One of the most beautiful examples of Christmas cultural craftmanship are “matryoshkas.” Also known as Russian nesting dolls or Russian tea dolls, matryoshka are a set of wooden, beautifully hand-painted dolls in forms of cups that nest inside of each other.

Originally made in 1890 by a wood carver named Vasily Zvyozdochkin of Russia from a design by Sergey Malyutin, a folk crafts painter, the outer layer originally depicted a traditional Russian peasant woman. Inside, each hand-painted doll cup figure varied in gender, decreasing from adult to child. The smallest, innermost doll was a baby turned from a single piece of wood. The general theme of the cups could vary; but the overarching theme establishes the outermost cup as mother of generations carrying on her legacy through the childre…