Ukrainian Catholics are among those who follow the Julian calendar, which means they celebrate Christmas in early January.
At 81 years old, Jenny Mysak still takes the time to host a traditional Ukrainian Christmas Eve dinner for her family every year.
"I think it's a very nice tradition. My mother brought me up, and I try to maintain it for my daughters and my granddaughters and the family. It's a lot of work, but it's a beautiful tradition."
It takes Mysak two weeks to prepare enough pierogis and cabbage rolls, which are big favourites.
She gets help from her son-in-law, Greg Bedik, to handle the fish, as meat is not allowed at a nativity supper.
He prepares it by breading the fish in an egg yolk and milk batter, but "I don't fry it, we just bake it and it's one of the 12 traditional dishes that we make for the evening."
Mysak's family begins their meal with a prayer and then an entree of borscht soup.
Her granddaughter, Natalia Bedik, says she loves spending time with her family and she gets to celebrate Christmas twice.
"We do celebrate Christmas on the 25th, but I find this Ukrainian Christmas is all about the traditions and we follow the traditions pretty much by the book."
Traditions and spirituality are at the heart of the Orthodox Christmas, and there is less of an emphasis on gift-giving than in a traditional North American Christmas celebration.
Christmas falls 13 days later for members of Orthodox churches than it does for most of the western world, because those religions still use the Julian calendar, established by Julius Caesar in 46 B.C.
The standard Gregorian Calendar was introduced by Pope Gregory XIII in 1582, and removed 10 days from the calendar in order to correct 17 centuries of accumulated errors.
