Russians celebrate Christmas with underwater Santa and tree

Residents of the Siberian city of Irkutsk plunged into Lake Baikal on Saturday (December 24) for a year end celebration involving a Christmas tree, Santa Claus and wine.

Members of the New Dimension diving club set up the tree under the lake and held an underwater party, including drinking wine.

Divers, dressed in festival costumes of animals, pirates and Russian cartoon characters, held hands circling around a bright platform some 10 metres below the surface.

The event, which takes place on December 24 as a final dive of the year and borrows from Christmas themes, is held to mark the run up to New Year.

Christmas Day in Russia, under the Eastern Orthodox tradition, will be held on January 7, 2017.

Such underwater celebrations have already become a tradition with locals yearly braving almost minus 20 Celsius (minus 4 Fahrenheit) surface temperatures to bring winter holiday spirit to the banks of the world’s largest and deepest freshwater lake.