How we gave Ukrainian orphans a visit from Santa.
Deep Dives
Explore related topics with these Wikipedia articles, rewritten for enjoyable reading:
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Saint Nicholas
12 min read
The article centers on St. Nicholas Day celebrations in Ukraine. Understanding the historical Saint Nicholas—the 4th century Greek bishop of Myra whose acts of generosity created the gift-giving tradition—provides rich context for why this holiday holds such cultural significance in Ukraine and across Europe.
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Deinstitutionalisation
16 min read
The article mentions Ukraine's 2017 deinstitutionalization reform transitioning from orphanages to family-based care. This Wikipedia article explains the global movement away from institutional care, its psychological rationale, and why family-based environments produce better outcomes for children—context that deepens understanding of the reform mentioned.
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War children
15 min read
With 61,000 Ukrainian children orphaned by the war, this article discusses the broader phenomenon of children affected by armed conflict—the psychological impacts, international protections, and historical parallels from WWII and other conflicts. Provides sobering context for the children described in the story.
Featured Subscriber’s Comment:
“I hate war, but hate even more what Putin has done and continues to do to Ukraine. Thank you for your reporting, as paying attention makes a difference.”
By: DeeDee
Support our initiatives, including our effort to give the orphanage emergency supplies:
For most children, attention from adults is a usual part of life.
But not for the ones we visited.
Many orphans – or those without available parents – don’t get it very often: only from their caregivers or on holidays, like St. Nicholas Day, when volunteers bring gifts and spend some time with them.
So we decided to give these children a bit of love and care, even for a moment: we became St. Nicholas for them.
St. Nicholas Day, celebrated on December 6, is a highly-anticipated day for Ukrainian children. Many of them are forced to grow up early amid the cruelty of war: explosions, air-raid sirens, and rare phone calls with their parents who went to the frontline. As of the end of 2025, about 61,000 children were left orphaned due to the Russian war. A lot of kids lose their parents in action at the frontline, under shelling, or in Russian captivity.
So finding presents brought by St. Nicholas preserves at least a small bit of real childhood magic and the celebration they so deeply deserve. It is evidence that the most important light is something Russia will never be able to take away: the light of support, love, and helping one another.
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Of the tens of thousands of children orphaned by the war, relatives take care of the child whose parents were killed. But not everyone is lucky. About 4,000 children are left in institutional arrangements, where they are known as ‘children deprived of parental care.’
Life in institutions like boarding schools, orphanages, and children’s shelters often isolates kids from society. They eat whatever they are given, and don’t have pocket money for non-essentials.
But the war has brought a good tradition into the life of many Ukrainians — donating whatever money they have left to
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