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“It is a special thing to have what you got used to having from your childhood.”

One of Olesia Luciw-Andryjowycz’s most cherished Christmas traditions is making her mother’s borscht, a soup served as part of a 12-course meal on Christmas Eve. She has to make a big vat of it, enough to feed 35 or 40 people.

Her family maintains other Orthodox traditions, such as having a meatless meal on Christmas Eve, and leaving a plate at the table to recognize deceased relatives. Old Ukrainian cookbooks are family keepsakes for the recipes they contain.

However, some practices have altered over the years. For example, tradition dictates that Christmas Eve hosts throw a spoonful of kutia — a sweet grain pudding — at the ceiling. If it sticks, the family is due for a prosperous year, so the theory goes.

“Well, if you have a stippled ceiling, God forbid you throw it up there because you will have a lot of scraping to do,” said Luciw-Andryjowycz, president of the Ukrainian Canadian Congress, Alberta Provincial Council.

As well, she said that when her parents first immigrated to Alberta, they often used whitefish for the Christmas Eve fish course because it was locally plentiful. Now it is hard to find, which means the family more often cooks salmon or perch.

Karpenko, who came to Canada in 2003, said he has become accustomed to celebrating two Christmases: on Dec. 24 and 25 with his western friends, and again in January with his Orthodox brethren.