On Christmas Day, January 7, 2025, His Holiness Patriarch Kirill of Moscow and All Russia visited the Christmas Tree in the Cathedral Hall of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow.
In the foyer of the Cathedral Hall, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church was met by students of the Sunday school of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior. Together with them, His Holiness went into the hall and took a seat in the front row.
Children of military personnel who visited or are in the area of a special military operation, children from boarding schools and Sunday school students were invited to the Christmas tree.
The festive performance began with the prologue "The warmest warmth in the world", which was attended by students of the Sunday school of the Cathedral of Christ the Savior and the actors of the play "Brothers and the White King". The organizer of the performance is the Interbal production center.
Then His Holiness Patriarch Kirill addressed the audience from the stage of the Cathedral Hall:
"Dear children! Dear dads and moms, grandparents!
I cordially congratulate all of you on the great holiday of Merry Christmas. And this is not a myth, not a fairy tale — this is a historical event, this is reality. The Lord was born, that is, God became incarnate. This whole story is ineffable, that is, incomprehensible to the human mind. God, Who created heaven and earth, comes to people as a Human Being in order to share with them both joys and sorrows. That is why the Gospel says that God is love (1 Jn. 4:16), because no other force could have done what the Lord Himself did: to come to people, and not in the form of a king, powerful and strong, who would force them to follow him by the power of his authority, but in the person of a simple man, a carpenter, who had no human authority, no human power, but Whose words transformed the whole world.
More than two thousand years later, we are here, in the center of Moscow, a huge metropolis that people who lived in the time of the Lord and Savior could not even imagine. So much has passed in this world, but we not only preserve the memory of the Nativity of Christ, but we bow before the newborn Child of God, we pray to Him, we keep through faith a living connection with Him, who came into the world two thousand years ago. And this connection is called religion from the Latin word religare, "to bind." When we say that we are believers, religious people, we affirm this very truth — we are in connection with God, the Creator of the world, our Savior.
This is probably the most important thing for a person. For when a person loses touch with God, he loses touch with the source of truth, goodness, truth — all that brings true happiness. Therefore, when we are with God, we are strong, even if we are physically weak. Sometimes the Lord visits us with sorrows, but if we are with Him, then we are on the side of strength, on the side of victory.
That's what every Orthodox person should know. And the proof of this is the history of our Church, the history of our people. We have become strong, we have defeated many enemies, we have built a great state — and in many ways because we have never sought to renounce God, except for a short period when some godless ideology clouded the consciousness of a part of our intelligentsia, and then a part of our people.
But these are different times now. We are strengthening our faith again and again and reviving the values that our people lived by and which created our country. We have a clear understanding that living with God, according to God's law, is the most correct life that can lead a person to happiness.
I would like to say all these words to you today and thank you, my dear children, your dads, moms, grandparents, and all those who participate in your upbringing, for celebrating Christmas here with the Patriarch today. And may the Lord bestow upon you His mercy and His love, grant you peace of mind, well—being, happiness, joy - all that fills a person and his life with true meaning. Once again, I cordially congratulate all of you on Christmas!"
Then the young viewers saw the Christmas tale "The Brothers and the White King".
At the end of the performance, all the children were presented with gifts.

Patriarch Kirill visited the Christmas tree in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior
08.01.2025, 16:00