Although a bit belated: Merry Christmas.
Traditionally I add my greetings as an excercise in "obfuscated pascal" 
Have fun.
Very nice Christmas tree “from Ikea”, that is, to “assemble” yourself
As suggested, I “assembled it” for myself in Lazarus and I attach what I came out with
...(in Melbourne Australia it never snows, but we do have heat waves instead of cold snow)
Out of curiosity, I checked the temperature in northern Australia. I thought that at this time of year, Darwin and Cairns are even warmer than Sydney. But Google "says" that the temperature is similar.
Where I live, there was a little snow a few days ago. But now it has completely melted. And there is fog. Despite the fact that it is winter. And there should be 20 degrees of frost and at least a meter of snow
That's because the authorities of the Union of European Socialist Republics (UESR) are too slow to eliminate excess CO
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Thanks for Merry Christmas. I live in russian federation which has 100 years of atheism (after anti-Czar 'revolution'). So ppl here respect New Year but pay small attention to Christmas, sad!
Nothing lasts forever. Tyrants and despots are mortal, just like other people. So, someday, something will change for the better in Russia. Let's hope that soon.
Also sad is that Christmas is originally a pagan tradition which was conveniently usurped by religion.... and these are the people who preach honesty and are usually prone to deliver a guilt trip to others.... hmmm... great example
It's not all bad. Many old pre-Christian holidays have been (ostensibly) adopted by Christianity. And in fact, many of them have only a minimal "Christian gilding" or additional elements. It's better that they exist than that they don't exist at all.
Hopefully Ukraine won't be bombed today. It would be nice for them to have a nice day too (for a change.)
Let's hope.
In that case I'd point out that even though there might be historical discrepancies between our calendars, Russia and the USSR have long accepted the principle of using timezones relative to UTC.
The discrepancies concern only the liturgical calendars, since the Orthodox Church sticks to the old method of measuring time.
...After 1991 we have Eltsin's time and Pu's time. These times are somewhat filled with Christianity, but still russian federation has church separated from the state (like in USSR). Pu is walking to the Christ church and to the sinagoga (he fires sinagoga's candles there) at the same time, so it is not full rise of the Christianity.
The separation of religion and the State is a good solution, both for religion, the state and ordinary people. Otherwise, various pathologies appear, as can be seen in many countries. In the case of Russia, it is known that the people at the top of the Orthodox Church are quite strongly connected to the government (Pu). This is neither good for the Orthodox Church nor for society.
Just take a good time with your peoples.
Rightly so. This is also necessary for the psyche, such a break from the "grayness of everyday life". And the end of the year is a good time for this.
...which are mostly about Wasteful consumerism in my experience}
Well, because it's probably a "tradition" of large American agglomerations that has spread. Unfortunately.
strange holiday, where believers should have been praying but they don't, bearded clown with shady past, antlered meat animals and chopped coniferous trees. I don't understand why and what we celebrate.
Everything points to the fact that these holidays are the result of the overlap of different customs from many centuries. And we see the (current) final result. I have nothing against holidays, if they are cheerful and peaceful (maybe I am a little irritated by this consumer chaos). As a child, I always liked that there was a Christmas tree. Today I am not so enthusiastic, but I still like it.
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