The New Year, a holiday we celebrate with a peculiar feeling, is here. Today is the first one in the series of leisurely winter days to spend with friends, family and loved ones. Some of us are waiting for feasts and joyful meetings, and others – for long-awaited New Year miracles and surprises, walks along the brightly decorated streets and snow-covered parks, romantic meetings and joint trips, visiting a skating rink and skating on ice slides.

The New Year is one of the most beloved holidays in our country. We all want cosiness, care and love, we are waiting for miracles... And how can miracle happen without a Christmas tree? A Christmas tree decorated with brightly coloured toys and garlands has long been considered a symbol of New Year and Christmas. It is impossible to imagine the New Year celebration without this forest belle.

In Russia, the first Christmas tree appeared in the Time of Troubles (1598–1613). However, this tradition was not widely spread, Christmas trees were put in the imperial and boyars’ (landowners’) private quarters. During the reign of Peter I, conifers were set up on the eve of winter holidays in Moscow, in particular, in the Kremlin Sobornaya Square (Cathedral Square) and in the Gostiniy Dvor. After the death of Peter I, this tradition was forgotten for a long time. The first public Christmas spruce was set up in 1852, in the building of the St. Petersburg Ekateringofskiy Railway Station. The huge fir tree “one side was adjacent to the wall, and the other one was decorated with scraps of multicolour paper”. Soon public Christmas trees were arranged in the buildings of Nobility Assembly , Officers' and merchants' Assemblies, in the major recreation centers, in theatres and other public places. Since the beginning of the 1850s, the Christmas tree festivities in the Moscow Nobility Assembly lounge became annual. The tradition was discontinued during the First World War. Emperor Nicholas II banned setting Christmas trees.

After the October Revolution, the ban was cancelled, and on December 31, 1917, the first public Christmas tree was set up in the Mikhailovsky Artillery School in Petrograd.

The Komsomol Central Committee mandate was issued on December 29, 1935. It recommended that New Year celebration events should be "merry and without tediousness, with songs, dances and amateur performances…” Soon, the New Year holidays for children were held throughout the country.

In 1936, the People's Commissars Council issued a decree on the New Year public celebration and it became one of the most significant public holidays from the very beginning. The Christmas tree celebration holiday was held in Column Hall of the House of Unions. Father Frost (Santa Claus in the USA and European countries) was a part of the festivities from the very beginning. Snegurochka (the Snow Maiden) appeared simultaneously with him. She was known before as a folkloric character, even in the pagan mythology. In new times, she was recollected due to the play “The Snow Maiden” of A.N. Ostrovsky and the opera of the same name by N.A. Rimsky-Korsakov. The Snow Maiden was not associated with Christmas, her appearance was an original invention of the Soviet era.

In 1954, the country major New Year tree was moved to the Kremlin that was previously inaccessible to common people. Since the 1950s, even before the first man flew into space, the space theme has been one of the dominant themes of New Year festive celebrations.  The actors dressed in space suites met children before the performance started. Space rocket, in which the New Year arrived, was among stage decorations. At the very beginning, the Christmas tree was held in the Grand Kremlin Palace. A huge beautiful fir-tree was abundantly decorated. Children sang and moved in round dance ring around this tree, various contests were held. A playground with attractions and ice slides was equipped and decorated outside the building. After the Kremlin Palace of Congresses (now the State Kremlin Palace) was opened in 1961, the New Year tree moved to this building. Broadcasting was organized and detailed reports were published in all newspapers. Since then, the holiday in the Kremlin Palace has been called "the country main New Year celebration". Moreover, since the mid-1960s, it has been held in the form of a fairy-tale performance. Freshly chopped Christmas trees have been installed annually in the Kremlin Sobornaya square since December 1996.

The search for a suitable tree begins when summer is approaching to its end. Space and helicopter survey is used to the full. The spruce should be at least 80-100 years old; the branches’ amplitude is to be not less than 15 meters. It is brought inside the Kremlin territory through the Spassky Gate. After the New Year holidays, the spruce is dismantled, and its wood is used for producing souvenirs. The Russian Federation major New Year tree, which this year was installed in the Kremlin, ranks second in the rating of Europe tallest festive trees. The height of the Kremlin spruce reaches 30 meters, and the trunk diameter of the 90-year-old coniferous giant is 60 centimetres, the span of the bottom branches is eight meters.

The first Christmas tree toys were associated with the Christian themes (figurines of angels, magicians, seraphs and cherubs). Candlesticks, sweets, fruits and nuts served as decorations. The top of the tree was crowned, as a rule, by an eight-pointed star (the symbol of Bethlehem star). Later, Christmas decorations from glass were brought from Germany. Russian production of glass balls and beads was established by the end of the 19^th century. The history of Christmas tree decorations in Russia largely reflects the history of the country: sweets, glass balls and Bethlehem star as a topper; then paper airplanes and the Red Army men with the five-pointed red star as a topper on the first Soviet spruces; further, paper snowflakes and balls of burned light bulbs on the spruces during the war years; paratroopers, astronauts and clocks "five minutes to twelve" in the 1960s; bought in huge queues difficult-to-obtain boxes of balls from the German Democratic Republic and glass tree toppers in the 1980s.

The museum Collection section "Musical Houseware" features musical stands for the New Year trees.
Music album comprised of the New Year tunes digitised from the music media stored in the museum Sound Library is posted in the museum Phonotheque.