How newcomers are reshaping Christmas across Atlantic Canada
- Judith Mendiolea Lelo de Larrea
- Apr 20
- 7 min read
Combining elements of home and new traditions at the root of Christmas celebration for new Atlantic Canadians
Originally published by The Telegram Dec 12, 2025
For Tetyana Rymska, Christmas was a holiday she only understood through absence.
Before she ever moved to Canada, she grew up in a heavily Russified part of Ukraine, where the holiday had been systematically erased.
Before the Soviet era, Ukrainian Christmas traditions included family gatherings, 12 symbolic dishes on Christmas Eve, the sharing of kutia, a traditional dessert made of grains, and seasonal figures such as Saint Nicholas. Under Soviet rule, however, those customs were suppressed and replaced by the Russian “Father Frost,” or Ded Moroz.
“I didn’t really get to experience that joy of actual Christmas. All I got in my childhood is just shadows of imperialism,” she said. “Some people managed to preserve it in their homes, but for my family, it was only my grandmother who did.”
During the Communist era, observing Christmas could carry real risk.
“You would even get kicked out of the university for celebrating it,” she said.
It wasn’t until she immigrated to P.E.I. that she encountered genuine Ukrainian Christmas traditions. In 2023, she joined her local Ukrainian Canadian Congress branch for a Christmas event, and now she helps organize their Christmas Night, scheduled for Dec. 21 this year.
She calls friends still in Ukraine to learn the prayers, the songs, and learn more about her heritage.
“It’s the very first time in my life I got to try Kutia, I was just so happy,” she said. “It’s a very traditional Christmas dish because quite literally on Christmas Eve it would just be passed around the table and everybody in the family would get to try it.”
Many of these are a first for her.
“That’s why I’m so passionate about organizing Ukrainian Christmas in Canada, because for me it’s also a chance to learn those traditions that I never got a hold on,” she adds.
Old and new traditions combine
However, her experience isn’t completely unique. Across Atlantic Canada, December brings more than snow and long nights, and for a growing number of newcomers, it means gathering in church halls and community centres.
In these spaces, old traditions resurface, new ones take root, and pieces of childhood celebrations travel hundreds or thousands of kilometres to be reassembled in a new home.
The rise of these gatherings is not incidental.
In recent years, the share of recent immigrants settling in Atlantic Canada has nearly tripled, climbing from 1.2 per cent in 2006 to 3.5 per cent in 2021, according to Statistics Canada. This demographic shift helps explain why winter holiday rituals on the East Coast are transforming — and why they matter deeply for both individuals and their communities.
And as Rymska prepares to learn more about her culture, Canadians have the opportunity to experience it with her.
For the Ukrainian Christmas Night event, she is preparing to act in Vertep, a centuries-old play of shepherds, angels and comic characters. Her role? A shepherd.
The performance, along with the event, will be a fundraiser for the Queen Elizabeth Hospital Foundation. There, Ukrainian artist will showcase their talent and culture for the public, providing workshops on art forms like Petrykivka and producing Christmas-inspired work to take home.
“We also want to give a huge thanks to Charlottetown and to P.E.I. specifically for constantly supporting us,” Rymska said.
“We want to preserve our traditions, we want to come together for Christmas, but our goal is to also share this beautiful spirit of unity… with absolutely anybody who only wants to see it.”
Building a new tradition for a new community
Though thousands of kilometres separate Ukraine and Atlantic Canada, some traditions are surprisingly familiar across cultures. Rymska’s Vertep, for example, echoes the pastorelas many Latin American immigrants grew up watching.
In Mexico, these plays — often humorous — are performed during posadas, nine nights of processions that recreate Mary and Joseph’s search for lodging before Bethlehem.
For Yedid Cano, who grew up in Cancún, Christmas was always rich in community, tradition and faith.
But since she moved to Canada in 2022, she’s helping to create something new. As co-founder of City Impact Church in Charlottetown, she is organizing the Christmas Impact Awards, a gala celebrating achievement, faith and those who give back.
“We are creating a new tradition… a gala called the Impact Christmas Awards, where we celebrate ‘God with us’ and honour people in our community who, through their faith, have achieved so many good things this year.”
The congregation has branches from New Zealand to Moncton, N.B., where just a few weeks ago, they celebrated their own Christmas gala.
Cano’s branch in P.E.I. reflects the changing face of Atlantic Canada: around 15 nationalities now make up her church community.
“There are traditions from Mexico that I miss… but with so many nationalities, we try to create something new for everyone.”
The gala will reflect real challenges newcomers face: lengthy immigration processes, financial stress and uncertainty.
“Immigration is a very complicated challenge, and many people have overcome difficulties… We want to honour people who inspire us, those who achieved goals through faith, those who helped their friends, and those who served the community without needing a title.”
The awards, to be held in the days before Christmas, will include categories like Legacy of Faith, Vision, Anonymous Leader and Best Friend.
“We want to have a really nice gala, something like in our countries, because Christmas is quite elegant, isn’t it?” Cano said.
“For one night, we want to bring that feeling, to feel good, to see that our work, our effort — and that of many of us who are parents — is bearing fruit, what we’ve been doing as a family and for our families.”
Even as she builds these new rituals, her older tradition lives on at home.
“We’re going to receive everyone who has nowhere to be in our home… that’s what makes us happiest.”“The meaning of Christmas is to bring hope, and everyone always has highs and lows… we want to mark the history of families by giving them hope in the middle of their immigration journey.”
Why these traditions matter
These stories aren’t just individual memories. They’re part of how newcomers in Atlantic Canada are building belonging.
Retention data shows their roots are growing: since the launch of the Atlantic Immigration Pilot (now the permanent Atlantic Immigration Program), one-year retention rates for skilled immigrants have climbed significantly. In Nova Scotia, for example, the rate rose from just 21.5 per cent in 2016 to 67.6 per cent by 2019.
At the same time, the emotional importance of these celebrations is underpinned by social realities: research shows newcomers are more likely to report loneliness than Canadian-born people.
These gatherings — Vertep plays, church galas, community meetings — are more than nostalgia. They are building social networks, sustaining newcomer retention, and reshaping what holiday tradition looks like in a region that is itself becoming more diverse.
Rooftops and late-night gatherings
For Krishna Dalwadi, a newcomer from Gujarat, India, Christmas was never about church or religion. It was about friends, imagination and make-believe.
“I didn’t celebrate Christmas with my family because we are not Christians,” she said. “But we still loved doing something around that time.”
In her childhood apartment building, kids pooled pocket money to throw spontaneous rooftop parties, with snacks, music and laughter.
“All of us would collect pocket money and then meet on the building terrace with snacks, drinks, games and music, it was like a mini-party we created ourselves.”
She defined herself as an artistic person.
“I used to do this mini workshop where we made Santa Claus masks out of paper dishes,” she explained. “We didn’t have the trees used for Christmas garlands, so we made them with the leaves and branches native to our area.”
There was also a familiar sense of seasonal commerce. When she was living in a different city in India with a high concentration of Christians, she visited a Christmas market.
“They organized a Christmas market over there. It was very similar to the one in here.”
Yet, her first Christmas in Canada, in 2023, was quiet: snow, unfamiliar faces, and long nights at home.
“Everything was so new for me… I didn’t have a stable job, and I spent most of my time at home.”
She did local activities like visiting the markets or attending the tree lighting downtown in Charlottetown. And today, two years later, she hopes to return to some of her traditions.
“One thing I want to do this year is have an art party with my friends, snacks, games, and making garlands together,” Dalwadi said. “We didn’t do gift exchanges, but we always gave a small return gift… chocolates or glitter pens.”
For her, Christmas isn’t about faith. It’s about celebration and connection.
“People in our place celebrate Christmas whether they’re Christian or not… people just need an excuse to celebrate, decorate, buy new clothes, cook new things, and get together with friends.”
Comments