Russia gets ready to celebrate New Year

Every city in Russia is getting ready to celebrate New Year, the streets are being decorated and Father Frost, the Russian Santa Claus, has begun his procession across the country.

The authorities of Nizhny Novgorod, Volga area, have installed the city's central fir-tree in Minina and Pozharskogo Square. According to Alexei Sokolov, the Mayor's public relations aide, the forest beauty is 110 years old and is almost 30 meters high. The mounting, purchase, transportation and even protection of the tree will cost the city about 30,000 rubles, or 1,000 euros. In the meantime, the residents of Nizhny Novgorod are buying trees to decorate their homes. Fir-trees and branches are being sold in 72 places specially arranged for this purpose. On the average, a tree 1.5 meters tall costs 150-200 rubles.

The central fir-tree of Krasnodar, a regional center in Southern Russia, is installed in front of the city administration. Nikolai Buzmarev, Executive Director of the company Kubandorblagoustroistvo, said the tree was made as usual out of a 20-meter carcass and 700 running meters of fir-tree branches attached to it. The branches were brought to Krasnodar from the Apsheron district.

Almost 500 Father Frosts took part in a festive parade in Kursk, Central Russia. After the procession across the city's central square, the Father Frosts lit up the tree, which had been specially brought from Holland. The Mayor's Office had purchased it for 300,000 rubles.

A Father Frost procession will be held for the first time in Nizhny Tagil: on December 27, more than 100 Father Frosts will march about 3 kilometers along the city streets to the central fir-tree. Having gathered around the tree, they will then mount buses and be taken to smaller New Year celebrations in different parts of the city, where they will amuse children and hand out gifts. All those who want to join the procession must make their own New Year costumes and prepare an entertaining program.

Tickets to the Presidential New Year Celebration in Moscow were given to 56 children from the Volgograd region, Southern Russia. According to the Volgograd regional administration, the children, aged between 9 and 12, were from children's homes and low-income families. There is a vast program waiting for them in Moscow, which includes excursions around the city, making friends with kids of their age, and participation in a New Year Ball on December 27.

More than 2 tons of New Year parcels left Irkutsk on board a warplane and were headed for the North Caucasus, where they will go to Siberian-born soldiers. Colonel Sergei Dimov, the head the Garrison Officers' Club who oversaw the process of putting the gifts together, said the soldiers would get food products and warm clothing. Besides, children from a school in Irkutsk have signed 250 letters of congratulations, which they folded into triangles like the frontline letters. The batch of presents was livened up with two dozens of New Year trees.