Christmas holiday in the Snow

As our plane travelled down below the clouds to land at the St Petersburg Airport, we gazed out at a city and country scene covered with a white blanket of snow. Chris' dream of having a white Chrismas has come true!

But what will being in a white wintery world really be like? All we have done so far is walk for 30 seconds from a warm airport to a very warm hotel, and back, so far!


And that is what it has been, over the three days in St Petersburg, formerly Leningrad, Russia. Sometimes our bedroom is too hot for our layers of thermals, winter garments and jackets. Then we go outside, all togged up and think - yes we do have enough on. Then we get into a warm car, museum, shop or restaurant, and we are roasting again!

It's lovely being in St Petersburg at this time of year. It is almost surreal, walking along the streets, with the sidewalks covered in snow, and soft snowflakes twirling out of the sky on your hair, face and clothes. And in the twilight, of which there is plenty, gazing at the beautiful street Xmas decorations.


As a result of their past opression, Russians love celebrating anything today. So the Xmas decorations in the streets were erected in December and will be up intil the orthodox Christmas on January 7. Each year the decorations are improved upon, and swapped from area to area so everyone sees something different. This year 74 artificial Xmas trees were decorated and erected around the city. 20 of these were over 18 meters high and 33 were more than 20 metres high. The largest and only real tree (which apparantly took over 100 years to grow) was erected, as per tradition in the Palace Square.

So when people travel to St Petersburg in the future may expect to find an extremely awesome Christmas display, not only from the trees, but on the buildings, over the streets and in the shops. Even the trees and buildings, decorated by nature with their coating of snow, give a dramatic look to the Christmas scene.

We are not sure what we will do to celebrate Xmas day, as the emphasis for party celebrations seems to be on New Year's Eve. As the shops and museums will be open all day on Christmas Day, we will probably just go cruise around the city. But we don't mind - it was worth all the travelling just to enjoy the Xmas season....