Inviting long-robed Grandpa Frost and the snowflake-crowned Snow Maiden to entertain children on New Year's Eve is popular in Belarus, Ukraine and Russia, where Christmas is a less significant holiday than in western and central Europe. The Belarusian Grandpa Frost has the additional duty of ordering frontier guards to allow the New Year in across the border, which runs near his official residence in the Belovezha Forest, the official Belta news agency proudly reports.