The highlight of the holiday, however, will be the New Year's Eve festivities on Red Square and three other downtown squares, followed by President Vladimir Putin's annual New Year's address and fireworks.
The Kremlin fir -- the country's main New Year's tree -- stands on Cathedral Square and is 32 meters tall, the same height as City Hall's tallest tree, on Poklonnaya Gora.
The Kremlin, which had erected plastic trees the past four years, picked a natural one this year from a forest near Veliky Ustyug, the village about 1,000 kilometers northeast of Moscow that is considered the home of Grandfather Frost, said Viktor Khrekov, a spokesman for the Kremlin property department.
The tree also is a centerpiece for three daily performances for children.
Visitors will be able to admire the tree while visiting the Kremlin's museums through Jan. 14, the day holiday celebrations end, on the Old New Year, Khrekov said.
The Kremlin is open to the public from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. through Jan. 9, but will close at 4 p.m. on New Year's Eve and reopen at noon the next day. Admission is 300 rubles (about $11).
Next to the Kremlin, revelers on Red Square will be able to listen to classical and folk music while watching videos about Russian cities and Putin's New Year's address on giant screens Saturday evening. Special cannons will fire confetti and colored streamers into the air, and a fireworks show will start at 12:30 a.m.
Police will restrict the number of people on the square to avoid stampedes during the 11 p.m. to 1 a.m. event. People will be barred from carrying alcohol and fireworks onto the square, said Nikolai Kulikov, a City Hall liaison to law enforcement agencies.
Access to all festivities will be through metal detectors, he said.
The other three squares -- Teatralnaya, Tverskaya and Lubyanskaya -- will offer slightly extended celebrations, from 10:30 p.m. to 1:30 a.m. Programs will include pop and folk music, contests and fireworks.
Traffic will be closed from 10 p.m. until the end of festivities on Tverskaya, Mokhovaya, Ilinka and Okhotny Ryad ulitsas; Teatralny and Lubyansky proyezds; and Vasilyevsky Spusk.
For those keen on staying outdoors even later, a concert will take place from 1 to 3 a.m. near 50 Arbat.
Moscow's metro will be open until 2 a.m. on New Year's night, an hour longer than usual, but many downtown stations will be exit-only after 10 p.m. that night, the metro said on its web site.
The stations that will be exit-only on Saturday include: Lubyanskaya, Kitai-Gorod, Kuznetsky Most, Ploshchad Revolyutsii, Okhotny Ryad, Teatralnaya, Chekhovskaya, Borovitskaya, Pushkinskaya, Tverskaya, Mayakovskaya and Biblioteka Imeni Lenina.
Commuter trains will also run until 2 a.m., an hour longer than usual, said the announcement on www.metro.ru.
Grandfather Frost's official Moscow residence, which opened on Tuesday in the Kuzminki Forest, is having an open house through Jan. 9. Visitors are invited to make a wish on a magic well, feed birds and squirrels, or meet the master of the house between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. Admission is free. The residence can be reached by taking a free bus from metro stations Kuzminki or Ryazansky Prospekt, or by bus 29 from Ryazansky Prospekt, or trolleybuses 27 and 33 from metro Tekstilshchiky.
The Moscow Zoo is also getting in to the holiday spirit. It will waive all admission fees on Friday and Saturday. It is open from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.
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