In Ukraine, there were lots of tasks that have taken care or to get ready for the big holiday.  These would begin once the winter officially began, on December 1st (Romana) or 4th Vvedinnia):

1. Prepare the didukh (aka sniep, did, koliada--Volyn, kril'/korol'--Kholm, zazhyn-Chernihiv, baba--Chortkiv). This is made of sheaves of wheat and rye and, depending on the region, was either the first grain to be harvested or the last.

2. Prepare firewood for cooking your Sviat Vechir/Rizdvo foods. This should have been collected last summer, and should be your very best wood.

3. Harvest and cook your honey. Very important. (Cooking the honey meant making medovukha/mead, an alcoholic drink.)

4. Prepare various nalyvky including your vyshniak (cherry liqueur) and slyvniak (plum liqueur).

5. Shopping: the mistress of the house needs to buy bought new bowls, spoons, plates, and makitry for the house, and new outfits for all of the family members.

6. The house itself needs to be readied--new whitewash on your walls and ceiling, the floor daubed with clay, and fantastic bird and flower motifs painted on your pich/stove.

7. Make your pavuky, from straw, wood or wire (only applies to some regions of western Ukraine).

8. Roll candles from wax from your very own beehives. These candles are an important part of the Sviat Vechir celebration.

9. The yard and fields should be all in order. All your tools should be in their places, and any tools borrowed or lent through the year should be returned to their owners.

10. The wagons and sleigh need to be in good working order.

11. Preparations made for the koliada and vinshuvannia--learning the songs and poems, preparing "vertep" skits, preparing your star.

12. Baking should be done, as baked goods can keep until the holiday itself, and take time to prepare; these are not last minute tasks. Breads, palianytsi, kalachi and pyrizhky should be ready.

13. Lastly, butcher a hog and prepare meat for the holidays: sausages, salo, roasts, etc.

--based on a chapter from Manko and Verbenets, "Obriady i stravy Sviatoho Vechora"