Tour guide St.Petersburg Russia. Russian winter. Christmas, New Year in Russia. Winter sports in Russia. St.Petersburg Russia attractions. St.Petersburg hotels. Off-season discounted tours. Trips to Scandinavia.

       Visiting St. Petersburg in winter is a really fascinating experience. There are not so many tourists as in summer time, no long lines to enter museums - you can actually watch and enjoy the normal life of our city without the summer "gloss".

       Advantage of this season is that you can get better prices for accommodation and tour guide's services, better choice of evening events and - don't forget about winter sports! The locals take advantage and go skiing or skating, kids have fun going down the ice slides, making snowmen or playing snowballs. In suburban parks you can even find troikas or horse-drawn sledges.

       Certainly, for a foreign visitor such temperatures as -7-12 C (which is normal for this season of the year in St. Petersburg) might seem quite cold, but if well protected you will even enjoy it! Warm down jackets or fur-lined coats are recommended, woolen sweaters, pants, socks, hats, scarves, gloves, fur-lined shoes. Winter underclothes or even thermal underwear would be a good solution and make you feel comfortable.

       All Russian hotels, museums, shops, offices, public transport, restaurants are well heated in winter.

       In some squares and streets of our city you can see beautiful ice sculptures created by professional designers. You can come across Christmas markets and kiosk serving hot blinis (Russian pancakes) and hot mead, tea or coffee and even mulled wine.

       The Neva and smaller St. Petersburg rivers and canals are frozen, it is possible to walk on the ice and here and there you get to see fisherman sitting on it. The members of Polar Bear clubs almost every day break the ice near Peter and Paul Fortress to take a morning dip.

       Christmas holidays in Russia are quite long - from January 1 till January 10. For Russian kids the New Year's eve is the most expected holiday, like Christmas for Western children. It's a family holiday with a rich festive table, champagne and tangerines. The New Year party starts with "seeing the old year off", sharing all positive things that the passing year brought into people's lives. At 5 minutes to midnight the Russian President addresses the nation in his festive speech. At midnight, with the last chime of the Kremlin Tower clock starts the New Year celebration, which quite often lasts all night long. In St. Petersburg stages and screens are put up on Nevsky Prospect and in the main squares, and a lot of people prefer to celebrate the New Year outdoors. Restaurants, cafes and nightclubs have special New Year shows with live music, lots of singing and dancing.

       Then on January 6/7 Orthodox Christmas is celebrated. We, Russians, observe Christmas thirteen days behind the rest of the Christian world in compliance with the old Julian calendar still recognized by the Russian Orthodox Church.

       Many people also celebrate a strange holiday called "Old New Year", which is, in fact the Orthodox New Year celebrated according to the old Julian calendar on the night January 13/14.