New Year trees in Minsk streets (photo report)

"I like this one. This is a beautiful and big tree. Natural one would have been better, of course", - two young girls who walked along the Kastrychnitskaya square, told us. As always, the country's biggest New Year tree has been installed here.

However, an elderly lady disagreed with the girls. She liked artificial fur trees better.

"This is a horrible damage to nature. Natural tree of this size - no. I mean, this is temporary. It is very beautiful. I stand for keeping trees alive in the forest".

Euroradio's vis-a-vis was not alone in her concern about the nature. The idea to keep the environment safe is not an alien one for Belarusians.

"In fact, a natural tree would not survive for long. And this artificial one will stand here as long as necessary. This is also better for the ecology. Why cutting these big trees down? I have a small New Year tree at home. It is artificial and it is very beautiful. It is made of optical fiber, and glitters all over. Greenpeace!"

The Minskers are sad about the absense of snow. There haven't been any in the Belarusian capital this year, so the communal services placed big artificial snowflakes on the lamp-posts.

"This is bad. Snow has always been our thing. It's better when it snows. This weather is a bit gloomy, it would have been more cheerful with snow, and light frost. It would have been a fairy-tale with some 5 degrees below zero. The New Year feeling would appear then."

There is another problem, apart from the lack of snow - the communal services have just started hanging New Year decorations around the city. The Minskers hope they will manage to do it till the holiday.

"The city? It has not been decorated yet. I hope they will have done it by the New Year".

Meanwhile, Father Frosts and Snow Girls are already marching around the city, catching people in the crowd. However, these are just promo-actions yet.