ONLY 14 shopping days left to the New Year - which the Russians celebrate with more gusto than Christmas - and still it has barely snowed. It is really quite extraordinary.
Snow is often in the air as early as October. A white covering is usually guaranteed in November and by December the snow should be lying in drifts. But this year, the warmest in Russia for over 100 years, the first flakes appeared in Moscow only on Sunday.
Children are getting anxious. "I have asked Ded Moroz (Father Frost) for a sledge", said 10-year-old Danil. "What am I going to do if it doesn't snow properly?"
"Don't worry," laughed his dad knowing that sooner or later heavy snow is inevitable. "Luzhkov will fix it".
He was referring to Yuri Luzhkov, the mayor of Moscow, a character who, even more than Father Frost, seems to be a larger-than-life miracle worker.
Luzhkov (60), a little canon-ball of a man who goes around wearing a hard-hat, is nicknamed "the builder". This is because he has made it his mission to renovate and rebuild Moscow, so it can stand as an equal with the capitals of the most developed countries. He is working at full tilt now, as only a short time remains to 1997, the year in which Muscovites will celebrate the 850th anniversary of the founding of their city.
Moscow was founded by Prince Yuri Dolgoruky (Yuri Longarm), who sits on his metal horse, pointing at city hall just across Tverskaya Street, where Yuri Luzhkov (Yuri of the Meadows), mulls over his construction plans. Many of Mr Luzhkov's projects, which won him an overwhelming vote of confidence in municipal elections earlier this year, are nearing fruition. For example, the renovation of the zoo, where immediately after the collapse of the old Soviet system the animals were starving, is almost complete, and the crowds are already pouring in to see tigers in spacious new cages and well fed, thanks to commercial sponsorship.
Down by the Moscow River, the gold is already on the domes of Christ the Saviour Cathedral, rebuilt in an astonishing two years. The original 19th century church was dynamited by Stalin, who put an open-air swimming pool in its place. But Mr Luzhkov, a former Communist who now wears his Orthodox Christianity on his sleeve, said there could be no revival of Moscow without a spiritual rebirth as well.
Mafia godfathers are said to have salved their consciences by donating some of their wealth to the cathedral's restoration fund. But how Mr Luzhkov raises his money is of little concern to most Muscovites. They see him achieving concrete goals, in contrast to the majority of Russia's opinionated but incompetent politicians, and admire him for it.
The football-playing Luzhkov is tipped as a possible successor to President Boris Yeltsin.
Not everyone is a Luzhkov fan of course. Conservationists raise their eyebrows when he announced a plan to build an underground shopping mall on the very edge of Red Square. But they have not been able to stop the project. Marble pavements, fountains and statues of fairytale characters are already visible on the site.
Particularly controversial is Mr Luzhkov's favourite sculptor, Zurab Tsereteli, given the task of replacing the once ubiquitous statues of Lenin. At the zoo, he has created a wonderful pile of tangled bronze animals, over which the children climb like monkeys. But some Muscovites did wonder why their city needed an enormous statue of Peter the Great, when it is common knowledge that the czar hated Moscow so much that he transferred the Russian capital to St Petersburg.
Undeterred, Mr Luzhkov presses on like a bulldozer. Now he has a new project. After touring the city recently, he announced that it was still too grey and launched "Operation Bright Facade" a campaign to paint drab buildings all the colours of the rainbow.
Among the apartment blocks due to receive the Luzhkov treatment is the famous House on the Embankment, the constructivist monster where top Bolsheviks lived until they were dragged off to labour camps during Stalin's purges. The new colour scheme has yet to be decided, but the mayor has ordered that the House must not clash with Christ the Saviour Cathedral on the other side of the river.
Even by the standards of the dynamic Luzhkov, the painting will take some time. Meanwhile, for the New Year holiday, the mayor has hung up a record number of fairy lights, making the city centre look as bright as Blackpool during the illuminations.
For little Danil, this is some compensation for the warm winter. The snow may be late, but every tree glitters with coloured lamps. And on new Arbat Street, the main shopping thoroughfare, a fat bald Father Frost, looking not unlike Mr Luzhkov, twinkles kindly. Surely he will not deliver a sledge and forget the snow.