This weekend, Vilnius and Kaunas will light up their main Christmas trees. Amid drive for austerity, there will be fewer lights, but the big cities hope the festive mood will not be sombre. Vilnius, which is planning a Christmas budget of almost half a million euros, says it makes economic sense for the city to have a memorable Christmas.
In previous years, the Christmas lights in Laisves Avenue in Kaunas used to be turned on throughout the day. This year the, the city will be switching them off at midnight.
There will be fewer festive decorations in parks and neighbourhoods further away from the centre.
“When it comes to decorations, we’re only turning on perhaps a third of them this year,” Agne Augone, head of the Culture Department of Kaunas Municipality, sums up. “The savings we’re making may be quite symbolic, up to 18,000 euros according to our calculations, but it can vary, as prices change every day.”
Other cities are also preparing for the festivities. In Vilnius, there will be fewer lights, squares will be festively illuminated, but bridges will not.
Klaipeda is also saving money.
“Only from the Baltijos roundabout we plan to put decorations on every second pole,” says Inga Kubiliene of Klaipeda Municipality. “We will also be eliminating decorations on some side streets, some minor streets and we will also have the lights from December 10 until January 9, 2023, which means a shorter period.”
Panevezys and Siauliai plan to inaugurate their Christmas trees earlier than last year.
Kaunas’ main spruce in Town Hall Square will be more economical this year.
“The terms also stipulated that the bulbs should be economical, low-voltage and safe,” said artist Jolanta Smidtiene who designed the main decoration of Kaunas. “They have doubled in price, so you see, the situation is such that we have to adapt.”
Although there will be fewer lights, Lithuania’s main cities expect to have more Christmas tourists this year. Tourism experts say that Kaunas hotels are already fully booked for the Christmas weekend.
“As autumn and the Christmas period begins, we are still expecting a larger number of Lithuanians to come,” says Laimonas Uzomeckis, head of Kaunas In. “Of course, the numbers will certainly be bigger by at least two and a half to three times compared to last year. We are expecting more visitors to come to Kaunas during the Christmas period.”
Vilnius is planning a Christmas programme budget of just under half a million euros and is expecting around 100,000 tourists from Lithuania and abroad.
“If we reach these numbers, it will be a great success, and in monetary terms, if we multiply the 200 euros that one tourist leaves behind, it would be about 20 million euros for the country and the city,” says Inga Romanovskiene, the head of Go Vilnius. (LRT/Business World Magazine)