I lived under Soviet communism and it taught me to love Christmas

I lived under Soviet communism and it taught me to love Christmas. In Russia, Lenin had ‘canceled Christmas’ and had ‘hammer and sickle replacing the cross.’

Rebekah Koffler is the president of Doctrine & Strategy Consulting, a former DIA intelligence officer, and the author of  "Putin’s Playbook: Russia’s Secret Plan to Defeat America." She also wrote the foreword for "Zelensky: The Unlikely Ukrainian Hero."

My sister and I relished the moment when we helped our mother decorate with ornaments a freshly cut Yolka that our father brought home. And we couldn’t wait to go to mom’s workplace to dance a khorovod around the lit-up tree and get a translucent sack filled with candy and one tangerine – a big rarity back then, especially in winter – from a bushy eye-browed and long-bearded Grandfather Frost and his granddaughter Snowgirl. It was a fairytale that became real, albeit just for a few short days.