A parade of individually designed Christmas trees opened in GUM, TSUM turned into a gift box tied with a red ribbon with a corporate bow, and lights began to flash on Tverskaya Street. How else will the streets and boulevards of the capital be decorated for the warmest and most beloved holiday of Muscovites – New Year's Eve, RG correspondent found out.
As the press service of the city services complex said, this year Moscow will be decorated with about 4,000 gently decorative structures. The street space design concept is largely similar to last year. With one exception: the focus is on budget savings. Everything that is used to decorate the city today has been used for decoration. Novelty will be added by the work of artists who have arranged colorful elements differently, making the compositions look completely different. The easiest way is to update the designs with the numbers for the next year – 2026, where only the last digit is replaced. The giant crown near house 18 on Tverskaya Street was updated in the same way.
Symmetrical light domes familiar to Moscow residents have been installed on Pushkin Square and Novopushkinsky Park and are currently being installed. According to the press service, these domes first decorated the city in 2017, that is, the Year of the Theater, so by their appearance one can guess the facade of the Russian Academic Youth Theater. Such arches also appeared on Tverskaya Square, in Gazetny Lane, on Kuznetsky Most Street. Their design remains the same, but the technical components have been modernized, now the color and brightness of the lights can be adjusted remotely.
VDNKh territory is completely ready for the holiday season. There are dozens of different Christmas trees shining with lights, several light domes in the form of kokoshniks have been installed, and the artificial turf skating rink is shimmering with lights. The assembly of a giant 20-meter high New Year's ball continues on Poklonnaya hill. The beloved luminous sculptures of polar bears, nicknamed “Umka family”, will as always decorate the area in Rostokin, not far from the aqueduct. But this time they won't be the only bears on vacation. For the first time this year, they will be accompanied by a family of bears sitting in front of the main entrance to the Moscow Zoo. There are no LEDs on them and they don't need a backlight. Brown bears, assembled from metal panels, are located at the entrance to the zoo, lavishly decorated with vertical landscapes and balloon garlands.
The area in front of the Central Children's Store on Teatralny Proezd is decorated with giant gazebos that glow in the form of gifts. And on Lubyanka Square they began to decorate the spruce tree, from which garlands shined in the starry sky. Simultaneously with the installation of various lighting structures, light stands are also decorated: light panels in the form of crystal, glass and spirals are placed on them.
The focus is on budget savings. Everything used to decorate the city today has been used for decoration, but it looks new.
Another novelty this year is that there are many Tet creations made from live trees and shrubs in tubs. This is part of the ecological design concept. You can see such spaces at the Moscow Seasons festival venues. More than 10 thousand different types of plants are expected to be grown there. For example, in front of the Nautilus shopping center (on Teatralny Proezd), the “Bilibino motif” of birch trees and soft Russian fir trees is recreated. The square in front of the Bolshoi Theater will be decorated with decorations inspired by the winter fairy tale “The Nutcracker and the Mouse King”. “Crystal” flowers will grow near fountains, in front of them will be figures of dancing heroes and houses with fancy roofs.
“City of Christmas tree decorations” will open on Manezhnaya Square, where New Year's toys made of “cotton” will become the highlight. And on Revolution Square you will be able to immerse yourself in the atmosphere of the capital at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries. The main attraction here will be an elegant toy locomotive. The toy theme will continue with Kuznetsky Most, where they will install a four-meter-high red bear with a Christmas tree and of smaller sizes, a spinning top, a rocking horse, an airplane, etc.
The government promised to fully complete the New Year's decoration work before December 1. From this day the festival “Winter in Moscow” begins.
