December in Astana

The month of December in Astana was a month of preparing for the biggest holiday of the year  – New Years! The streets were decorated with Christmas lights (here they are called New Year lights), “Happy New Year” signs in Kazakh went up on the buildings, and huge Christmas Trees (again, here they are called New Year Trees) appeared everywhere in town. All of it gave a festive mood all throughout December.

Here is one of the beautiful city New Years Trees in front of the Ice Arena where we take our girls for skating.

This one is the presidential New Years Tree in front of the Opera and Ballet Theater.

In the malls they would have some random performances for the kids – usually scenes from famous fairy tales or performances by children’s dance groups.

Here is a little skit for the kids from "Little Red Riding Hood" that took place in the food court of one of the malls.

Inside of the biggest mall in Astana called "Khan Shatyr" (King's Tent). The high school kids on the bottom floor are practicing for some sort of performance. 

Here is another mall and yet another performance (see the next picture). I took this picture because I thought it was kind of funny to see some Christmas Trees right next to a palm tree. Not that it would be anything weird somewhere in California or Las Vegas, but in the second coldest capital in the world ... yes, it is a bit weird! 

Dance recital at the mall. The little girls were dressed in the "Snegurochka" (Snow Maiden) costumes, and they were really fun to watch.

The only thing we didn't see was the Ice Village. We were told that every year in Astana they build  Ice Village with beautiful ice sculptures and ice sleds. For some unknown to us reason this year they didn't do it. May be next year.

Happy 2015!