Artek held a culinary workshop to make New Year's gingerbread cookies with the help of the real Father Frost from Veliky Ustyug. The children then decorated the New Year tree with the sweets, and their magical guest added a little magic to the recipe so that New Year miracles could begin in Artek.

The recipe for Christmas gingerbread cookies was simple: the young cooks made shortbread dough, added cinnamon, cloves, ginger, coriander, butter, honey, and just a dash of New Year's magic lent by the real Father Frost from Veliky Ustyug.

“The New Year is a magical time, when people’s most cherished wishes come true. That is why the whole world looks forward to this season. Pastry chefs always prepare for Christmas and New Year in a special way to make the holiday treats tasty and rewarding,” Father Frost said to the children. “And to add some magic to these dishes, they must be cooked with a kind heart and good intentions, wishing everyone who sees them goodness and joy. I’m sure they will be!”

“For our workshops, we always pick dishes that children can later replicate at home, so that they will be able to cook and treat their families to them. They can also show off what they learned at Artek to mom, dad, grandpa and grandma,” said Andrei Semyonov, the regional manager of the Preschool Food Company. “Not all children get a chance to see the real Father Frost on New Year's Eve and prepare a treat with him.”

The participants completed every step of the process – shaping the cookies, baking and painting them with multicolored glaze. Beautiful and fragrant treats in the form of mittens, snowflakes, Christmas trees and pigs – the [Chinese] symbol of the coming year – will be on the New Year's menu at Artek. And the gingerbread cookies baked by the children together with Father Frost will adorn the Christmas tree in the Artek canteen.

The children said the gingerbread cookies seemed different after Father Frost added his magic. “It seemed to me that they actually became magical, with this extraordinary smell to them, and it even became easier to thread the string to hang them,” Grigory Mishin from Saratov said. “It was actually the first time I made gingerbread cookies, and I think I will often recall this day back home. I would like to bake them for my family.”

Father Frost also handed out gifts to the children and signed the guest book in the Artek canteen for distinguished visitors.