As my family and I don't celebrate Christmas on the 25th December, like most people in the UK traditionally do, I am really excited to share how New Year's Eve and New Year are celebrated in Eastern European culture. Granted, not all families do this and the region is not homogeneous everywhere, but quite a few people who choose to celebrate the festive season with their family do the same. 

The one distinct thing about how the New Year is celebrated is the food. Whereas a lot of families do cook chicken and turkey or any other meat of their choice, this is something which isn't the token dish of the table. For as long as I have celebrated New Year's Eve and New Year we have always had Olivier salad on the table. The salad is a traditional Russian dish, which has meat, potato, sweetcorn, eggs, cucumber, onion, carrot and mayo in it. Traditionally smoked ham is used, however it is often the case people make it with chicken now and it is just as nice. We have made both this year and both of the variations were very delicious. 

As a starter, it has been decided that we should make a dish which took the form of a little Christmas tree. It was very easy to make and involved ( for one portion) a single pancake, a slice of ham and some mustard. It was topped off with dill which made it look nice and green and was decorated using slices of olives and small bits of pepper. I have never tried this dish before but it turned out to be very nice and light, I'd love to have it again.

To use the cheese which has been left we also decided to make a beautiful looking dish using some vegetables, cheese, eggs and garlic. We have mixed the cheese, eggs, garlic and mayo together to create a mixture. Then, we have sliced and fried some aubergine on low heat with as little oil as possible. Afterwards we have placed the the circular slices of aubergine on one big plate, covered it in the mixture mentioned beforehand, placed a slice of tomato, cucumber and olive on top of it and it was ready to go. The dish looked very pretty and was very tasty.

My family and I also wrote our wishes on pieces of paper and as the clock started to approach midnight we lit up those pieces of paper, waited until they were practically completely burnt and have placed the burnt paper into our champagne ( after which we had the drink). Although it sounds quite strange, it is something which people do at this time of the year, in hope that their wishes come true. 

I hope all of you have had a wonderful night and wish you a Happy New Year!