The story
Journey to Christmas Moscow in Moscow
Journey to Christmas is Moscow's citywide winter festival, running from mid-December into January across dozens of decorated squares and parks. Manezhnaya Square becomes an old-fashioned holiday village inspired by early twentieth-century Russian Christmas fairs, complete with ice rinks and a snow slope beside the Kremlin walls.
Before the Soviet era suppressed most religious winter celebration, Russian towns held Christmas fairs built around market stalls, mummers, and open-air ice entertainment, a tradition that largely disappeared for most of the twentieth century.