How To Spend Russian Christmas? | Is It Country Club, Family Diner Or Church?

This is January 6th, the day before Christmas in the south of Russia, and I'm inviting you to come along and see what a usual Russian family, that's us, does on Christmas Eve. Well, I can't really say we're a usual Russian family, and I can't really say that we do usual things, but come along and see what our day before Christmas looks like. We're gonna start our day off a traditional breakfast at a country club, I'm gonna take my mom and aunt to do some shopping, then we have a Christmas Eve dinner with our family, and at midnight I'm off to a church, because Christmas is a religious holiday in Russia, not a commercial one. We are at my most favorite place in the entire south of Russia, and perhaps in entire Russia, in the country club, and this is our tradition to come here for breakfast once in a while, and this is a great time, Christmas Eve, to come and enjoy a breakfast. I can't say that January is the best time to visit here, because January, in general, not the great place in the south of Russia. It's warm but humid, usually windy, overcast, no sun, not the best time, but hey, what can you do? We come here once in a while, this is our family tradition, and I love the fact that Michael comes here at his early age. Now, let's get inside for breakfast. I know what I'm gonna get for breakfast, I always get the same thing, it's eggs benedict with salmon, fantastic dish, coffee, and a croissant. Now, I'm gonna show you a very traditional food that you eat on Christmas Eve, it's called kutia, I'm not sure how to translate it into English, and I'm not even sure there's an equivalent. In America, kids go around and knock on different doors to get candies on Halloween, and here in Russia, they do it on the 6th of January today. They cook this thing, it's called, it's basically a boiled grain, sweet grain, it's called kutia, and they exchange it for money, so they knock on your door on January 6th here, and say, sing a carol, and then they give you some of this stuff, that's how it looks like, and you know, you give the kids money. It's pretty good, you know, very exotic. Finishing off at a bar drinking tea, now off back home to other things. Days in Rostov in January are so short, that by the time we get out of here, starts getting dark. Love hanging out right here in the summertime. give each other presents. Instead, we pray and go to church, and this is exactly what I'm going to do right now. I'm going to walk to our local church, and visit an all-nighter. All-night service, well, because this is Christmas night. This is past 11 p.m., and I'm gonna walk down to our local church. Streets are empty, and this is about a 15-minute walk from my house. I'm almost there, near the church, right there, and there are quite a few cars parked overnight, that don't belong here, actually. You can barely park. There are tiny parking spots here and there, but they're all taken, and you can see quite a commotion near the church, and this is where we're going right now. People are celebrating, taking pictures. It's very close to midnight. See, everyone's dressed up. Cops are here, right there. They usually are present at large, crowded events like this. See, there are cars in queue to park, but there's no one to park in front of the church. I'm really surprised by the amount of cops present. Pretty incredible. The church is not large. It's medium-sized for Rostov. There are quite a few people, and the service is on. I'm not sure if I can film inside. A bunch of beggars here, usually. I'm gonna put a mask on, just in case. There are tons of cops. I really didn't expect so many law enforcement personnel to be here, so just in case. And I'm gonna take my camera off gimbal, because also just in case, if they see gimbal inside, they might shut me down. But if I just have a cell phone on my hand, you know, in my hand, Christmas night. A few observations. First, people didn't mind me filming. There were others filming here and there for, I don't know, TikTok for themselves. And some people gave looks like, huh? But nothing aggressive. Second, quite a lot of people inside, and as you saw earlier, they are packed there like sardines in a can. But somehow, there is a feeling, a very strong feeling of safety, and there's no COVID in there. You know, no way. Third, cops are actually friendly. You know, they're just observing. They don't even mind to be filmed, which is very unusual and very rare in Russia. And the last observation. This night is feeling magical. This is Christmas night. Fantastic time. And now, walking back home. Not too many people, except for the churchgoers. Feels pretty safe there. Now, this was a fantastic Christmas. But in the next video, I'm going to take you and show Russian Orthodox Church second biggest holiday of the year. In the next video, I'm going to dip into icy water along with Vlad Putin on Russian Orthodox Church epiphany. I'll see you right there.