After eating Christmas dinner, sitting together and discussing the past year, many of us enjoy going out to see how others are celebrating and get caught up in the festive spirit. Stocked with kaunastic souvenirs that make great gifts, we will be open 10 am - 4 pm on Christmas Eve and the second day of Christmas.
This year, the main Christmas tree of Kaunas at the Town Hall Square is decorated with Čiurlionis motifs and serves as an excellent background for pictures. After seeing the symbol of the holidays, enjoy a warm drink or doughnuts or send a Christmas card to your dear friends. For a longer stay, various workshops (such as pancake baking!) and educational activities are held in the domes of the Christmas Town around the Christmas tree, accompanied by festive music. A real Santa Claus will show up from 1 pm to 4 pm on both Christmas days. For more information on the way to Christmas in Town Hall Square: kaledos.kaunas.lt.
Photo by Kaunas city municipality
Just like on all major holidays, the bells of the Kaunas Carillon will ring for Christmas. Festive concerts in the Vytautas the Great War Museum garden will take place on 23 December at 5 pm, when Austėja Staniūnaitytė-Proietta will perform a programme of Advent music, and on 26 December at 4 pm, when Raimundas Eimontas and Roberta Daugėlaitė will perform music of old Christmas carols.
A concert of the brass band ‘Ąžuolynas’ called ‘Lithuanian Christmas for All’ will be held in an extraordinary place. On 26 December, a festive programme will be performed in the Cathedral Basilica of apostles St. Peter and St. Paul. Ten Lithuanian composers and three poets have agreed to collaborate with the authors of the idea and create new Christmas carols for the programme. (Info in LT)
Photo by Kauno Santaka
On the second day of Christmas, Kaunas Christ’s Resurrection Basilica of the Resurrection of Christ will also invite to an afternoon concert of choir and soloists. (Info in LT)
As every year, the Kaunas State Philharmonic presents the concert series ‘From Christmas to New Year…”’ This means festive sounds from long ago or more recent, every day from 26 December to 31 December inclusive! You can try to get to all of them or choose your favourite one. (Info in LT)
On Christmas Day, Lithuania’s legendary voice, Andrius Mamontovas, will give a magnificent concert at Žalgirio Arena with the best of his all-time works. On 26 December, the iconic female singer Inga Jankauskaitė will perform at the arena. On 27 December, Linas Adomaitis, celebrating a quarter of a century on stage, will host a show. More concerts are also scheduled for the rest of the days this year. (Arena calendar)
Museums traditionally close their doors during the holidays, but you can give hard-core museum-goers some very kaunastic gifts. For example, the Art Deco Museum and the Amsterdam School Museum (to be opened in January) in art deco-styled interwar apartments offer gift vouchers for guided tours. The Maironis Lithuanian Literature Museum and the M.K. Čiurlionis National Museum of Art offer a variety of original gifts in line with their missions. And the Kaunas City Museum has published a book for Christmas that is a must-have for everyone who carries Kaunas in their hearts - ‘Kaunas. Stories of the City and its People’. You can also visit plenty of exhibitions while getting those gifts, so it’s a double treat.
Light festivals are trendy in Lithuania, and this year, Kaunas residents are enjoying a spectacular event in their city for the first time. The VMU Botanical Garden is hosting the Jungle Book. Over 200 illuminated figures are displayed for the first time, all specially created for this event based on the famous jungle legend of Mowgli. The festival will also take place on both days of Christmas, and on Christmas Eve, the jungle inhabitants will be on holiday. For more information on the Festival of Lights, click here.
Photo by Laimonas Trimonis
A cosy holiday programme for cinephiles has been prepared by Lithuania’s oldest cinema, Romuva. From 26 to 31 December, the ‘Festive Comedy Club’ will be open, with cosy screenings for the whole family, cult classics like ‘The Big Lebowski’ and the latest festival hits that will make you laugh to tears. For the complete marathon programme and tickets, click here.
Photo by Romuva
Forum Cinemas in Akropolis and Cinamon in Mega will be closed on the first day of Christmas, 25 December, and will be open for a shorter period on Christmas Eve.
