Photo: ITAR-TASS
Horseback riding
You can also ride horses in Moscow. But since you have some free time during the holidays, it’s much more pleasant to get out of the city and drive through the snow-covered fields and forests of the Moscow region. The Outpost horse ranch near Mozhaisk offers routes along the outskirts of the Mozhaisk Reservoir and the Moscow River; there are walks of varying difficulty - both for those who are riding a horse for the first time and for those who want to gallop. They promise flexible horses, experienced instructors, tea, coffee and cookies at any time, and by pre-ordering you can get lunch for a large group.
“Outpost” Route duration: 2 hours Route starts: daily at 11:00, 14:00 and 17:00 Price: 1,000 rubles. on weekdays and 1,500 rub. on the weekend
Address: Moscow region, Mozhaisk Telephone: 8 925 772 51 14, 8 925 772 51 24, 8 916 527 18 24 (it makes sense to make an appointment several days in advance) www.bezpovoda.ru

Photo: RIA Novosti
Skis and snowboard
The main ski resorts are located in the Dmitrov direction. In the “Leonid Tyagachev Ski Club” and in the “Volen” sports park, in addition to numerous professional slopes, there are rentals, instructors, an ice rink, cafes and restaurants, massage, a swimming pool and even hotels (though from 4,000 rubles per room). Another famous resort in the same direction is “Sorochany”: there are 13 trails of varying difficulty, but there are fewer additional entertainments. You can compare all snow parks near Moscow by length and difficulty of slopes here .

“Leonid Tyagachev Ski Club” Moscow region, Dmitrovsky district, Dedenevo village, Shukolovo village, Sports school www.shukolovo.ru
Sports park "Volen" Moscow region, Dmitrovsky district, Yakhroma, st. Troitskaya, 1 www.volen.ru
"Sorochany" Dmitrovsky district, village. Kurovo, 68 www.sorochany.ru

Photo: PhotoXPress.ru
Night skating rinks
During the holidays, you can afford to sleep for half a day and go to the skating rink at about three in the morning. Below is a list of Moscow skating rinks that are open 24 hours a day on weekends. All have a night buffet, cloakroom, skate rental and sharpening.
Price — from 350 rubles. for a session

Indoor skating rink CSKA Leningradsky Prospekt, 39
Indoor skating rink "Dynamo" SDUSHOR Leningradsky Prospekt, 36, building 19
Indoor skating rink of the Medvedkovo Ice Palace , Zapovednaya, 3
Indoor skating rink of the Krylatskoye Ice Palace Krylatskaya, 16
"Dream" Sports Palace , Bibirevo, Konenkova St., 10b

Photo: RIA Novosti
Tubing
For the more extreme, there is tubing and zorbing. Tubing is an inflatable sled that looks like a huge donut. They can reach high speeds, while the inflatable chamber softens the shock in the event of a fall or collision. You can ride in the Kuzminsky Forest Park next to the Shibaevsky Pond: there are two tracks there - for children and for adults. Large selection of tubing in the Krylatsky Hills and Kolomensky Park. The cost of renting an inflatable sleigh is from 200 rubles per hour.
Kuzminky Park www.kuzminky.ru
“Lata-track” Krylatskie Hills, 1, entrance opposite 7/2 How to get there lata-track.ru
Kolomenskoye Ave. Andropova, 39

Photo: RIA Novosti
Zorbing
Zorbing is when you are put in a huge transparent inflatable ball and sent down a mountain. It's a little scary, but very fun and absolutely safe - inside the ball there is a camera with reliable fastenings for fixing a person. And if the zorb is at night, with decorative lighting, then it is also very beautiful.

"Lata-track" Descent - from 800 rubles.
Krylatskie Hills, 1, entrance opposite 7/2 How to get there 8 905 590 76 63 (it makes sense to make an appointment several days in advance) www.zorb.ru

Photo: ITAR-TASS
Skydiving
It's cold to jump with a parachute in winter, but, according to experts, landing in the snow is much softer. There are two good airfields near Moscow. “Vatulino”, 100 km west of Moscow, promises stunning views of the Mozhaiskoye and Ruza reservoirs, the city of Ruza, forests and fields. And “Aerograd” on the banks of the Oka is a whole complex with an ice skating rink, a hotel and restaurants. Its advantage is that it is located near Kolomna, which is worth a stop on the way to look at the perfectly preserved Kolomna Kremlin of the 16th century.

“Vatulino” One jump - from 1,600 rubles. Tandem together with an instructor from a height of 2,500 m - from 4,900 rubles
How to get there www.parashut.com

"Aerograd" near Kolomna Jump in tandem with an instructor from a height of 4,000 m - from 6,200 rubles.
www.events.aerograd.ru

Photo: PhotoXPress.ru
Small museums of Moscow
Less athletic Muscovites can finally find time during the holidays to explore the unknown museums of Moscow, about which critic Grigory Revzin wrote all year in Kommersant. Moreover, as announced by the Department of Culture, from January 2 to January 9, 2012, admission to museums under the city’s jurisdiction will be free. You can go straight through the list.

Museum of Jewish History The richest collection of originals of Jewish life of the 19th century
Petrovsko-Razumovskaya alley, 10, bldg. 3, office No. 7 www.mievr.ru Museum of Outsider Art A collection of works by Russian and foreign mentally ill people, which illustrates the history of the 20th century avant-garde
Izmailovsky Blvd., 30 www.museum.ru/Outsider Museum “Lights of Moscow” The best, according to Grigory Revzin, small museum in Moscow
Armenian lane, 3-5, building 1. www.moscowlights.ru
Museum of Vintage Cars The collection contains more than three thousand exhibits; among other things, one of only two in the world, a 1935 Cadillac 370-D Fleetwood Town Cabriolet and a Mercedes Adenauer, named after the first Chancellor of Germany
Rogozhsky Val, 9/2 www.auto-retro-museum.ru Museum of Theater Puppets Authentic Sicilian knight dolls of the 18th century, antique puppets, Iranian dolls from the mourning Shiite mystery play, the Guignol Theater, which belonged to Tsarevich Alexei Nikolaevich, and other amazing exhibits
Sadovaya-Samotechnaya, 3 puppet.ru/?pageId=163

Photo: PhotoXPress.ru
Paintball Paintball is best played in groups of eight or more people. But, if there is no company, you can go to the Topgun club on a day off - then many teams come, and you can be assigned to one of them. This club is located 45 km from Moscow, but there are as many as seven playgrounds (“Fort”, “Cowboy Village”, “Barracks”, “Vietnam”, “After the War”, “Forest Playground” and a playground called “Space” — a field littered with some crazy tin rockets and other ashtrays). In winter, each team sets up a large army tent with a potbelly stove and barbecues on which to grill kebabs. Ticket - 450 rubles. per person, plus 2,700 rub. - a box of balls for four people.
Topgun (495) 644 78 88, (495) 644 79 99 How to get there www.topgun.ru

Shoot
To let off steam after a long working year, you can shoot not only with paints, but also with real bullets. The world's largest indoor shooting range, Object, has been opened in Dzerzhinsky near Moscow. They call themselves a shooting club. The difference is that, unlike a shooting gallery, in a club you can shoot in motion and with a 180-degree turn - just like in real action movies. There is also a huge selection of weapons, six shooting galleries, instructors, a cafe and a computer games room for children.

“Object” One and a half hour introductory course with an instructor - from 2,900 rubles. Moscow region Dzerzhinsky, st. Energetikov, 50. 17th km of the Moscow Ring Road, external side (495) 550 54 57 www.theobject.ru

Photo: ITAR-TASS
Curling
Another recreation option for large groups is to learn how to play curling. Curling, if anyone doesn’t know, is an ancient Scottish team game in which you need to run across an ice field and rub the ice with a special mop at wild speed. “Planet of Ice” has two tracks for playing; you need to come in a group of at least six people. The price includes the rental of one lane, stones and brushes, as well as an instructor who will explain the rules of the game and teach basic throws.

“Planet of Ice” During normal times - 7,000 rubles. per hour During the holidays there is a discount: if you book and pay for the track on the website before the end of December, then from January 1 to 9 January the price per hour is 5,000 rubles. Curling lesson with an instructor - RUB 1,000 . at one o'clock
Voronezhskaya, 13 (495) 399 21 12 (it makes sense to sign up in advance) www.curlingclub.ru

Photo: ITAR-TASS Bird Park “Sparrows”
Seventy kilometers from Moscow in the Kyiv direction there is a large bird park “Sparrows” - a great place to go there with children. It contains hundreds of exotic birds and animals: the largest collection of parrots in Russia, hornbills, kalaos, ostriches, and also all sorts of sheep, kangaroos and roe deer - in general, children will be happy. After “Sparrows” you can go to Borovsk (another 15 kilometers from Moscow) - this is a 14th-century town with an ancient monastery, famous for the fact that the walls of houses in the city center are painted with huge romantic landscapes and historical sketches from the life of the city by the hand of local artist Ovchinnikov. Park "Sparrows" Kaluga region, Zhukovsky district, village of State Farm "Pobeda" (48439) 934 26 www.birdspark.ru

Still from the film “The Timekeeper” by Martin Scorsese
Cinema, exhibitions, theater
As for traditional entertainment, during the holidays several new films by world film stars are released in Russian cinemas: December 29 - the second series of Guy Ritchie's Sherlock Holmes with Robert Downey Jr. in the title role; January 2 — “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo,” a new film by David Fincher; and from January 5, Martin Scorsese's first children's adventure film, The Timekeeper, will begin showing.

Among the new exhibitions, we can recommend Dance in Vogue at the Multimedia Art Museum - works by great photographers on the theme of fashion and ballet (runs until January 15). There, from December 23 to January 15, there will be an exhibition of works by participants in the competition for the best photo report about Moscow “Silver Camera - 2011”. From December 21 to February 26, the Shchusev Architectural Museum will host the exhibition “Architect of Power”: on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of the birth of Boris Iofan, 100 sketches and drawings will be shown, plus original models of the famous Soviet architect. Until February 27, the Historical Museum is displaying the exhibition “Happy New Year, Dear Comrades!”: a collection of Christmas tree decorations from the 1900s–1980s; children can make their own New Year’s toys based on drawings from the 1940s–1960s.

And at the Theater of Nations on January 6 and 7 they will show “Freken Julie” by the famous German director Thomas Ostermeier, with Chulpan Khamatova and Yevgeny Mironov. This is the first performance on the stage of the Theater of Nations after many years of reconstruction.
Multimedia Art Museum Ostozhenka, 16 (495) 637 11 00 www.mamm-mdf.ru
Museum of Architecture named after. Shchuseva Vozdvizhenka, 5 (495) 691 21 09 www.muar.ru
Historical Museum Red Square, 1 (495) 692 40 19 www.shm.ru
Theater of Nations Petrovsky lane, 3 Order tickets: (495) 629 37 39, (495) 741 98 36 www.theatreofnations.ru

What to do on holidays