Here is a pecise depiction of a New Year in Russia. :)

I would only add that, as far as I remember the procedure, nobody can drink until The President says his speech. So we wait.

For this precious occasion, he is being called "отец родной" -- I tried to translate this phrase, and for some reason I got German translation rather than English. But it's something like "father my dear!" -- the phrase that is used to address the President only on a New Year, sarcastically and kindly. As kindly as a Russian who badly wants to drink can get...

Drinking Vodka for a New Year rather than a wine-- there is a very good and not too romantic reason for it. Wine is being sold everywhere, but you can never be sure if the stuff you buy is a poison. Too many people died drinking "wine", enough so that my father preferred to walk to the Store.

Oh Store!

We have a vodka-producing factory in our town, and when "perestroyka", they got their own store.

The store, as it is said on its doors, is NEVER closed. It works 24 hours a day, without holydays, well, it is just never closed...

When you buy vodka there, at least you can be sure it won't kill you, and for this reason my father always bought all our alcohol there.