The Night Before Christmas recap

On Christmas Eve in Dikanka, a Devil steals the moon while the witch Solokha hides a succession of admirers in sacks. Her son Vakula, a devout blacksmith and painter, wants to marry the beautiful Oksana, but she mockingly says she will accept him only if he brings her the empress's slippers. Despairing, Vakula seeks supernatural help, discovers the Devil hiding among the night's confusion, and forces him to carry him to Saint Petersburg. There he joins a group of Cossacks at court and obtains slippers from Catherine II. Back home, rumors claim that he has died, prompting Oksana to recognize her love for him. Vakula returns safely, gains her father's consent, and learns that Oksana wants him without any royal gift. They marry, and the humbled Devil remains the subject of Vakula's religious art.

On Christmas Eve outside Dikanka, the Devil steals the moon to darken the roads and thwart Vakula, a blacksmith who has painted him in disgrace. The Devil's companion Solokha, Vakula's mother and a witch, receives several admirers in quick succession and hides each in a coal sack. Elsewhere, Vakula visits Oksana, the proud daughter of the wealthy Chub. She mocks his courtship and declares that she will marry him only if he brings her slippers worn by the empress. Distraught, Vakula carries away the sacks from his mother's house, unknowingly moving both her trapped callers and the Devil. After consulting the uncanny Patsyuk, he discovers and subdues the Devil with the sign of the cross. He compels the demon to fly him to Saint Petersburg, where Cossacks admit him to the imperial court and Catherine II gives him the slippers he requests. Back in Dikanka, his disappearance produces rumors of suicide, and Oksana realizes that she loves him. Vakula returns, wins Chub's consent, and presents the slippers, but Oksana says the gift is unnecessary. They marry, and Vakula later commemorates his victory by painting the Devil's defeat in the village church.

Vakula returns to Dikanka with the empress's slippers after mastering the Devil and flying to Saint Petersburg. The villagers had taken his disappearance as evidence that he had killed himself, and Oksana realizes during his absence that she loves him. Vakula goes to Chub, offers gifts, and asks permission to marry her. Chub accepts, while Oksana says she would marry Vakula even without the royal slippers. The tale closes in the couple's happy household, with Vakula's painted church serving as a lasting public rebuke to the Devil he defeated.