Christmas in Ukraine

How Ukrainians celebrate Christmas

Christmas in Ukraine is first a religious and family feast. The traditional festive period runs from Sviat Vechir on 24 December to Vodokhreshche, the feast of the Baptism of Jesus, on 6 January. For members of the Orthodox Church of Ukraine and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, Christmas Eve closes the long Christmas fast that begins in November, and the day ends with the Holy Supper and church services that run late into the night.

The customs mix Christian worship with much older farming rituals of the turn of the year. The sheaf of grain called the didukh, the hay under the tablecloth, the kutia left out for the ancestors and the songs wishing a good harvest all belong to this older layer. Since 2022, the war has shaped how Christmas is kept: many families set a place at the table for relatives serving at the front or for those who have died, and some gather by candlelight during power cuts.

25 December or 7 January?

For most of the 20th century, Ukrainians celebrated Christmas on 7 January, which is 25 December in the Julian calendar. From 2017 to 2022, both 25 December and 7 January were public holidays. In 2023 the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) and the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) adopted the Revised Julian calendar for fixed feasts, which places Christmas on 25 December. Both churches made the change from 1 September 2023, the start of the church year; the UGCC gave its parishes until 1 September 2025 to complete the move.

The state followed. The Verkhovna Rada passed the law on 14 July 2023 and President Volodymyr Zelensky signed it on 28 July 2023. Christmas has since been an official public holiday on 25 December only, and the 7 January holiday was removed. The same law also moved Statehood Day to 15 July and Defenders Day to 1 October. Fixed church feasts moved too, so St Nicholas Day is now 6 December instead of 19 December and Epiphany is 6 January instead of 19 January.

Not everyone switched. The Ukrainian Orthodox Church, historically linked to the Moscow Patriarchate, and some parishes keep the Julian calendar and celebrate on 7 January. In a Deloitte survey in November 2023, about 45% of respondents planned to celebrate on 25 December, 17% on 7 January and 32% on both dates.

Public holidays under martial law

Martial law has been in force in Ukraine since February 2022, and under it a public holiday is not a non-working day. Christmas therefore remains an official holiday but has not been a guaranteed day off. The most recent extension of martial law runs to 31 October 2026; unless it has ended by December, 25 December 2026 is expected to be a working day, although employers may give staff the day off.

Sviat Vechir: the Holy Supper

Sviat Vechir (Holy Evening) on 24 December is the heart of the Ukrainian Christmas. Many people fast through the day, and the family sits down to the Sviata Vecheria, the Holy Supper, when the first star appears in the sky, a reminder of the star of Bethlehem, or after the afternoon church service. Folk belief holds that whoever spots the first star will be happy all year.

The table follows set rules. A few wisps of hay are spread under an embroidered tablecloth to recall the manger. The meal usually has twelve dishes, often explained as one for each of the Twelve Apostles, though regional customs range from seven to seventeen. All of them are free of meat, milk and eggs, though fish is allowed. A place may be set for absent family, for the dead, or for any lonely stranger.

The supper begins with kutia, a sweet porridge of wheat berries, poppy seeds and honey. In an old custom, the head of the household tossed a spoonful at the ceiling: the more that stuck, the better the coming harvest. It ends with uzvar, a drink of stewed dried fruit. Some kutia and uzvar are left on the table overnight for the souls of the ancestors.

The didukh

In the corner of honour, the pokuttia, stands the didukh, a decorated sheaf of wheat or other grain. Its name means roughly "grandfather spirit", and it stands for the family's ancestors and the harvest. In villages the head of the household carried it in on Christmas Eve; in cities many families now buy a woven didukh at a Christmas market.

Koliadky, the vertep and Shchedryk

After the supper, families sing koliadky, Christmas carols, among them "Nova radist stala" ("A new joy has come") and "Boh predvichnyi narodyvsia" ("God eternal is born"). Through Christmas night and the following days, groups of koliadnyky (carollers) go from house to house singing and receiving treats or donations in return, and today the money raised often goes to charity.

Many groups carry a vertep, also called a shopka: a portable nativity scene in the form of a small box theatre with puppets, carried through the streets on Christmas Eve night to play out the story of the Nativity. Live vertep plays with costumed actors are also common.

The New Year songs are called shchedrivky, from shchedryi, "generous" or "bountiful". The most famous is "Shchedryk", a folk song arranged by the composer Mykola Leontovych and first performed in Kyiv on 29 December 1916. It tells of a swallow that flies into a home and promises the family a prosperous year. The Ukrainian National Chorus under Oleksandr Koshyts took it on tour and sang it at Carnegie Hall in New York on 5 October 1922, and in 1936 Peter J. Wilhousky published new English words, unrelated to the original, as "Carol of the Bells". In Ukraine it is still sung as a New Year song rather than a Christmas carol.

St Nicholas and the gift-bringers

In Ukraine, the main bringer of presents is increasingly St Nicholas, Sviatyi Mykolai. On the night before his feast, now 6 December, he leaves presents under the pillow or in shoes, and the day is also marked by prayer, charity and good deeds. He was always most popular in western Ukraine and has been replacing the Soviet-era figure of Did Moroz (Grandfather Frost), who came with his granddaughter, the Snow Maiden, and brought gifts at New Year.

The decorated Christmas tree, yalynka, came to the Russian Empire, of which most of Ukraine was then part, in the 19th century. In Soviet times it was turned into a secular "New Year tree", which is why many families still put it up for New Year as much as for Christmas.

Malanka, Shchedryi Vechir and New Year

New Year's Eve, 31 December, is Shchedryi Vechir (Bountiful Evening), also called Malanka. Before the calendar change it was held on 13 January. Groups of young men in costume go from house to house singing shchedrivky and performing a humorous folk play. One of them, dressed in a woman's folk costume, plays Malanka; her companion is Vasyl, and the troupe may include the Goat, the Devil, Death, and an Old Man and Old Woman. Hosts reward them with food, and the evening table is rich, often with pork and kutia.

On the morning of 1 January, St Basil's Day, young people go out to "sow": they visit relatives and neighbours, scatter grain in the house and recite New Year wishes. The first sower to cross the threshold is believed to bring the household good luck for the year. In the Malanka custom, the didukh was traditionally burnt at a crossroads to close the old year. For anyone sending greetings for Shchedryi Vechir or 1 January, deepestfeelings.com has free New Year 2027 cards and wishes, with Happy New Year 2027 images for WhatsApp and Instagram status, quote cards and ready-to-send messages.

Vodokhreshche: Epiphany on 6 January

The Christmas season closes with Vodokhreshche, also called Yordan (Jordan), on 6 January under the new calendar. It marks the baptism of Jesus in the river Jordan. Churches hold the blessing of water, often at rivers and lakes as well as in church, and many people take the blessed water home. With Vodokhreshche, the Christmas cycle that began on Sviat Vechir comes to an end; churches and families that keep the Julian calendar mark the same feast on 19 January.

Christmas around Ukraine

Traditional Ukrainian Christmas food

The twelve dishes of Sviat Vechir vary from family to family and region to region, but the following are among the most common. Meat, milk and eggs return to the table on Christmas Day.

Ukrainian Christmas season dates 2026–27

Public holidays are listed as set in law; while martial law is in force they are not automatically days off.

Christmas in Ukraine: frequently asked questions

Christmas in nearby countries