Turkmen schoolchildren gathered together at the square in front of the Palace of Children and Youth in the Turkmen capital, from where they headed to a beautiful corner of our country - Geokdere settlement for the winter holidays. A festive show with music, songs, dances and poems dedicated to the New Year took place on the square on occasion of the beginning of the winter holidays. The students of the Palace of Children and Youth together with the favourite New Year’s heroes – Ayaz Baba and Garpamyk prepared ‘the winter’s tale’ for the young holidaymakers. The representatives of the sphere of education and public organizations as well as parents and numerous citizens of the Turkmen capital attended the festivities. Those speaking during the ceremony underlined that President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov paid particular attention to securing the happy life for children, creating all conditions for developing the talents and skills of the younger generation. That is vividly proved by the construction of wonderful educational institutions, sports and entertainment centres throughout the country. The recreation centres, where all necessary conditions have been created for joyful, active and cognitive leisure of schoolchildren during their winter break, are to contribute significantly to development of children. This winter season, 14 sanatoriums in Geokdere cordially welcomed 7,000 children from the Turkmen capital and all regions of the country. The academic seminars were organized for teachers and tutors so that the club activities, classes in computer literacy and foreign languages, and cognitive leisure were held at the high organizational level. The specialists of the Ministry of Education, the Ministry of Culture, the Ministry of Health Care and Medical Industry, NGOs, the State Committee for Sports jointly prepared the programme for children's holiday. Every day spent in the centres will be filled with classes given the interests of children, contests, meetings, theatrical performances and literary readings, sports and intellectual competitions, concerts. The young holiday-makers will also enjoy the performances to be organized for them at the State Circus and State Puppet Theatre. The programme also includes the trips around the Turkmen capital, visits to the National Museum of Wildlife, Alem and Children's World Cultural and Entertainment Centres.