Children were treated to a visit from Santa Claus and Snow Maiden on December 13 in the Tchaikovsky Hall of the Russian Centre for Science and Culture in Valletta.

Professional actors, Sergey Stansky and Tatiana Solntseva, were invited for the occasion from Moscow to play the parts of Santa Claus and Snow Maiden. Originally only one party was planned, but the amount of children who wished to participate far exceeded the number of seats in the hall, so it was decided to organise two parties for 250 guests.

Traditional New Year celebrations in Russia always in-clude performances for children involving Santa Claus and his granddaughter Snow Maiden, who sing and dance with the children around the Christmas tree.

The children were beautifully dressed in costumes of characters from famous fairytales.

Snow Maiden began proceedings by dancing with the children and travelling on the imaginary train to meet Santa Claus.

Children recited poetry, as well as dancing and singing. Young soloists Anna and Lisa Uzilevskiye performed with a group of gymnasts led by Evelina Batiy.

At the end, Santa Claus wished everyone a Happy New Year and distributed presents.