A New Year Just Like Mom and Dad’s

Holiday Family Show

A New Year Just Like Mom and Dad’s

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In December 2025, Fool House returned to one of the most familiar—and most emotionally charged—forms of celebration from our childhood: the New Year’s children’s performance. But instead of recreating it as a museum piece, we chose to reimagine it as a shared, living ritual for immigrant families.

While parents gathered for their own grown-up New Year celebration, the story followed two curious children, Tasya and Vasya, who set off in search of hidden presents—and stumbled into a much bigger adventure. Their impatience awakened the Red Horse, the spirit of the coming year, who sent them into the Winter Forest with a task: to help Father Frost repair the magical gift conveyor before the New Year could truly begin.

The performance unfolded as an interactive journey filled with games, movement, music, and encounters with forest creatures. Children were not just spectators—they became participants in the story, moving, responding, and solving problems alongside the characters.

For adults, the evening carried a quieter layer of meaning. Familiar images—round dances, New Year games, costumes, and rituals—evoked the joyful matinees of their own childhoods, creating a rare moment of shared nostalgia between generations.

Performed by Fool House actors and based on an original play by Alexandra Obmanets, the production balanced playfulness with care. It offered a gentle reminder that New Year magic is not about rushing forward, but about slowing down, paying attention, and entering the next year together.

This performance became a celebration not only of the New Year, but of continuity—of traditions carried across borders, reshaped, and passed on.

Our Creative Team