A traditional Ukrainian Christmas Eve supper consists of 12 dishes. The first course is kutya, a wheatberry pudding made with honey, poppy seeds, and dried fruits and nuts. It is eaten from a common dish to symbolize unity. Freshwater fish is also commonly served, prepared in various ways like fried, poached or baked. Soups like dried mushroom or sauerkraut soup are popular, as is beet borscht. Cereals and grains are featured in dishes like cabbage rolls and dumplings filled with various vegetables and mushrooms. For dessert, dried fruits, nuts or compote made from dried fruits boiled in honey are typically served, though some families enjoy more elaborate pastries as well.

1. A twelve-dish Christmas Eve supper is
traditionally prepared in Ukraine
(We celebrate Christmas on the 7th
of
January)

2. Kutya
This first-course Christmas Eve pudding of sorts is typically
made with wheatberries that are sweetened with honey
and sometimes augmented with poppy seeds, dried fruits
and nuts. The kutya is eaten from a common dish to
symbolize unity and, in some families, a spoonful of kutya
is thrown up to the ceiling. If it sticks, a plentiful honey
harvest can be expected.

3. KUTYA
(recipe)
Ingredients: 2 cups of wheat, 3 quarts water, one
cup poppy seeds, 2/3 cup sugar, 1/3 cup honey,
dissolved in 3/4 cup of hot water, 1/2 cup of
chopped walnuts, and a 1/2 cup of chopped
almonds or pecans.
Instructions: The day before preparation, wash the
wheat and soak in cold water overnight.
Place it in a pan and bake it at 250 F for one hour -
stirring occasionally. Boil 3 quarts of water and add
the wheat and chopped nuts. Stir until the water
has been completely absorbed. Pour the mixture
into a dish and add the butter and honey. Mix in the
poppy seeds, saving a few to sprinkle over the top.

4. Fish
Freshwater fish, usually white fish, carp, lake perch, trout or
pike, is always part of the dinner. It is served whole or
filleted, breaded and fried, poached, baked, stewed or
glazed with aspic, depending on family preferences, and
often several varieties appear on the table -- one fried
and one prepared another way.

5. Soup
Meatless soups like dried mushroom or sauerkraut
(kapusniak) are popular as is beet borshch on the
Ukrainian Holy Supper table. Often, the soup is served
with mushroom-filled vushka dumplings, which means
"little ears".

6. Cereals and grains
Cereals and grains show up as the filling for holubtsi or
cabbage rolls. Another interesting vegetarian spin on this
dish is bread-stuffed beet leaf rolls. Meatless varenyky,
pyrohy and other dumplings abound. And a special treat
is savory pampushky.

7. Compote and other
desserts
Dessert on Christmas Eve in the strictest Ukrainian
Orthodox households is just dried fruits and nuts or a
fruit compote known as uzvar . This sweet concoction
made of dried fruits, like apples, pears, sour cherries,
prunes, currants, raspberries, gooseberries and raisins, is
mixed with honey and sometimes spices and boiled in
water. It's half drink, half stewed fruit. Some families
serve more elaborate desserts like pompushky, which
are fried dougnuts filled with poppy seed, apricot or
prune filling