The fun's not over yet....

My very serious scientific dissertation on the differences between the Ukrainian and American holiday seasons begins with this picture!

Kharkov train station

Government building

Many of my friends back home are probably thinking that the holiday season is already coming to a close...
.....but if you come to Ukraine the party's just getting started!

 December 25th isn't a holiday here by anyone's standards, just business and work as usual. In Russia I even had university finals on December 25th! Here the GRAND holiday is New Year's Eve, followed by the Old Christmas (January 7) and Old New Year (January 14th). This has something to do with the motherland adopting the Gregorian calender about a hundred years ago, hence New Year's Eve falling on December 31st, while the Orthodox Church stuck to their guns and kept the Julian calender.

Remember these pictures from September?

Check them out come December-

Taken at 9 PM at night.

In honor of next summer's Euro 2012 soccer match between Ukraine and Poland.







There's even a mini-train:

One funny difference between Ukraine and the US: The Christmas music you hear in America is a little old-fashioned and designed to make you nostalgic for the past, for family, for snowmen, etc. You're supposed to get a nice warm feeling. The holiday music here is oriented on New Year's, not Christmas, and is designed to get the party going. Check it out-
"We're waiting for presents"
"Happy New Year, happy capital"
"It's New Years, all guys dancing and all girls singing"
(Santa Claus is called Ded Moroz, Grandfather Frost, and his beautiful young sidekick is Snegurechka. Ahem, his granddaughter.)

And this song, that is being played EVERYWHERE! Tell me, does this song make you feel like-

• Option A: tea and a crackling fire 
• Option B: a party and bottle of bubbly?

HAPPY 2012, dear readers!!!!!!!!!!!