected and surprising, the fourth – silly, ridiculous and completely unnecessary, the fifth… and so on, depending on the imagination.
7. Gift wrapping is a necessary thing. I always make it original depending on shape of object and material. I use some packing materials again, changing the texture, volume and shape of the paper. In my opinion it is a very important part of the gift and I don’t understand when people give each other something in the package from the store – it has no New Year spirit at all.
8. Food on the table should be a lot, but all of it should be light: we do not use any mayonnaise, potatoes, butter, fat sour cream but we cook all the traditional dishes, we even have a lite version of Russian salad with fresh cucumbers.
9. We burn Bengal fires and watching “The Irony of Fate, or Enjoy the Steam!”. We open champagne at midnight and make a wish. We call our family and friends, who at this time are somewhere in other place. And then a few days after the New Year we are having guests at home – it is a great excuse to see all my relatives and friends. And always a table covered with a fresh tablecloth, dishes fully assembled and candles are burning – I do not allow plastic cans on the table: all products, including sauces and drinks, has its own special dishes. I don’t understand when people put on the table drinks or snacks in their original packaging…
10. In General I’m doing everything exactly as my grandmother did. Grandma never let me down. Happy New Year!
