When thinking about winter vacationing, few people turn their heads to the east of Europe. "Spending my winter in Ukraine for Ukraine Christmas?! Oh, no - I bet it's pretty much heaps of white snow, bears walking around the streets, grey communist buildings and temperatures that closely resemble those from iced hell," as you'd say.

And as with it goes with all the stereotypes, most of them are as far away from the truth as one can imagine. Instead, if you dare to go east, your winter in Ukraine can join the list of those wonderful, high-spirited, surprising, utmost-innocent and eye-opening trips you've ever had.

Reason One: Two holidays

You'll have two Christmases! Yes, indeed. You can safely enjoy your Christmas candle-lit dinner, abundant presents and wild New Year celebrations, and still have the time to repeat the Christmas ordeal all over again. Most of Ukrainians belong to the Eastern Orthodox rite of Christianity, and still follow the Julian calendar. It means that all holidays in Ukraine (as well as Serbia, Russia and other Eastern Orthodox countries) lag exactly 13 days behind. Your second Ukrainian Christmas will be in house on January 7th.

True, you won't get the presents, as Ukrainians don't have the tradition of hectic Christmas presents shopping craze. Instead, you'll get more, and that is…

Reason Two: Authentic celebrations

Ukrainian Christmas is so far from the typical Western European idea of this holiday, that for most people it becomes an unexpected surprise. There is no Santa Claus, red-nose reindeers, or even Christmas trees! Ahem. We mean that there are indeed green pine or fir trees in the warm and fuzzy houses, but they are more of leftovers from the New Year parties, than a genuine part of Christmas events.

In Ukraine Christmas is all about… the birth of Jesus Christ.  The original purpose of the holiday springs back in full. Shops are filled with mangers, carols sing about religious stories, and every bit of traditional Christmas Supper is in some way connected to the birth of Jesus and its apostles.

Even the daily Ukrainian greeting changes! Instead of saying the regular 'good byes' and 'hellos', people greet with 'Christ is born', and respond with 'Glorify Him'.  In villages this greeting continues all the way until the end of January, but even the big city dwellers pay respect to Christmas by starting their day with the 'Christ is born'.

Reason Three: Exciting Traditions

Here is how traditional Christmas tree looks like

While Ukrainian Christmas is indeed more about religion, than anything else, it does have a bunch of pagan rituals that crept into the celebration. The highlight of the holiday – Christmas Supper – has the most of them.

The traditional dinner consists only of vegetarian meals, no fat or meat allowed.  The table should have not more, not less than 12 dishes. Each corner of the table has to have a garlic clove (to protect from evil) and a nut (to give strengths). Family sits together at the table, only when the first star hits the sky.  In the corner of the house father puts didukh – beautifully decorated bouquet of wheat and dried flowers – the symbol of prosperity and wealth.

As kids, our favorite ritual though was getting under the table and meowing/bleating/mooing our hearts out, while our mom was bringing to the table kutya, the chief Christmas dish. All our yelling symbolized the wish for a rich household, with plenty of farm animals, so we got to choose to make the sound of those that we wanted the most in the next year. Suffice to say – our farm always had the animals we cheered for in plentiful!

Reason Four: The food

Kutya, varenyky, borshch, holubtsi – while these things sound like a gibberish collection of words for you, for us these are akin to heavenly sounds.  Ukraine's most delicious culinary highlights were always reserved for Christmas.  Traditional Supper always started with everyone taking a spoonful of kutya – made out of wheat, honey, poppy seeds and raisins. It was followed by a plate of steaming, dark red borshch, stuffed to the top with fresh vegetables and just a finishing touch of home-made sour-cream.

Then, our stomachs were celebrating the feast with mouth-watering varenyky (pierogi), all-time favorite holubtsi(cabbage leaves wraps with rice or potatoes), and the never-ending line of appetizers (remember, there are twelve of the dishes!)

Add to that the fact that most Ukrainian stick to a strict fasting the day before Christmas, avoiding all the food, and then imagine how heavenly delicious and gourmet the Supper is!

Reason Five: Doughnuts and the Carols

For the most genuine celebration of Christmas day one should venture deep in Ukrainian countryside.  Far away villages of Transcarpathian or off-the-beaten tracks in the North all stick to the ages-old traditions of caroling and verteps – traditional Christmas plays.  If you don't have the chance to go rural, go to Lviv: during Christmas this city turns into one sparkling miracle of joy and spirit.  And we aren't sugarcoating!

Groups of people, all dressed in colorful traditional clothes, scatter around in front of Opera Theater, singing festive carols, putting on vertep performances, and occasionally dropping into decorated coffee shops to sing even more.

Behind the corner small girls, carefully wrapped in bright babushkas, and boys, bundled up in embroided keptars, parade along the snow-blanket streets with all kinds of giant hand-made Christmas stars and didukh.

Ukrainian doughnuts - pampukhy

Soon this kaleidoscopic street show is joined by the tantalizing smell of freshly baked pampushky – a local version of doughnuts.  The Festival of Pampushky opens up on January 8th, and is irresistible! Pampushky with poppy seeds, raisins and honey; pampushky with cheese and even simple blend ones – all home-made and all lined up to tease and seduce!

Phew. That last picture beat us down. Sigh.. And while we, at Active Ukraine, can't stop staring and crave our favorite and most delicious Christmas pampukhy, you still have the chance to register and join the most unexpected Christmas you'll ever have! 

P.S. If you have only two or three days in town, and wish you join the holiday celebrations, let us know. We are always happy to adjust the itinerary to your travel schedule!