Poland

The first star!

On Christmas Eve, people in Poland looks up into the night sky to look for the first star.

They call the star Gwiazda.

When the first star appears on Christmas eve, the whole family, wearing their best clothes, sit down to a Christmas Eve feast. This begins with the passing round of a special postcard-sized wafer called an oplatek (pictured right).

Everyone wishes each other the very best, as the optlatek is shared around the table.

The oplatek are made from flour and water and are embossed with pictures of nativity scenes.

No meat is eaten during the ‘wigilia‘ meal, only different types of fish and other traditional dishes.

The traditional fish eaten only at Christmas time is Carp.

At least one empty place is left at the table for a relative who is far away or has recently died.

Some families leave two empty places at the feast table so that if Mary and Joseph were to arrive there would be places for them.

Father Christmas in Poland is called Swiety Mikolaj.
With thanks to Zuzanna for this information

He travels the countryside on foot, occasionally astride a white horse, blessing the children, and distributing goodies to well behaved children. He looks more like a bishop than the Father Christmas we know.

In Poland, children receive presents on 6 December and on Christmas Eve. On the 6th, Swiety Mikolaj brings presents at night and leaves them under children’s pillows and on Christmas Eve children find presents from Angel or Gwiazdor (depend on the region) under the Christmas tree.
With thanks to Zuzanna for this information

They always had a white Christmas in Poland until 2006. Hopefully they will have a white Christmas this year.