This paper investigates two areas of Slavic folklore: folk belief regarding the origin of the world, and folksongs belonging to the Yuletide ritual cycle of Christmas, New Years, and Epiphany (sviatki).The thematic content of the winter/Yuletide folksong cycle is quite diverse, and includes songs which describe the origin of the world in terms which are clearly pre-Christian. These songs include elements of a creation myth sometimes referred to by folklorists and anthropologists as "Earth Diver." After examining possible written and oral sources for this particular creation myth among the East Slavs, the paper presents speculation about how and why this mythological narrative entered the winter folksong cycle.