Mykolai has already brought gifts. But who will bring gifts on Christmas? Does Santa Claus stand a chance?
Life | 14 грудня, 2025 at 20:37 | 790 | Author: Natalia Merkulova
Collage by Olena Zelenina.
St. Nicholas visited us quite recently. He placed gifts under the pillows of all the well-behaved children. This tradition has become commonplace in Ukraine in recent years. But who will place gifts under the Christmas tree? Santa Claus? Will St. Nicholas come again? For the second time? Or someone else? Who exactly? And who will give gifts on New Year's Eve? Who will be this magician? After all, the position of Grandfather Frost is vacant today.
Who will become the traditional gift-givers for the winter holidays in Ukraine?
About the evolution of children's gifts in Ukrainian culture, about when St. Nicholas began to give gifts to our children, why he brings gifts and not some other saint, as well as about St. Nicholas' relationship with Grandfather Frost and whether it is true that they both became instruments of propaganda at one time — a conversation with Daria Antsibor, folklorist, writer, anthropologist, and researcher of Ukrainian traditions, mythology, and holidays, candidate of philological sciences.
Read more in the Ukrainian edition....
Comments
Some more relevant news for now