Of course, the culmination is expected, traditionally, with the lighting of the Christmas tree in Syntagma, which is scheduled for the Thursday after tomorrow at 19:15. The 21-meter spruce arrived a few days ago from Karpenisi on a specially designed vehicle, as it weighs over six tons. In addition, it had to be mounted on a solid steel base. The crane has been used to decorate its approximately 40,000 lanterns, and thus everything will be ready in a few days for the official start of the 2022 Christmas season. This year’s ceremony is also “attended” by many mayors of foreign cities who will be in Athens from tomorrow to take part in an international conference held in our country.

The ceremony will be hosted by Fotis Sergulopoulos and Jenny Melita (who will also appear on New Year’s Eve). Of course, there will also be a musical part with the Athenian big band and Tamta, and Petros Kurtis and the group from “Lead Soldiers” will start. In general, music at Syntagma will be the star of the festive program this year: from December 20 to 28, there will be three live events every day. On each of these days, the program will start at 11:00 am with orchestral ensembles, and at 2:00 pm will be accompanied by musical proposals from up-and-coming bands. At 18:00, some of the most popular Greek artists will take the stage: among them Nikos Portokaloglou, Rena Morphy, Evrydiki and Myronas Stratis, Stavento and Ivi Adamou, 1550 and Dimitris Starovas, ENORASIS.

This year, the municipality will also focus on Omonia Square, where a special Christmas market will be opened with stalls selling salty and sweet delicacies.