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| #1, Mokhovaya St |
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| #2, State Historical Museum |
I promised to show Moscow Christmas trees that were apparently waiting for me to take photos of them, and here we go. I’ll let you follow my route on the evening of January 16, 2012.
There were several spots around Moscow that I hoped to visit on my Xmas trees hunt. After looking at the list, I realised that my best option was to start in Mokhovaya Street, near Borovitskaya metro station and thus to walk into the city. So the first Christmas tree was the one in front of the Russian State Library.
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| #4, GUM, Red Square |
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| #3, Manezh |
I then crossed Mokhovaya Street via subway towards the Manezh Square. The second Christmas tree stood right in front of the back entrance of the Manezh Exhibition Centre. And the third Christmas tree “grew” in front of the State Historical Museum, facing Tverskaya Street.
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| #5, GUM, MaxMara |
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| GUM, Bosco Cafe |
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| GUM, Paul Smith |
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| #6, GUM, I Pinco Pallino |
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| Revolution Square |
From there I took to the Red Square. This traditional touristy hot-spot becomes extra dazzling and busy in winter, when the famous GUM opens its annual ice-skating rink. The Bosco Group, headed by Mikhail Kusnirovich, have for years been organising these festivities, hence the fourth Christmas tree, GUM-branded, is one of the most lavish in the city. My walk past the GUM shopwindows brought more Christmas trees, in different sizes and styles, like I Pinco Pallino tree with tiny kids pullovers or MaxMara’s minimalist Christmas tree.
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| #7, Theatre Square (the Bolshoi Theatre) |
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| Petrovsky Passage |
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| Petrovsky Passage |
I walked out from the Red Square and turned right, into Revolution Square. I took a photo of the Christmas tree #3, accompanied by the equestrian statue of Georgy Zhukov. In Revolution Square I found a rather inconspicuous Christmas tree, and then I walked through a small park where Karl Marx monument has been preserved and crossed the street via subway to the Theatre (Teatralnaya) Square, in front of the Bolshoi Theatre.
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| The Medici Factor: Bosco di Ciliegi |
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| #8, Sberbank Xmas tree |
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| Stoleshnikov Lane |
From there my path led me up Petrovka St, past a couple of exclusive shopping malls, Tsum (ЦУМ) and Petrovsky Passage. The shopwindows again boasted a few lovely Christmas trees. And at the bottom of Stoleshnikov Lane there was a Sberbank-branded Christmas tree. I saw at least three more like this in Moscow, two from Sberbank and one more from DHL Moscow.
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| Prince, Santa, and Snegurochka |
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| Moscow Townhall |
And so, via Stoleshnikov Lane I walked to Tverskaya Street, where Moscow Townhall faces the equestrian statue of Prince Yuri Dolgorukov, the founder of Moscow. I showed the Townhall Christmas trees already, and the tree next to the Prince is flanked by Father Frost (Santa Claus) and Snegurochka (Snowmaiden).
And a few closeups of Moscow Christmas trees:
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| GUM, Red Square |
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| GUM, Red Square (closeup) |
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| Mokhovaya St |
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| Theatre Square |
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| Manezh Square |
Want to use any of the photos? Don’t forget to credit the author (Julia Shuvalova).
