Russian Bare French Christmas Celebration New — Enature

The keyword “enature” — a hybrid of “in nature” and the French naturisme (nudism) — has been bubbling under the surface of European wellness for decades. But this Christmas, a provocative fusion is emerging: combining the stoic, icy purification of Russian banya rituals with the sophisticated, clothing-optional libertinage of a French Noël.

“Christmas has become a suffocating blanket of synthetic fleece and plastic tinsel,” says Anya Volkonskaya, a Moscow-based wellness coach who organized a “Bare Frost” gathering near Lake Baikal. “To feel ‘new,’ you must return to the raw. In Russia, the banya is our church. In France, le naturisme is freedom. Merge them, and you have a celebration without pretense.”

By J. S. Orlova

MOSCOW / PROVENCE — In the dusky light of a winter solstice, a group of revelers in the Russian countryside smears honey on their shoulders before plunging into an ice hole. Three thousand miles away, in a heated loft in Provence, a French family removes their silk robes to feast on oysters and bûche de Noël in the nude.

Welcome to the strangest, most intimate holiday trend of the year: “Enature Russian Bare French Christmas.” enature russian bare french christmas celebration new

It is not a typo. It is a philosophy. And it is redefining what it means to celebrate the birth of light in the darkest month.

The Christmas Eve supper (Réveillon) in eco-conscious French homes is a masterpiece of local foraging and seasonal eating. Forget imported mangoes. A bare French Christmas menu includes: The keyword “enature” — a hybrid of “in

If the Russian celebration is about surviving the cold, the French "nature" celebration is about finessing it. France offers a different kind of "bare" Christmas—one stripped of Victorian excess, returning to the rustic farmhouse (fermette) and the silent, snowy countryside.