Here are two links to that point:
1) A Russian's account (link):
"Some of my earliest memories of Russia are of the scent of fresh fir boughs of the Novogodnyaya Yolka or the New Year Tree — yup, it’s the equivalent of the Christmas Tree, except I have never heard of Christmas when I was a little girl, growing up in a Communist secular state."2) Wikipedia's entry (link):
"History of the Russian New Year tree""The tradition to install and decorate a Ёлка (pr: Yolka, tr: spruce tree) dates back to the 17th century when Peter the Great imported the tradition from his travels of Europe. However, in the Imperial Russia Yolka were banned since 1916 by Synod as a tradition, originated in Germany (Russian counterpart during World War I). This ban was prolonged in the Russian SFSR and the Soviet Union until 1935 (New Year tree was seen as a "bourgeois and religious prejudice" until that year).[1] The New Year celebration was not banned, though there was no official holiday for it until 1935. The New Year's tree revived in the USSR after the famous letter by Pavel Postyshev, published in Pravda on December 28, 1935, where he asked for installing New Year trees in schools, children's homes, Young Pioneer Palaces, children's clubs, children's theaters and cinema theaters.[2] In 1937, a Novy God (New Year) Tree was also installed in the Moscow Palace of Unions. An invitation to the Yolka at the Palace of Unions became a matter of honour for Soviet children."
I did not mean that what you said about the history and the New Year Tree items was a theory, I mean that your implication that the Frank Davis house wasn't using a Christmas tree was contradicted by the fact that one of the wall ornaments said "Christmas". I have no dispute whatsoever with the information you provided. I am just saying that despite an Atheist/Communist not agreeing with Christmas, Frank Davis had a Christmas tree up anyway.
I say he did it because his wife and kids demanded it.