The paper examines the stories of I. S. Shmelev “Christmas in Moscow” and Archpriest A. Shantaev “On Holiday” with the purpose of identifying the specifics of the category of everyday life reflected in them. A special perspective is associated with the analysis of the features of Orthodox-church everyday life, recreated by authors belonging to various periods of the 20 – early 21 centuries. The research is based on the concept of the German scientist B. Waldenfels about the comparison of “the everyday” as predictable and orderly, and the opposite phenomenon that transcends the boundaries of the familiar world — the non-everyday (“above-everyday”). In the works of I. S. Shmelev and A. Shanaev, focused on the image of the sacred Christmas time and space, there is an obvious relationship between the everyday and the above-everyday. There is a gradual transformation of reality from the social and everyday aspects of the celebration of the Holiday to its sacralization, associated with the actualization of the natural-symbolic, evangelical, liturgical and liturgical contexts. A special role belongs to the temple locus, which becomes a space for the character to overcome the “temporary”, “everyday” and connect it with the “above-everyday”, interpreted in the context of Orthodox anthropology and axiology. In addition, A. Shantaev's story “On Holiday” highlights the issue of existence at the junction of the everyday / above-everyday by the example of the image of protagonist, in which both the features of an ordinary villager of the late Soviet period and the biblical prophet are revealed.