Ukrainian Christmas

For those who don't know, Andy's family is Ukrainian. Yes, I know, our last name doesn't sound Ukrainian. That's because it's an Anglicized version that was adopted when his grandfather immigrated to Canada. I thought it was time we celebrated our kids' heritage by observing Ukrainian Christmas on January 7th. Plus, it justified still having the Christmas tree up.

We didn't observe it in the most traditional manner, which includes a twelve-course meatless meal, one course for each of the twelve apostles. Twelve courses?! I'm lucky to have the meat, potatoes & vegetables all ready at the same time! We did our own version of the meal - cabbage rolls, perogies, & kubasa. We also included wheat bread, because traditionally the Ukrainian people bring into the house a shaft of wheat, or didukh, to symbolize prosperity for the next year.

The birth of Jesus is central to the Ukrainian celebration, so I set up a little nativity scene as our centerpiece, and surrounded it with our Ukrainian "matroshka" or nesting dolls. Ukrainians will often place straw under the table to remember Jesus' birth. We used hay and put a small amount in the nativity scene. In some parts of the Ukraine people decorate eggs for Christmas, just as they do for Easter, so I included a painted wooden Ukrainian egg as well.

Calvin was disappointed to discover that he wasn't receiving any more gifts, and yes, he still had to go to school, but we still had a lovely dinner with a bit of meaning to it. Perhaps next year I'll start preparing a little earlier and include more traditions and traditional food - but there still won't be twelve courses!