The history of the Kremlin New Year tree. New Year trees in the Kremlin in Soviet times Back to the USSR about the Kremlin Christmas tree

According to a good tradition, the main Christmas tree of the country, which every child dreams of visiting, is still the Kremlin one.

Among the many newfangled New Year's entertainment, The Kremlin tree is still the most popular. As before, the main New Year's holiday in the Kremlin is happily visited by children of all ages.

The Kremlin tree is still the most important, the most colorful, and the most beloved by children. new year event. It is visited by the largest number of spectators, and the largest number of people take part in the creation of its program.

Every winter the Kremlin hosts almost 50 New Year's performances where about 5,000 children visit every day.

The main Christmas tree of Russia has its own long-term long-established scenario. An elegant beauty meets little guests in the Armorial Hall of the Kremlin Palace. A fun party is held in the Parquet Hall of the palace. entertainment in which all guests, regardless of age, take part. Funny contests, a round dance around the Christmas tree, attractions create a sense of celebration in children, charge them with fun and joyful anticipation of the performance that is about to begin in the auditorium.

Music, illumination, colorful scenery and costumes - but most importantly, of course, the heroes of the performance, together with Santa Claus and his granddaughter, the Snow Maiden, create the feeling of a fairy tale in the viewer. However, the plot of the play cannot be predicted in advance. Every year a new original script is invented, the plot of which is not revealed until last moment. After all, what New Year no surprises?

And, of course, the most anticipated surprise of the Kremlin Christmas tree by children is a sweet gift that they take away along with unforgettable impressions from the performance they just saw.

The organizers of the holiday are traditionally: the Administration of the President of the Russian Federation, the Government of Moscow, the Moscow Federation of Trade Unions.

From the history of the Kremlin Christmas tree

The first children's tree took place back in 1936 and it was held in the Hall of Columns. In 1954, the doors of the Grand Kremlin Palace were opened for the main children's holiday, after which it became a real tradition to gather children here on New Year's Eve. Later, the most popular children's performance was moved to the Kremlin Palace of Congresses.

The rules and traditions have changed noticeably since then: in Soviet times, the obligatory characters of the performance were the legendary heroes of the revolution, an important part of the script was the reading of brief provisions from the course of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, and the Christmas tree was lit at the signal of the gun salvo of the cruiser Aurora - part of the scenery of the New Year's performance of those years.

And in 1964, the young screenwriters-reformers Uspensky, Kurlyandsky and Khait presented their script for the New Year's performance, the heroes of which were Baba Yaga, Koschey the Immortal and Father Frost with the Snow Maiden.

The children liked the new characters much more than the Red Army soldiers with guns. Since then, the best screenwriters and theatrical figures of the country have been invited to develop scripts for the Kremlin Christmas tree. Costumes, special effects and music for New Year's performances are improved every year. This is an extremely important task, because the Kremlin tree is rightfully considered the most important Christmas tree in Russia.

For many children, visiting these performances has long become a good tradition. Let it continue!

Chapter II. CHRISTMAS TREES.

A few words about the main personnel children's holiday in the USSR - New Year. memoir series of notes.

From 6 to 10 years old, I went to several Christmas trees every New Year and even visited twice "The main Christmas tree of the country" in the Kremlin. By December 31, I had accumulated such stocks of sweets (and a gift was given at each Christmas tree) that I could drink tea in the evenings only with them for three months.

The most carbon monoxide and complex Christmas tree theatrical performances took place in the recreation center of the Hammer and Sickle factory on Zolotorozhskaya (?) Street. In addition to the performance itself, one could also look at the fish in the aquariums and, in general, the Palace of Culture itself was a very good and intimate place. It probably remains so now, because for a long time the Chameleon gay club was located there, and gays are known to be picky in aesthetic matters.

Often I also ended up in the Fraser Palace of Culture (seemingly), which was located near the Perovo railway station.

But the worst in my memory was the tree on fresh air(that is, in fifteen-degree frost) in Izmailovsky Park. Just to say that I was very cold there would be some reticence. I literally died from the cold there. Who came up with this concentration camp for children?

The Christmas tree action was built on approximately the same canvas - a gathering of children with round dances and dances about little ducklings to the accordion, some kind of performance and, finally, the distribution of gifts. There was nothing interesting there (I already understood this at the age of 6-10), but such was the tradition - the New Year came and we had to go to the Christmas tree.

If it was burdensome for you to walk yourself, then you could always send one of your parents for a gift.

A few words about the pathetic event called "Kremlin tree", which was considered, as it were, the main one in the USSR and was the flagship of this branch of Soviet show business.

By the name of the event, it is clear that it took place in the Kremlin. A Soviet citizen didn’t get inside very often (both then and now), but it was interesting there!

In the Palace of Congresses, children could first of all appreciate the cleanliness of the toilets there. Perhaps, from the public ones, they were the cleanest in the country.

At the gathering of children, there were some pioneers in the cordon, who (just like modern policemen) were present, but did not know anything and did not decide. They couldn't help with anything.

An embarrassing incident happened to me. Gifts were given out according to tickets after the concert, and I left my ticket in outerwear and handed it over to the cloakroom. Therefore, I had to then run out of the wardrobe back for what was supposed to be. Anyone who decides that it is a joy for children to carry with them for two hours a cardboard sheet the size of half an album sheet is a great connoisseur of children in general and pioneers in particular.

In the reports (and newspapers wrote about the “main Christmas tree of the country” and the program “Vremya” trumpeted), it was always mentioned that "This year the Kremlin New Year tree will be visited..." some regular nomenklatura guests - Vietnamese children, children from the BAM, some Samantha Smith and similar figures. I did not come across, but the general attitude towards everyone without exception in those corridors and halls was simply imbued with indifference. Everyone was seen there.

At the appointed time, a gang of gathered children launched into the hall, took their seats (seemingly any, seats were not indicated on the tickets) and watched something from new cartoons to disperse. It was there that I first saw and immediately noted for myself “Kitten from Lizyukov Street”.

Here in this hall, only the backdrop with Lenin was draped according to the event.

The performance itself started about half an hour later. He collected all the worst vices of theaters and it was difficult to watch him. But we have to. After all, your parents and classmates will ask you about your visit to the Kremlin later. The plot was monstrous, although serious stage special effects were used - flights over the stage on a cable, noise, light, and so on.

Extras on the stage were a hundred people, no less.

Having endured this garnish, the children received a red plastic Kremlin tower (a box in the form of it) with sweets and chocolates.

Having dressed (and here the pioneers from the cordon came in handy!), They went out into the street and, like suitcases at the airport, moved along the oval loop. And parents snatched out children as things from a conveyor belt. Whoever was not snatched out on the first lap (just like the suitcase), went to the second and could wind eight laps like this before the parents deign to call their child.

Tickets to the Kremlin were distributed through the school, and I don’t even remember any special intrigues during distribution. This Christmas tree had more prestige in the eyes of adults than in the eyes of children.

Then the child could see the same performance on TV. On the seventh of January of the new year (at the end of the New Year holidays), television necessarily showed the action. This is apparently for those aesthetes who did not get to it, but wanted to evaluate the level. On TV, she looked even more boring and worse than live, and her broadcast did not cause a stir among children, even at the level of puppet cartoons.

Now the children's Christmas tree culture is completely a thing of the past, and today's children in the New Year (thank God!) now have completely different pleasures. The kind we couldn't even dream of.

For a Soviet person, this was a special, most long-awaited holiday. They started preparing for it in the summer. Although the main elements of a home holiday have been preserved since Soviet times, in those days, the preparation of the New Year in traditional form was almost heroic, and many now recall with nostalgia that painstaking work.

People in the USSR were preparing for the New Year long before it came: due to the fact that it was difficult to get food, everything they needed was bought several months in advance and carefully stored until the right moment. Now it’s hard to imagine it, but to get the main ingredients, for example, Olivier salad, you had to try hard: there was no mayonnaise, green peas, sausages in the free sale - they started stocking up in October. With great difficulty, they also got the main drink of the holiday - Soviet champagne.

So we also decided to prepare in advance and remember in a nostalgic selection how it was.

At first, the New Year was not official. public holiday, however, most families traditionally celebrated it along with Christmas, and the holiday was considered a family holiday.

For the first time, the New Year was officially celebrated only at the end of 1936, after an article by a prominent Soviet figure Pavel Postyshev in the Pravda newspaper.

“Why do our schools, orphanages, nurseries, children's clubs, palaces of pioneers deprive the children of the working people of the Soviet country of this wonderful pleasure? Some, none other than "leftist" benders, slandered this children's entertainment as a bourgeois idea. This wrong condemnation of the Christmas tree, which is a wonderful entertainment for children, should be put to an end. Komsomol members, pioneer workers should arrange collective New Year's parties for children on New Year's Eve. In schools, orphanages, in pioneer palaces, in children's clubs, in children's cinemas and theaters - there should be a children's tree everywhere! City councils, chairmen of district executive committees, village councils, public education bodies should help arrange a Soviet Christmas tree for the children of our great socialist homeland.

1960 Costumes and Christmas decorations reflected the power of the country: divers and cosmonauts on the Kremlin tree. The first satellite has already been in orbit, and the film "Amphibian Man" has not yet been made.

Tickets for the New Year tree for children were also difficult to get. You also need a gauze snowflake costume or a bunny outfit. A gift that included caramels, apples, and walnuts, provided the parents with the trade union committee. The dream of every child was to get on the main Christmas tree of the country - first in the Hall of Columns of the House of the Unions, and after 1954 - on the Kremlin Christmas tree.

It was only after the war that the traditions of celebrating the New Year in the USSR began to really take shape. Christmas decorations began to appear: at first very modest - made of paper, cotton wool and other materials, later - beautiful, bright, made of glass, similar to decorations of pre-revolutionary Christmas trees. By the end of the 1960s, mass production of toys for the New Year tree was launched, and it was possible to buy fairly simple plastic options, usually with Soviet symbols.

Festive table

Prepare for the holiday in advance. First, you need to buy food - that is, "get it", stand in hour-long lines, get sprats, caviar, smoked sausage in grocery orders.

Those who had a familiar seller in a grocery store could afford cognac for New Year's Eve for 8 rubles 12 kopecks, semi-sweet Soviet champagne, and tangerines.

Or stand in line for a long time, as in this photo.

Outfits and gifts

Every Soviet woman absolutely needed a new fashion dress- it could be sewn with one's own hands or in an atelier, in rare cases - bought from black marketeers; the store was the last place to find anything.

New Year's gifts are another obstacle for Soviet citizens in the process of preparing for the New Year. There was tension with any goods in the country, and with beautiful goods it was even worse, so our parents went to visit, taking champagne, sausage, preferably Servelat, canned exotic fruits (pineapples), boxes of chocolates. Women were given Soviet perfumes for the holiday, which were in abundance in stores, men - colognes.

"Nothing paints a woman like hydrogen peroxide." - this joke becomes relevant on the eve of every New Year's celebration in the Soviet Union. The phrase "beauty salon" then did not know even the most fashionistas. They signed up for hairdressing salons several weeks in advance, the preparation of hairstyles, makeup and the entire “New Year's look” required Soviet women maximum time, ingenuity and independence - sometimes girlfriends did the hairstyles.

The last stage of preparation is to wipe (repair) the TV, which, according to the postman Pechkin, is " the best decoration New Year's table». « Carnival Night", "The Irony of Fate", " New Year's adventures Masha and Viti”, “Blue Light”, “Morozko” are Soviet films, programs and cartoons in the morning, without which not a single Soviet citizen could imagine a festive night.

They were carefully collected by our grandmothers and kept by our mothers. Because for some Soviet citizens, new toys were a luxury, while for others, old Christmas balls are associated with good memories and are dear as a memory. Many toys have become the subject of private collections. People are happy to collect and exchange old New Year's toys and showcase their collections online.

Bright Side presents a selection of Soviet Christmas decorations. They are not as bright and elegant as modern ones. But they cause a warm wave of nostalgia for those times when we believed in Santa Claus and waited for the New Year like a miracle.

Christmas decorations are fraught with special magic. Their fragility, subtlety, golden luster awaken a feeling of fragility and transience. The world cannot always be brilliant. The holiday doesn't last forever. So these graceful trifles reflect bright light for a short time and ... again find themselves in the bowels of boxes and cabinets for the whole coming year. Until the new Year...

However, these unshakable for us glass and cardboard toys, from a historical point of view, are very young. More recently, decorations were different. The wonderful Christmas tree, near which the amazing events took place in Hoffmann's beloved Nutcracker, carried other outfits on its branches. "A large Christmas tree was hung with many gold and silver apples. Candied almonds, colorful candies and other wonderful sweets hung from each branch like buds or flowers."

The first Christmas decorations were edible. Candies in silver-golden wrappers, figured gingerbread, waffles, cookies, nuts, apples, tangerines, pears, grapes and even eggs flaunted in abundance on the Christmas tree branches. Although, if you look into the very depths of centuries, you can see and completely unusual Christmas tree. The first coniferous trees began to decorate the ancient Germans. They used firs for rituals, attached burning candles to their branches and laid out colored rags on their fluffy paws.

According to one version, the custom of using a Christmas tree as a Christmas tree was born in the first half of the 16th century in the territory of modern France, in Alsace. According to another, the first "Christmas" tree was cut in his garden by the German reformer Martin Luther, being impressed by the wondrous glow of heavenly stars, breaking through the sprawling fir branches. He lit candles on his spruce, which symbolized the stars of Christmas night from that time on.

In addition to candles, they began to decorate the fir tree with fruits, they personified gifts to the baby Jesus. The first among the fruits were apples, since spruce was considered a paradise tree that bears fruit. New customs came in the 17th century. As a matter of fact, it was then that the "ancestors" appeared modern toys. And even though, according to today's understanding, they were "home-grown", some of them were not lacking in grace. At first, materials were used that were always at hand - empty eggshells were covered with a thin layer of chased brass, ordinary fir cones were gilded. Tin wire was rolled up, twisted into a spiral, then flattened: silver tinsel was obtained. Artificial roses were made from paper, stars and snowflakes were cut out of silver foil. Even from sheets of brass, some craftsmen managed to carve figurines of fairies and elves.

Gradually, artificial fruits and sweets made from glass and cotton wool appeared. It is believed that the glass balls that are indispensable on the current spruce appeared due to a poor harvest of apples. As if not a single apple had been preserved in local cellars before Christmas, and the forest beauty would have stood without the traditional fruit. But no! The glassblowers of a small German town took a chance and made a replacement - round balls. So in the middle of the 19th century, in 1848, in the town of Lauscha (Thuringia), Christmas balls, popular in subsequent years, were born. They were made of transparent or colored glass, coated on the inside with a layer of lead, and decorated on the outside with sparkles. Almost two decades later (1867), a gas factory was opened in Lausche and, with the help of gas burners with a flame, very high temperature began to blow large thin-walled balls. The lead reflective coating was replaced with silver nitrate. Around the same time, glassblowers went beyond the spheres themselves.
There were birds and animals, pipes and bunches of grapes. Finished goods covered with gold and silver dust. Women and children were engaged in coloring. Lausch has remained in history as the world's first major manufacturer of Christmas tree decorations.

At the beginning of the 20th century, "glass toy craft" was taken up by Bohemia, which was then part of Germany. And a new address appeared on the Christmas tree map - the city of Yablonets. The Japanese, Poles and Americans mastered this business much later. There was a period when the fashion for decorating the Christmas tree suddenly changed. At the turn of the century, shiny tinsel was sent to the shelves. A Christmas tree designed in silver-white tones was welcomed. Later, figurines made of paper, cardboard and straw came into fashion. The factories of Dresden and Leipzig became famous for the manufacture of these toys.

Leipzig was proud of toys made of embossed gilded and silver cardboard, it seemed that they were made of the thinnest metal sheet. Dresden - an unprecedented variety of "plots" - numerous animals, musical instruments, spinning wheels, steamers and even horse-drawn carriages!

Apparently, similar toys decorated the Christmas tree described in the poem by A. N. Pleshcheev.

Children's gaze toys beckon...
Here is a horse, there is a top,
Here is the railroad
Here is the hunting horn.
And the lanterns, and the stars,
that burn with diamonds
And golden nuts
And transparent grapes!
Christmas decorations in Russia

In Russia, the first toys were German. Later they opened their own production - in St. Petersburg and Klin. In addition to glass, papier-mache was used - paper pulp mixed with glue, plaster or chalk. Then the products were covered with bartolet salt, due to which their surface acquired a shine and became more dense. In the middle of the 19th century, numerous artels bred, which engaged in the production of garlands and chains made of thin foil in the form of needles, long thin threads from the same foil, later nicknamed "rain".

For the manufacture of Christmas tree decorations, cardboard and wood, metal sheets, straw and paper were used. Similar toys were produced by special cardboard workshops. Cotton toys were very popular. The wire frame was covered with cotton wool, while the faces of the dolls were made of papier-mâché or porcelain and painted. Decorated with Christmas trees and wax figures of angels, they, alas, were short-lived, as they melted from the heat.

In the twentieth century, carved wooden figurines also appeared - they also found a place on hospitable Christmas trees. In some families, the Christmas tree was not only decorated, but also its trunk was “ennobled” - they wrapped it with white paper, cloth or pharmaceutical cotton, sprinkled with Bertolet salt. "Hid" and the cross, to which the tree was attached.
Practical advice was published for its readers in 1909 by the Niva magazine: “The foot of the Christmas tree can be arranged like this: they lay the cross into which the Christmas tree is embedded, with green moss, dry grass and Christmas tree branches, among which in some places you can put pebbles; then they set cardboard or cotton mushrooms with a small family, and if you put a plush hare among this green pile, which can very often be found among children's toys, then it will be very beautiful under the tree.

At the end of the 19th century, a new surprise awaited the Christmas tree. The English telegraph operator Ralph Morrison decorated it with a garland of electric light bulbs. Here, the Americans have already "taken" the championship - the first electric garland decorated the New Year tree in front of the White House in 1895.

XX, rich in various events, brought new plots for Christmas decorations. In the USSR, the crowning Christmas tree "Star of Bethlehem" was replaced by a red five-pointed one with a hammer and sickle. Parachutists and hockey players appeared, a polar bear delivering mail to the conquerors of the Arctic, children of different nationalities. Later, they were joined by orderlies, planes, astronauts. The year 1937 was marked by balloons with portraits of Lenin and Stalin.

The appearance of cardboard mailboxes for New Year's letters dates back to the beginning of the 40s. XX century, at that time glass and cotton wool became an unaffordable luxury. The mailbox, not exceeding the size of a matchbox, concealed a candy or a small coin. Crystallized crystals of salt made amazing snowflakes! The wire frame was lowered into a saturated saline solution, and after a few hours the toy was taken out and dried. During the Great Patriotic War do it yourself at home and glass balls. Burnt out conventional or removed from Christmas garlands light bulbs were painted or pasted over with multi-colored paper ...

today toys self made again at the peak of popularity. Some of them demonstrate the skill of professional artists, while others, although not so magnificent and exclusive, bear the warmth of a home. native, cozy home, where, as in former Russian homes, adults and children made a holiday, literally, with their own hands ...

It's no secret that many residents of our country associate the New Year with Moscow, or rather with the chimes on the Kremlin's Spasskaya Tower. With the chiming clock, we make wishes, see off old year and hope that next year will be more successful. Let's see how they used to celebrate the New Year in Moscow.

Christmas tree in the Georgievsky Hall of the Kremlin, 1950-60 The most important Christmas tree in Moscow and the country is still in the Kremlin, and the second most important Christmas tree has always been in the Hall of Columns, next to the current State Duma.

The celebration of the New Year in the form in which we celebrate now, we still owe to Stalin. Before the revolution, as in other countries, Russia celebrated Christmas with a Christmas tree and gifts, which was immediately banned by the Soviet government, but only in 1935, before the new 1936, it was decided to put up Christmas trees again, make holidays for children, call Santa Claus and the Snow Maiden, but everything was prescribed to be done exclusively on the secular New Year, which we still do.

It's hard to imagine now, but Arbat Square in 1959. In the background you can see the lobby of the Arbatskaya metro station of the blue line, which we continue to use now, but we enter it from the left side, through the new building, and not through the original large front entrance. The fact is that under Brezhnev a huge complex of the Ministry of Defense was built around this vestibule, and the Stalinist vestibule still stands in his courtyard, which is very clearly visible on the satellite map.

Itinerant trade at Detsky Mir, another, probably, the most New Year's place in Soviet Moscow.

And so in the late 1950s, the "Children's World" itself looked on the Lubyanka.

In those years, Muscovites, even low-income ones, tried to put a Christmas tree in their house for children, decorating it with cardboard and glass toys, mushrooms, balls, tinsel, "beads", even multi-colored light bulbs, they put Father Frost, Snow Maiden under the Christmas tree, children - their own favorite toys, etc., and the "crown" was crowned with a star or a spire. They also hung sweets, chocolate medals, tangerines.

Vechernyaya Moskva newspaper: "A few hours remain until the New Year. There is a lot to do: visit a hairdresser, go to a store, and send a congratulatory telegram. In a word, you need to hurry. In the picture you see Muscovites in the center of the capital, on Gorky Street the day before New 1961".

New Year's decoration of "Children's World", 1970-71.

"Children's World" in the 1970s

Christmas tree in the Kremlin Palace of Congresses, 1971

Tin chests from the Kremlin Christmas trees still gather dust in many apartments on the mezzanines. Grandmothers loved to store threads, buttons and other household items in them.

Christmas tree in the Kremlin Palace of Congresses, 1971 Tin chests from the Kremlin Christmas trees still gather dust in many apartments on the mezzanines. Grandmothers loved to store threads, buttons and other household items in them.

At the end of his Bibigon, Korney Chukovsky promised: “And when the New Year comes, I will carefully hide my tiny friends in the pocket of my warm coat, and we will go to the Kremlin to the Christmas tree. And I imagine how glad and happy the children will be when they see with their own eyes the living Bibigon and his cheerful, smartly dressed sister, his sword, his three-cornered hat and hear his fervent speech.

"Bibigon" after a 10-year stay "on the shelf" was allowed to be printed around the same time that the first Christmas tree was held in the Kremlin Palace. Until 1954, the main Christmas tree of the country was a holiday in the Hall of Columns. After death, the doors of the Kremlin opened, and on New Year's Eve, several thousand happy children gathered here. The Grand Hall of the Kremlin Palace was used to hold the New Year tree in the Kremlin, and the main Christmas tree of the country itself, richly decorated with airplanes, satellites, astronauts and sheaves of wheat, was installed in the St. George Hall, which was completely unsuitable for this.

The heroes of the first performances, scripts for which were written by such aces as Lev Kassil and Sergei Mikhalkov, were Red Army soldiers, workers, peasants and Bolsheviks - these are “ours”. The main Baba Yaga of the 50s were the White Guards. But ours won by waving a saber and quoting paragraphs from a short course of the CPSU (b).

After 10 years, the student theater "Our House" found new screenwriters for the Christmas tree in the Kremlin Palace - Eduard Uspensky, Alexander Kurlyandsky and Arkady Khait. The "fathers" of the crocodile Gena and the parrot Kesha brought back the New Year's fairy tale, making the main characters of Santa Claus, the Snow Maiden, wizards and sorceresses and, of course, the charming Baba Yaga.

Natalya Vishnyakova

Much less is known about Sergei Ivanovich Preobrazhensky than about all his colleagues in the role of "the main Santa Claus." But it was thanks to him that Santa Claus became what he is now.

Preobrazhensky was not just a playwright, but also a talented teacher. He knew how to work with children himself and taught this to others. It was Sergei Preobrazhensky, who assumed the position of Santa Claus on the Christmas tree in the Hall of Columns of the House of the Unions, who formulated recommendations for the artists acting in this role.

It is hard to believe, but at the end of the 1930s, when New Year trees in the USSR only appeared, the leading role of Santa Claus was not at all obvious. Moreover, this character did not even participate in the holidays everywhere.

Sergei Preobrazhensky formulated clearly: "Santa Claus is the main manager, the first entertainer and leader of all the fun." He confirmed these words with many years of work on the Christmas tree in the Hall of Columns.
Some claim that he worked in this role until the early 1960s. But relatives of Sergei Ivanovich say that in the mid-1950s he underwent a serious operation, after which he no longer performed.

Alexander Khvylya

In 1961, the Kremlin Palace of Congresses was opened in Moscow, in which congresses of the ruling Communist Party of the Soviet Union were held in subsequent years. In accordance with the slogan "All the best for children", the main Christmas tree countries began to spend in the newly built Palace.

Actor Alexander Khvylya as Morozko in the film of the same name, 1964. Photo: russianlook.com
The Kremlin New Year tree received the status of an important state event, and the candidate for the role of the “chief Santa Claus” of the country was selected extremely meticulously.

Father Frost. Snowmobile, Zimnik and Treskun. What did our ancestors call Santa Claus?
Everything was decided by the cinema. In 1964, the fairy tale film Frost was released on the screens of the country, where the role of the winter wizard was played by actor Alexander Khvylya. By that time, his account included the heroic roles of Budyonny, secretaries of party committees, the image of the stern captain Gul from the Fifteen-Year-Old Captain, and many other works.

In the image of Morozko, Alexander Leopoldovich turned out to be so organic that they decided at the top: “You won’t find the best Santa Claus for a Christmas tree in the Kremlin!”

Khvylya did an excellent job with the role of Santa Claus, however, since a rather middle-aged man took over his post, sometimes incidents happened. For example, he could not master working with a radio microphone. Somehow, having finished his part of the speech in the Kremlin, Father Frost Khvylya went backstage and began to complain aloud about a number of problems. The voice of Santa Claus, dissatisfied with life, hovered over the Kremlin Palace, and the technicians could not catch the artist in the tangled corridors. However, Grandfather Frost did not have time to say anything truly seditious.

Roman Filippov

If Alexander Khvylya was elevated to the throne of the “chief Santa Claus” by cinema, then his successor got himself a “kingdom” himself.

Roman Sergeevich Filippov is one of the best craftsmen episodes in Soviet cinema. Having a tall stature and a loud voice, Filippov was not suitable for the roles of the main characters, but he was also remembered for the short time that the directors assigned him. Well, who does not remember Nikola Pitersky from "Gentlemen of Fortune", who was almost deprived of his sight with the help of a "goat" by Evgeny Leonov? And what about the visitor from the restaurant at the Diamond Arm, who cordially invites Nikulin and Mironov to Kolyma?

Already being a long-term Kremlin Santa Claus, Roman Filippov tied himself even more tightly to new year holiday, playing Kamneedov in "Wizards".

New Year's holiday in the Hall of Columns, 1973.
First, Filippov was invited to the Christmas tree in the Kremlin as an understudy for Alexander Khvyli. There were a lot of understudies, but they all worked to Khvyly's phonogram (most of the performance took place under a previously made recording). Filippov insisted that a soundtrack be recorded with his voice. Then the actor made sure that he and Khvylya worked in turn.

In general, when Khvylya retired, the question of who would become the most important among Santa Clauses was no longer raised.

Roman Filippov played the role of Santa Claus on the main Christmas tree of the country for almost two decades. He became so accustomed to her that he asked his colleagues to replace him at the theater in early January. He was adored by children and parents. And the latter has become a problem over time.

The fact is that dads who brought children to the Christmas tree began to meet Filippov with champagne (and not only champagne), wanting to have a drink with Santa Claus. As a rule, Filippov did not refuse.

As a result, sometimes Father Frost was late to go on stage, and his colleagues had to beat what was happening, which is not so easy, given that the performance goes to a previously recorded soundtrack.

However, these pranks Roman Sergeevich was forgiven for his ability to work with children and devotion to the New Year holiday.

The last Christmas tree, as it happened, was held by Roman Filippov in January 1992, just a few days after the disappearance of the USSR. At his last performance, the presenter made a mistake: instead of the traditional phrase "Santa Claus does not say goodbye to you," he sounded "goodbye." This turned out to be a bad prophecy: just a month later, Roman Sergeevich was gone.

Dmitry Nazarov

When the official residence of Father Frost appeared in Veliky Ustyug in the 1990s, the position of the main Father Frost of the country also became official. A random person could not occupy such a high position. In addition, a major actor was required, not only in terms of talent, but also in terms of physical dimensions, with a powerful male voice and charm.

Incognito from Veliky Ustyug

Who today plays the role of the main Santa Claus of Russia is not known for certain. When journalists begin to pester the wizard with questions about who he really is, he logically answers: “Like who? Santa Claus, of course!

Santa Claus during a visit to St. Petersburg, December 22, 2013.
According to information from sources close to reliable, Dmitry Nazarov resigned as the main Santa Claus. As his successor, the star of the series "Voronins" and the disaster film "Metro" Stanislav Duzhnikov is called. According to external data, Duzhnikov is quite suitable for this role. However, the actor himself claims that he does not act as Santa Claus, since even his own daughter exposes him.

Whether this is true or not, only Santa Claus himself and his entourage know. It's probably right. After all, the incognito acting New Year's wizard is part of his image. You can guess something, but you can't be sure. After all, this is a part New Year's magic which neither children nor adults want to give up.