C for Christmas Eve and Christmas

This post is also the "C" entry of "My Polish Alphabet".

 

"C" for Christmas Eve and Christmas.

Somebody has asked me what the Christmas traditions were in my family home in Poland. Well, here's more about that.

 

6 December - St. Nicholas' day

 

On the 5 December evening, we - kids cleaned our winter boots and placed them in the hall, near the main door for St. Nicholas to find them. He filled them with sweets, tangerines, and little gifts in the night but only when the boots were clean. In the morning on 6 December, we rushed to our boots to see what St. Nicholas brought us in the night. We were good children, so St. Nicholas never brought us a tree rod instead of candy. The wooden rod was meant for the bad ones only.

24 December - Christmas Eve - the main part of Christmas celebrations.

 

In the morning, the Christmas tree was put up and decorated. In the evening, the festive Christmas Eve supper and family gathering took place. According to a tradition, the meal always started when the first star appeared in the sky. When the table was set, we were looking in the dark sky through the windowpane and waiting for that star to show up. At that time, mom was finishing all the cooking. Another tradition - an additional plate was placed on the table for an unexpected guest (who never came). The initial moment of the supper was sharing the Christmas wafer with each and every guest/family member who was present at the table (provided by the church) and greeting each other. Then the meal started.

 

Christmas wafer

 

The menu: 12 dishes were served (symbolizing 12 months of the year/12 apostles). The counting included drinks, sides, and bread as well. For good luck in each month of the new coming year, everybody was supposed to taste at least each of the 12 dishes.

Some of the traditional Christmas Eve (meatless) menu items which we did not particularly like, were replaced with the ones of our choice - we had canned peaches in syrup instead of dried fruit compote, and fried cod instead of fried carp.  Some of those dishes were made only once a year - so, in that way, they were really special. My favorites were boletus soup with homemade pasta and noodles with poppy seeds, honey, and raisins. 

 

Boletus soup with noodles

 

Other dishes were more common, like for example herrings with oil and onion, potatoes, and potatoes-and-vegetable salad. All the dishes (besides canned peaches) were made from scratch by mom. On Christmas Eve, alcohol was not drunk in our home.

Although we sometimes made gingerbread cookies, Christmas in Poland is not exactly about cookies, but it is about seasonal cakes.

 

Poppy seeds logs - making them was very time-consuming. First, we ground the poppy seeds and shelled, and chopped walnuts - that was the kids' job. Then, mom cooked the ground poppy seeds in a very big pot. When it was ready, she added the walnuts, honey, vanilla sugar, and raisins to the seeds and mixed it all.

 

From the right: keks (fruitcake,), popy seeds log, gingerbread

 

Next, it was time to make (by hand) yeast dough for the logs. All in all, it always took hours before the three logs were baked and ready to be iced. I loved them. There was always more poppy seed filling in them than the yeast cake.

Gingerbread with a plum marmalade layer inside - like everything else - was made from scratch.

Polish type of fruitcake (keks), totally different from the Texas one - it was a loaf type cake full of dried fruit and raisins. 

Keks

If it was not enough, there were also traditional Christmas snacks, a must-have of the season: apples, tangerines, and shelled walnuts.

After the meal carols were sung and presents were opened. The latter had been brought by Starman (Gwiazdor), who looked exactly like St. Nicholas (and Santa Claus - the difference was a long robe of the previous two gift-givers).

 

 

Around midnight, we all went (on foot) to church for Midnight Mass. Decades ago, winters were much colder in Poland, I recall the sound of crunchy frozen snow that accompanied us while we were walking for the service.

After the mass, we visited with our neighbors. The place of the meeting changed every other year - it was either our home or theirs. Anyway, then, we had some cooked sauerkraut with sausage and other hefty food. Adults talked sitting at the table, kids played around or sometimes under the table. Around 3 a.m. the visit was over.

 

Gingerbread cookies

25 December - Christmas Day - was the time of staying at home, visiting family, and enjoying the holiday time. No extra food was cooked as there were plenty of delicious leftovers from the Christmas Eve supper.

26 December - Second Day of Christmas was a day off/state holiday as well. More time for festive celebrations and friends and family gatherings.