Thousands of sparklers will light up Palace Square at 10 pm tonight! The people who will attend will be celebrating the beginning of a new age, and not the end of the world, as many around the world have said will happen on 21.12.2012! :) Everyone is invited, so come out on the 21st at 10 pm to Palace Square and celebrate the beginning of a new age with thousands of other people!

On December 18th, 2012, you can watch decorated Coca-Cola trucks travel around St. Petersburg that are lit up with Christmas lights! The Coca-Cola caravan will proceed along the following route: Moskovskiy Prospect, Sennaya Ploshad, St. Isaac’s Square, English Embankment (Angliyskaya Naberezhnaya), Nevsky Prospect, Ploshad Vosstaniya, Ligovskiy Prospect, and then Prospect Slavi.

Ded Moroz (Russian Santa Claus) has decided to abandon his traditional procession on Nevsky Prospect and will arrive in St. Petersburg on the ice of the Neva River on a snowmobile! The main character of the New Year and Christmas holidays arrives on December 22nd and will light the Christmas tree on Vasilievsky Island, and then go on his sleigh to the Bronze Horseman.

On December 22nd 2012, the opening of the Christmas and New Year celebrations in St. Petersburg will be marked with a large-scale cultural and artistic project that was first implemented ten years ago. Since then, it has become a favorite local tradition. This year, the main Russian Santa Claus (Ded Moroz) will not go on Nevsky Prospect, but instead will come to visit St. Petersburg on an official visit on December 22nd.

On December 5th, 2012, Palace Square will be decorated to celebrate New Year’s. The traditional New Year’s tree will be placed on the square, and the tree is an astonishing 35 meters tall. The New Year’s tree is the main symbol of this holiday in Russia, and it will be decorated with more than 8,000 ornaments and LED lights.

The first duty-free shop is to open at Vyborgsky railroad station around March 2013, and another one will open at Finlanskiy a month later. The total of 30 new stores are planned to be open in train stations all around Russia. 

Not so many duty free shops throughout the world exist in the railroad stations, the most famous of which is located in Hong Kong. In Russia at present, duty free shops can only be found in airports, but this is soon to change.

In St. Petersburg, there will soon be places where you can charge your cell phones for free. The machines will be placed in the most visited places in the city such as coffee shops, bars, cafes, restaurants, shopping centers, and other popular areas in St. Petersburg. The first has already appeared in "Coffee House" on the 7th line on Vasilevskiy Island.

From December 21st to January 14th on Ploshad Ostrovskogo in the center of the city, will be the traditional St. Petersburg Christmas Fair. The event will be held for three weeks and as usual, guests can come to the fair to buy souvenirs, gifts, handicrafts, and traditional Russian food such as: pancakes, pies, dumplings, and honey drinks.

Russia’s first world network of lounge-restaurants has now reached St-Petersburg. For the best times, check it out on the weekend. Raymond Visa opened the first Buddha-Bar in Paris in 1996. This mastermind of the Buddha-Bar concept has spread his idea to more than 25 different countries. 

Already on Wednesday November 14, 2012, the first Starbucks will open in St. Petersburg. The first Starbucks will be opening in Piterland, the mall and water park center in which is located in the north of the city. Also, Starbucks will be opening in Galeria shopping mall (UPDATE: THERE WILL BE NO STARBUCKS IN GALERIA. STOCKMANN NEVSKY CENTRE IS THE NEW LOCATION.) and Mega Dibenko.