When I was little, my parents and I moved to Toronto, Canada from Russia. When we first arrived it was hard for me to find my place in this new, Canadian culture. Everything was different, the language, the food, even the difference of having Santa Claus for Christmas rather than Ded Maroz for New Year’s!

When we lived in Russia, we never celebrated Christmas but instead in December we celebrated New Year’s. On December 31^st we exchanged presents, spent time with family members, and participated in school concerts with Ded Maroz and his grand-daughter Snegurochka.

My parents helped me cope with the culture shock by encouraging me to watch North American movies and television shows when the holidays rolled around. Through watching videos like Meg’s Christmas, I learned that Santa Claus comes down our chimney, and through other fun videos I realized that I was supposed to leave him cookies and milk. Movies and videos also showed me how elves worked in Santa’s workshop! These videos did more than just help me assimilate into a new culture. They helped me make friends among my schoolmates because by watching these videos I was able to learn English much faster.

As I grew older, we decided as a family to keep our Russian roots. We started to watch Russian movies and videos like когда зажигаются елки around the holidays and continued to celebrate New Year’s Eve as well as Christmas, and in the end it helped me preserve my heritage.

Enjoy your holiday films and happy holidays!