"Winter Good Fest", Boosta TV Night, Radio Capgemini and personal LEGO figures: how the IT-people celebrated the New Year. Photo selection for the festive mood

«Winter Dobrofest» and Svetryk Day at EPAM

Victoria Didukh, Head of Event Organization and Community Development at EPAM Ukraine, said that by the time of the full-scale invasion, the company had already formed new traditions for celebrating the New Year holidays. Their format differs from the usual formats of corporate parties.

«We are trying to create a warm festive atmosphere, adapted to today’s realities, and at the same time support important charitable initiatives to bring closer the time when it will be appropriate to return to large-scale celebrations,» she noted.

On the eve of the Christmas holidays, in the largest EPAM offices (Kyiv, Vinnytsia, Lviv), we organize a charity fair of craft delicacies and handmade products — «Winter Dobrofest». Colleagues sell their own handmade products, homemade pastries and sweets. For some projects, this has already become a good tradition: teams gather in advance, prepare delicacies together or create winter crafts. For example, this year one of the teams knitted 12 grandfathers, who quickly found their buyers at the fair.

The purpose of the event is to raise funds to purchase medicines for children fighting oncological, oncohematological and orphan diseases. This is a joint initiative with the public organization «EVUM». This year, colleagues managed to raise over 120,000 UAH.

Another important tradition is Svetryk Day — a warm Christmas gathering in the offices. On Christmas Eve, we invite colleagues to come in festive sweaters, take a group photo, and enjoy some treats over a cup of tea or coffee.

Also, every year we hold an online meeting with experts — historians or cultural experts, where we talk about Ukrainian winter traditions and holiday symbolism. This year, writer Nadiyka Gerbish spoke about Ukrainian Christmas as an act of resistance and a source of light that has survived through prohibitions and darkness. Last year, we talked about the tradition of caroling and Christmas songs with the famous Ukrainian historian and intellectual Yaroslav Hrytsak.

In addition, the company hosts online quizzes on New Year’s themes for teams of various projects, as well as festive meetings of professional communities, which create an atmosphere of unity and inspiration.

Chamber celebration at Ciklum

This year, in Kyiv, Lviv, and Dnipro, Сiklum held winter offline events for colleagues, where they shared the results of the year and the warmth of the pre-holiday atmosphere. After the start of the full-scale invasion, the companies deliberately moved away from the format of loud corporate holidays and focused on more intimate meetings with a charitable component — this way we not only maintain communication within the team, but also make a joint contribution to helping the defenders of Ukraine.

 

 

 

One of the key activities was a charity raffle among the Sicklumers, who donated funds to support the «Return Alive» foundation — we have been cooperating with them for many years. In addition, the Sicklumers helped fulfill the wishes of the wards of the «Children of Heroes» foundation by preparing personal gifts for them.

Every year, the company prepares corporate gifts for all colleagues — and 2025 was no exception. This year, they chose practical branded items for everyday use: water bottles, T-shirts, and laptop cases. It is important for the company that the gifts are not just a sign of attention, but are truly useful and pleasant for the team.

Boosta TV Night

This year, for the first time since the start of the full-scale invasion, Boosta returned to celebrating the winter holidays in the format of a corporate party.

For company-wide events, the company always chooses a concept that sets clear messages, mood, and matches resources. As an IT holding company with various business units, infrastructure teams, and an investment fund within its structure, the organizers sought to create a unifying and relatable theme for everyone.

That’s why we chose Boosta TV Night — the atmosphere of a safe childhood, when families gathered together and watched their favorite TV shows. This concept allowed us to convey a common mood and at the same time combine online and offline formats to cover the entire geography of our Boosta fans.

We started with a big online broadcast; the program included:

• BoostaNews final news release;
• weather forecast for 2026 for all business units from Mykola Lutsenko;
• game «Who wants to be a billionaire?»;
• the actual Late Night Show with C-level Boosta;
• charity auction.
  This year, Boosta raised funds for the renovation of a school shelter in Okhtyrka, Sumy Oblast, just 32 km from the Russian border. The auction featured gifts for every taste: from Gunia dishes to a vinyl record player and coffee maker. There were also intangible lots from our co-founders, which caused no less emotions than the tangible ones.

After the online part, the celebration continued offline. In three cities at once: in Lviv and Warsaw — festive dinners, and in Kyiv — the main New Year’s event. Here we also preserved the retro mood:

• the glitter bar helped everyone complete their look and add sparkle to the evening;
• arcade games on machines became a real hit and took everyone back to their childhood;
• Dance battles and games in the style of old TV shows added to the drive.

Together with great music, dancing, photos, and light festive chaos, it created a sense of a shared, now offline broadcast. This format allowed us to bring together all parts of the holding and end the year as a big team — in the style of a big joint show, where everyone felt involved.

Radio Capgemini

This year, Capgemini Engineering organized a «corporate event» in the online format of Radio Capgemini. Here, they communicate with colleagues, congratulate them on the upcoming holidays, invite a special host who conducts an interactive event, and give gifts to the most active participants. People who come to the offices on this day are waiting for goodies in the kitchen and the opportunity to spend time at the festive table with colleagues.

This year, the company chose to give holiday gifts to the children of our employees. Even before the full-scale invasion, they made a focus on working more with Ukrainian brands, products, and suppliers.

For the past two years, the company has been giving New Year’s gifts from Ukrainian craftsmen. People who have their own small and medium-sized businesses and create products in Ukraine, during a full-scale invasion with all the difficulties, power outages, and dangers.

The children’s set includes two boxes to choose from:

• A traditional straw «spider» decoration that children can make with their parents and decorate their home, as well as a craft mixture of rice and oat flour and a cookie baking mold for spending time together.
• Natural cocoa, Ukrainian natural marshmallows, as well as a craft mix of rice and oat flour and cookie baking molds for spending time together.

80's Disco in Railsware

As Daryna Kuzmik, Talent&Culture Lead at Railsware, told us,
This year, a New Year’s «party» was traditionally held here. The main event took place in Krakow, it was organized as a warm «disco» meeting in the style of the 80s. «Like every year, many colleagues came to Krakow from our other locations to see each other in person before the holidays, chat, sum up the year and just spend time together. The atmosphere was as informal as possible: music, dancing, lively communication. And, of course, traditional surprises and smiles,» said Daria.

For the team in Ukraine, for obvious reasons, a meeting in the format of a festive dinner is planned for the end of January. «We hope that we will have the opportunity to gather peacefully in Kyiv and celebrate together,» says Kuzmik.

As every year, the company gives corporate gifts for the winter holidays. For the company, it’s about attention and a sense of community, especially on the eve of the holidays. This year’s set turned out to be cozy and maximally personalized: new hoodies, stickers, customized cookies with predictions, with individual, specially prepared messages.

«The most special part was the Lego figurine of each team member — Railsware loves Lego, so we couldn’t resist such a souvenir. So now each of us has our own mini-copy, which I hope brings a smile and adds to the festive mood. We love such gifts because they are not just „merch“, but a small symbol of belonging to the team and a common culture,» said Daria.

Ukrainian Holiday Spirit Around the World»

Alina Voronenko, Head of People & Culture at Master of Code Global, says that this year, Master of Code Global has combined all seasonal activities into the concept of «Ukrainian Holiday Spirit Around the World.» Her idea is to support a sense of unity between Masters in different countries, share warmth and gratitude, exchange cultural traditions — Ukrainian and local — and add an important meaning to it: a good deed.

As part of the campaign, we held a charity online auction, Kind Auction, in support of 3D Kuznia, an initiative for 3D printing of critical plastic parts and components for the Defense Forces of Ukraine, which was initiated and continues to be developed by our Master Oleksandr Zaruba. Masters from different countries exhibited their own lots and placed bids — from items with history to consultations and master classes.

The company also joined the auction with several lots. The most special were two unique embroidered shirts, created in collaboration with a Ukrainian brand and embroidered with ornaments that reflect our values. It is symbolic that one of them was won by a Master from Brazil — a moment when Ukrainian culture truly resonated far beyond the borders of Ukraine. We directed all proceeds to support 3D Kuznia.

So, instead of one big event, the company chose the format of a series of online and offline events: they held a master class on creating a didukh, gathered for a Virtual Holiday Event for the entire company, and the finale was Vechornytsy — a small offline meeting in our spaces in Kyiv and Cherkasy. It was a warm evening at a common table with Ukrainian treats, Ukrainian music, a light quiz, and a photo zone — to come together, thank each other, and feel the support of the team.

New Year’s Week of Activities and IdeaSoft

Elizaveta Vishnyakova, Head of HR at IdeaSoft, said that after 2022, the company completely rethought what a «New Year’s corporate party» meant. «When a full-scale war began, it became clear that classic offline formats were no longer suitable — both for security reasons and simply because our reality had changed. Plus, the team has become global over the past four years: we live in different countries, time zones, and even climates,» she noted.

That’s why we’ve created a new tradition here — a week of New Year’s activities before Christmas and New Year’s. We’ve been doing it every year since 2022, and it’s always a mix of light interactives, winter bingo, online quizzes, and pleasant surprises. Every year, the program includes gifts, little holiday trinkets, and activities that add to the mood, even if a person logs into Google Meet from the other side of the world.

The final accent is the winter Town Hall. This is an online event where everyone gets together, sums up the year, shares gratitude, remembers what was achieved, and talks about what we want in the new year. For us, this is the New Year’s corporate party: not about the hall and dress codes, but about the atmosphere of togetherness, warmth, and support that is felt regardless of the location and distance between us,» notes Elizaveta.

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