A twenty-two hour train ride north-east of Moscow brings you to the town of Veliky Ustyug. In 1998 it became home to Father Frost, the main holiday-season miracle-maker. The project "Veliky Ustyug - Homeland of the Russian Father Frost" was initiated by Mayor of Moscow Yuri Luzhkov and Governor of the Vologda Oblast Vyacheslav Pozgalyov. The main objective of the project is to acquaint the younger generation with the Russian national traditions and the culture of the Russian North as well as to attract Russian and foreign tourists to Veliky Ustyug. Father Frost holds court at his castle, a strict gentleman in a Russian troika, a three-horse drawn sleigh. This character is straigt out of Russian folklore.
The co-founders of the "Father Frost" joint stock company are the Vologda Oblast Government, the Administration of the Veliky Ustyug Municipal District and the "Novatorsky" forestry (lespromkhoz).
Father Frost lives in his wooden palace in the pine forests at Votchina 15 km off the town of Veliky Ustyug on the bank of the Sukhona river.
His residence includes not only the house of Father Frost, but also comfortable cottages made of wood, a restaurant, a recreation centre with a sauna, a swimming pool and a billiard room. Here you can find a wide range of sports facilities such as skis, sledges, boats, fishing-rods, ets. These facilities are spread throughout the territory and include sports to suit every taste. You can ride a horse, sing and dance in a ring or take part in special competitions.
In the town of Veliky Ustyug tourists can visit special shop of Father Frost, where they can buy New Year souvenirs and books about the project "Veliky Ustyug - Homeland of Russian Father Frost".
The post office in Veliky Ustyug must be one of the busiest in all Russia, it delivers and sends all the correspondence of Father Frost. Both children and grown-ups in Veliky Ustyug can send post-cards and letters with a special seal and autograph of Father Frost to their relatives and friends. Over the years of its operation the post office of Father Frost has received about 1200000 letters both from Russia and from all over the world. Children often send not only letters, but also their pictures, poems and kind congratulations to Father Frost. The postmen of Father Frost send replies to the letters mailed to the most remarkable resident of Veliky Ustyug.
The joint-stock company "Father Frost" offers the variety of travel programs that provide a true air of New Year's fairy tale atmosphere and the focus on the pure pleasures of the great outdoors - "New Year at Father Frost's Votchina", "Winter Holidays in the Residence of Father Frost", "Fairy Travel to Father Frost". Thousands of children and grown-ups from different Russian regions flood to the homeland of Father Frost every year.
One of the main objectives of the project imlementation is to bring commerce to Veliky Ustyug. The city's enterprises expand assortment of the products (8-12 % on average every year). The focus is on products carrying a label of Father Frost.
It has become customary to organize special New Year festivals and amusing competitions both for children and grown-ups in Veliky Ustyug. The events are accompanied by firework and music. The winners get prizes from Father Frost and Snow-Maiden.
Special fairs of New Year and Christmas souvenirs are held in Vologda (September) and Veliky Ustyug (December - January) annually.
The Vologda Oblast Government, the Government of Moscow and the Government of Lapland are taking part in implementation of the international programme "Father Frost - Santa Claus". The aim is to establish and sustain international cultural and educational partnership ties that will last.
Tourist agency DED MOROZ
Veliky Ustyug
phone/fax: (817-38) 2-66-73, 2-04-32
e-mail: ded_moroz@vologda.ru
website: www.vologda.ru/~ded_moroz
