Snowflakes are quietly falling outside, while we are choosing presents for our loved ones and getting ready to celebrate New Year’s Day… We know how to create a festive atmosphere, spread good cheer, start believing in miracles, and have fun during the New Year holidays. Below you will find a selection of interactive programmes, enjoyable workshops and captivating games for your entire family or a group of friends, young and old, prepared by the Silver Necklace museum information centre. Pick the ones you like and embark on a journey with us. Join us in experiencing the most magical celebration of the year.
ARKHANGELSK REGION
Vasily Kulakov Velsk Museum of Local History and LoreNew Year’s Eve interactive performance
Everyone will love the merry round dances, singing, fun contests and workshops for making New Year tree decorations.
Christmas Comes with Christmastime theatre workshop
You will assist at a fortune-telling evening in a traditional Russian hut and learn the history of wintertime Orthodox celebrations, including Christmas, Epiphany and yuletide. We have interesting stories, puzzles, a costume performance and much more in store for you.
For more details go to vel-museum.ru
Northern Maritime Museum
Fishing net making workshop
How did the Pomors make fishing nets, their traditional craft? What do you call the needles the fishermen used? How hard is it to make a net? Come to this workshop at the Northern Maritime Museum to find answers to these questions and make a real fishing net. This programme will be interesting for both young and old.
Come to the Northern Maritime Museum and say goodbye to the outgoing year. You will make sea-style ornaments and put them on our outdoor New Year tree. We will also treat guests to tea from a samovar and show you Samoyed husky dogs, including a photo session with them. For more details go to https://vk.com/arhsevmormuseum
Address 80 Severnoi Dviny Embankment, Arkhangelsk
Museum of the Artist and Fairy Tale Writer Stepan Pisakhov
Arkhangelsk Gingerbread workshop
During the workshop on making Arkhangelsk kozuls, traditional decorated gingerbread, we will share 40 years of experience and research, the most precise recipes and the best advice, as well as inspiration and an opportunity to create these treats together. You will learn interesting recipes and prepare sweet gifts. Later, having the recipes and know-how, you will be able to make gingerbread by yourself at home.
For more details go to http://www.arhmuseum.ru/museums/view/9
Address 10 Pomoskaya Street, Arkhangelsk
VOLOGDA REGION
Kirillo-Belozersky Museum ReserveNew Year Toy Story performance
We invite you to take part in the New Year Toy Story theatre performance, inspired by Gianni Rodari’s fairy tales and put on by students and faculty from the Vologda Regional Culture and Tourism College. We are looking forward to welcoming you at our museum reserve! Let’s have fun!
Vologda Museum Reserve
Searching for New Year interactive show
This New Year programme is for primary school pupils. The local nature exhibition will come to life during this News Year performance. A brownie will step out of a fairy tale to share secrets on celebrating New Year, after which participants will get to light up a New Year tree, together with Father Frost and his Snow Maiden, followed by games and New Year puzzles. Each participant will get a treat at the end.
Held in Joseph Zolotoi’s ceremonial rooms, the programme includes champagne, lieder singing, a flower postal service game, the secret language of hand fans, quizzes, live images from the history of our town, and of course ballroom dancing. Let yourself be carried away on a romantic and uplifting journey into the 19th century.
KALININGRAD REGION
Amber MuseumSnow Fairy Tale interactive show
We invite our guests, young and old, to take part in the Snow Fairy Tale, an educational and entertainment show held as part of the Amber Museum for the Family project. Youngsters and their parents will learn the story of New Year decorations, watch Soviet-era cartoons, wish one another a happy New Year, and take part in a chocolate lottery where no one will leave without a prize. The younger participants will make New Year tree decorations or amusing souvenirs.
Museum of the World Ocean
Christmas in the Baltics
Are you longing to set off on an adventure? Same here. Join us at the Museum of the World Ocean during the New Year holidays for a cruise around the Baltic Sea countries. You will learn about Christmas celebrations in Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, New Year meals in Sweden and Finland, and how people in Denmark, Poland and Germany celebrate Christmas, without failing to experience the warmth and comfort of Russia’s Christmas traditions. Ships from our museum and its exhibition spaces will serve as a venue for workshops, quests, tours and expositions. You will travel across borders to learn about maritime museums, their wonderful exhibits, and the history of the wonderful Baltic Sea we all share.
LENINGRAD REGION
House of Alexander Pushkin’s NannyNew Year Is Here, Come See Nanny interactive New Year programme
The House of Alexander Pushkin’s Nanny invites you to take part in an interactive programme titled New Year Is Here, Come See Nanny. Visitors will learn about the life of Alexander Pushkin’s nanny, Arina Rodionovna, as well as about New Year and Christmas traditions in Russia. They will listen to Christmas tales Arina Rodionovna used to tell, as well as take part in a contest and a Christmas angel workshop. At the end, each participant will get a fortune-telling message for 2022.
Gatchina Museum Reserve
Dream Castle
Join us for a magical trip to the Dream Castle. This unique castle, standing by a lake, was built by an architectural genius who went down in history as a Russian Leonardo. In it, he realised his dream of sparing woods and groves when building houses, allowing people to live in harmony with nature. There is another dream this castle embodies: the dream of an emperor knight who wanted a kingdom of mercy and justice, virtue and honour. A knight from the Order of Hospitallers, as well as a master of rammed earth construction and wonderful ladies will tell you this and much more at Gatchina’s Priory Palace.
Know anything about celebrating Christmas in the Russian Empire? Sign up for this entertaining programme at the Priory Palace and come with your family to learn about Christmas carols, fortune-telling and other Christmas traditions. You will see a portable puppet theatre made according to ancient traditions and will watch a southern Russian play from the late 19th century on King Herod’s death, touching for its sincerity, straightforward nature and the charm of the southern Russian accent. You and your children will learn what it felt like to celebrate Christmas in a Russian estate or village. At the end, you are invited to a fun photo session so that you can remember this day forever.
During this family programme, you will visit the palace’s ceremonial chambers, as well as the private quarters of Emperor Alexander III to find out how people celebrated Christmas in Russia. You will also learn about the first Christmas tree, children’s parties and the presents members of the Imperial family received.
MURMANSK REGION
Murmansk Region Local History and Lore MuseumNew Year Bustle cultural programme
The museum offers a programme packed with entertaining and educational activities for everyone. With the New Year holidays around the corner, visitors are invited to attend the New Year Mood, Fairy-Tale Winter, and Waiting for the Holidays workshops on making New Year gifts, as well as get their faces painted.
Kandalaksha History Museum
Father Frost’s Workshop
New Year is a time of magic and gifts, and also a great time for handicrafts. Everyone has their own way of decorating their homes, although handmade decorations have been gaining traction lately. We invite you to join us at our workshops on making New Year toys, gifts and decorations.
NOVGOROD REGION
Old Believer Homestead interactive museumOld Believers’ New Year with Grandfather Frost
The Old Believer Homestead invites its guests to celebrate New Year’s Day according to the traditions of the Old Believers. Experience the atmosphere of New Year wonders and popular traditions. You will meet Grandfather Frost, the master of cold weather, as well as his wife, Mother Winter. Taste a traditional decoction, go through a purification rite, build a weather idol for Grandfather Frost and learn all about him. Visitors will also get to make their own rag toy, which also serves as a charm, and hear some ancient legends. As a gift, Grandfather Frost will offer all guests a boost of energy and health for the entire year. The programme includes lots of fun games and activities, followed by a fairy-tale feast with black cabbage soup from the Russian stove. The event ends with an interactive museum tour showing how the Old Believers lived, as well as their customs, traditions and rites.
Porcelain Chimes Ecomuseum
Inside a Fairy Tale programme
Children will enjoy this amusing interactive programme by a New Year tree, in the company of Father Frost, the Snow Maiden, the Snowman and many other characters. You will visit Father Frost’s workshop to learn how to decorate New Year ceramic toys, and after that, have a tea party, visit the photo booth, and buy New Year souvenirs.
Porcelain New Year Gifts programme
This is a porcelain casting workshop for learning how porcelain is made. Participants get to make their very own New Year souvenirs. The programme includes a virtual tour of the porcelain factory, and an opportunity to make unique porcelain souvenirs (or gifts) and decorate them.
Borovichi Museum
New Year quest at the History Through New Year Tree Decorations exhibition
Where does the wonderful tradition of making New Year tree decorations come from, and when was it born? Who had this brilliant idea of putting circus clowns and acrobats on fir trees, and which decoration became the symbol of Carnival Night, the classic 1956 musical film? Why were the first Soviet ornaments for the New Year tree at the Kremlin so precious that every effort was made to make sure that they did not break? This amusing New Year quest will offer its participants an insight into the history of New Year decorations, celebrations and traditions. All participants will be invited to attend a fancy-dress photo session in the museum’s New Year interiors and compete for a prize.
PSKOV REGION
Pushkin Museum Reserve in MikhailovskoyeNew Year entertainment programme in Bugrovo: Mother Winter Plays Her Tricks
Come join us for a carol singing and costume parade, fortune-telling, traditional songs, ancient games and outdoor winter activities. Both young and old will enjoy the Pushkin-era fairy tales that Alyonushka the Storyteller tells in the Miller’s House. You can make Christmas decorations in the Russian Grammar Class to take home as a souvenir.
Christmas Evenings at a Russian Estate
Come to the Trigorskoye Museum Estate during the New Year holidays for a literature and music performance to experience what it was like to celebrate Christmas in an old Pushkin-era estate. Music and poetry, as well as various amusements – games, dancing and charades – will help you get into the magical spirit of celebrating the winter holidays at a Russian estate.
REPUBLIC OF KARELIA
Kizhi Museum ReserveDiscover Kizhi and its Traditions over the New Year and Christmas Holidays (departure from Petrozavodsk)
Come join us to experience our New Year holiday programme along with the best traditions of the Kizhi Museum Reserve. You will discover the snow-covered island and its key attractions, including the Church of the Intercession of the Theotokos and the home of Nestor Oshevnev, a wealthy peasant. You will also visit the historical village of Yamka and a New Year tea party in an ancient hut with a samovar, tasty Karelian pastries and Onega-style New Year storytelling by the hostess.
The museum staff will guide you in making your own short animated film. You will learn what kinds of cartoons exist, as well as create your own scenario on a given subject and produce it frame by frame using your smartphone. These images will come together in an amusing cartoon, titled Cat in the Barn. The workshop will end with a screening of your productions.
Republic of Karelia National Museum
Christmas Souvenir workshop
New Year and Christmas are a time for getting together, a time of joy, presents and surprises. The Christmas holidays bring warmth into our everyday lives and hope for a brighter future. These days we all want to create an atmosphere of miracles and magic in our homes by making Christmas and New Year tree decorations and ornaments. The Christmas Souvenir workshop will give you an insight into the history of this holiday, what it means and its traditions. At the end, participants will make Christmas decorations on their own.
A sweets box, also known as a bonbonniere, is an elegant small box for sweets or other gifts. It can also serve as a New Year tree decoration. When people first started decorating Christmas trees, they used sweet treats shaped as Christmas symbols: apples, gingerbread, biscuits, gold-plated nuts and small boxes of candy. This tradition lives on, and the sweets boxes take on different forms and designs. During the workshop, participants, both young and old, will make their own bonbonnieres.
Mosaic of Attractions for the New Year holidays
The Mosaic of Attractions invites you to discover the history of Karelia from ancient times to the late 19th century. Come learn about the secrets of cave drawings, life in this region in the Middle Ages, and the history of the Petrovsky and the Alexandrovsky factories, provincial Petrozavodsk and its residents. Join us for this inspiring experience.
This activity is for our younger visitors, who will learn how provincial Petrozavodsk rang in New Year, and how a Karelian village celebrated Christmas. They will take part in ancient rites, solve folk-inspired puzzles, and listen to stories about the Christmas spirit, and what makes New Year holidays so special. Of course, the youngsters won’t leave before making a small New Year souvenir.
New Year Adventure quest
The Republic of Karelia National Museum invites primary school pupils to embark on an exciting quest during which they will have to solve challenging riddles on the history of the New Year holidays, guess a secret word using clues hidden throughout the museum, and find the key to the hall with presents.
KOMI REPUBLIC
National Museum of the Komi RepublicShishkin-New Year: Searching for Bears programme
The story starts with a miracle: the American great-granddaughter of a prominent artist finds herself incognito in the Soviet Union, where her grandfather was born, to fulfil her dream of finding the “three family bears.” Comrade Olya, a Syktyvkar resident, volunteers to give her a hand. Help them find the bears. We have amusing games, dancing and New Year songs in store for you.
Syktyvdinskoye Museum Association
Vylvosya Voipuk: New Year gathering
New Year’s Day is all about magic, fairy tales and having fun. Want to experience something special ahead of the New Year holidays? If so, head to the Vylgort Museum. We have much to offer for the winter holidays. Pupils from 7th to 11th grade can visit the Vylvosya Voipuk, a New Year gathering where they will learn the local customs, play games, and engage in various entertaining activities that everyone will enjoy. Each participant will also get a present from Pas, the museum’s very own cat. Your teenagers will definitely have a great time with us.
ST PETERSBURG
Grand Maket Rossiya MuseumNew Year Mayhem programme
The Grand Maket Rossiya Museum invites pupils on school trips, as well as families, to team up for the New Year Mayhem: Searching for Twelve Heroes programme. This will be a great opportunity to get into the holiday mood and learn something new.
The State Russian Museum
New Year Glass workshop and tour of the exhibition From Idea to Implementation
Join us at the exhibition of works by young glass artists, discover a mini collection of New Year glass toys, and make your own New Year decorations.
Quest at the From Idea to Implementation exhibition and the Fairy-Tale City workshop
Discover how to make vases, glasses porcelain sets, stained glass and glass sculptures by joining the quest and taking part in the workshop Fairy-Tale City on glass painting. At the exhibition, pupils will learn how to make glass items, what glass artists’ work is like, and where they find their inspiration. During the workshop, they will make stained glass using special materials to depict a fairy-tale city.
Join the RussiaTravel.club when travelling across Russia’s northwestern regions, earn bonus points for visiting museums and tourist information centres, and get valuable prizes. All you have to do is go to http://russiatravel.club/ using your smartphone, choose the messenger app you like, and press “Start.” Club members can also access interesting event announcements and themed news digests, get in touch with tourist information centres, and take part in games, quizzes and contests to earn points and win prizes.