Silver Blizzard. Christmas Stories and Yuletide Tales

Today is Christmas, the whole city is in anticipation of a mystery, it dozes in crystalline frost and waits: magic will happen. M.Y. Lermontov Christmas in Russia was the most beloved and long-awaited holiday. Folk traditions – caroling, masquerading, fortune-telling, Yuletide tales – created a special atmosphere of the church Christian holiday. All this is reflected in the Yuletide tales of Russian writers, responding to the expectation of Christmas magic and the child's readiness to believe in the most fairy-tale plots. All events in a Yuletide tale usually unfold over one Christmas night, during which the heroes experience events that allow them to spiritually transform. The main focus of the Yuletide tale is the value of Christian virtue and morality. Christmas stories call us to the idea that a person should always be ready to share a piece of their warm soul with others, and then a true Christmas miracle will certainly happen. This is exactly what the Yuletide tales and stories of N. Gogol, F. Dostoevsky, L. Andreev, N. Leskov, A. Kuprin, I. Shmelev, and others are about.