New Year's boy

On the 1958 New Year's card

New Year's boy - a fabulous character at the New Year's holiday, acting as a kind of successor to Santa Claus , personifying the passing year. The origins of the character image formation can be found in Russian folk traditions:

“On the eve of New Year's Eve in the Pskov province such a scene was played out: before midnight one of the guys or young men dressed up as an old man, the other - usually a boy - put on a red shirt and a white hat. “Old Man” - the outgoing year sat on a chair in the middle of the hut. At midnight, a boy happily ran into the hut - New Year, pushed his predecessor from the chair and sat in his place. The old year, with general cries, ridicule, driven by a broom, was pushed out of the hut. Everyone congratulated each other on the New Year and wished good health and well. The children, dancing, shouted: “The New Year has come, the Old has stolen, He has shown Himself! Walk, people, Meet the Sun, Drive the frost away! "" [1] [2] [3] [4] [5] .

Already at the beginning of the twentieth century, a little boy personifying the New Year was often portrayed with Santa Claus on postcards . At the same time, if the grandfather was dressed in a red or white coat, then the boy in a blue suit. This tradition also determined the colors of the costumes of the festive characters that appeared in 1937 at the first official Christmas tree in the House of Unions : Santa Claus was accompanied by the Snow Maiden in blue clothes. But there was a place for the European tradition of depicting the departing and new year as an old man and a boy ^[1] .

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  1909 American Postcard

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  Danish postcard of 1911

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  1913 American Postcard

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  Italian postcard of 1940

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  Russian pre-revolutionary postcard

The prevailing image of the New Year as one of the companions of Santa Claus, circulated on holiday cards, is captured in animated films of the 1940s: “Winter's Tale” and “New Year's Eve” . In the wartime cartoon “Winter's Tale”, Santa Claus arranges a forest tree for animals and celebrates New Year in the form of a boy arriving on three horses ^[2] . And already in the first post-war New Year’s animated cartoon, released in 1948, Santa Claus addresses the boy as a grandson ^[3] . Most often, the New Year Boy was depicted on New Year's cards of the late 1950s - mid 1980s, after which the popularity of this character began to decline ^[4] . At the same time, the image continues to be used as part of the festive symbolism ^[5] , although less frequently than before ^[6] , for example, in the song of Dmitry Dunaev:

External Images
	Santa Claus and Boy New Year on the New Year tree in 2014 in the Kremlin
	Old and New Year on the Soviet magazine cover

Forest nooks, snowflakes starfall,

Crystal icicles hanging with earrings.

Among the mighty spruces leading a round dance,

The old Year is barely passing away.

And to meet him joyfully

Through late evening, the New Year’s boy ^{[7] [8]} .

The New Year’s boy is known not only in Russia: a similar character (Sheena Zhila) is a companion of Santa Claus in Mongolia ^[9] .

On greeting cards, the boy was often portrayed arriving in the Russian troika; often used more modern modes of transport: car, train, plane, rocket or satellite ^[10] . For example, in the cartoon “New Year’s Eve,” the New Year’s Boy moves on an airplane. The prevailing traditions of character portrayal are continued by some modern illustrators ^[11] . They note its beauty, quick wit and calm character ^[12] . The characteristic attributes of a boy appearing at New Year's holidays in the company of Santa Claus and Snegurochka are a red coat and a hat with the number for the coming year ^[13] .