Posts tagged with "Christmas"

Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Wesołych Świąt!

Posted by Anna 2 Comments
Dec 24 2009

Wigilia, Wigilia i po Wigilii…
How are your stomachs? Suffering from heartburn and indigestion? If not, that wasn’t a proper Polish Christmas Eve then. If yes, congratulations, and don’t worry, the pain is normal, especially after eating karp.

And oh yeah, you shouldn’t be able to dig yourself out from the mountains of gift wrap that easily either.

Since it’s already Christmas where I’m at, I wanted to wish you all Wesołych Świąt Bożego Narodzenia. I hoped you found what you really wanted pod choinką (under the Christmas tree), or in a stocking, if you’re doing it the “western” way.

I hope you’re spending Święta with your loved ones, whether it’s in Poland or abroad.

Or, if you’re not the Christmasy type (and I admit, I’m not) then have a blast shopping – poświąteczne przeceny (after xmas sales) start tomorrow (at least in the US).

So, one more time – Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Wesołych Świąt!

Oh, and one more thing – don’t become a Christmas statistic – stay safe, don’t drink and drive. I want you to be able to read this blog next year too, you know?

See you all here po Świętach!

Polish Christmas Eve Celebrations – one more time

Posted by Anna 5 Comments
Dec 12 2009

Because I know that not everyone reads all the comments to all the posts, I took the liberty of “borrowing” two entries from the “Polish Christmas Eve Abroad” post and including them here, as I think they are great and everybody should see and read them. :)

The first one is from Kim in Boston, and I think it’s absolutely perfect what she does for Christmas. I wish I could duplicate her holiday dinner, but alas, in my current location it won’t be possible. Read on, this is brilliant:

“My husband is Polish, we live in Boston. I surprised him our second married Christmas with a Polish feast I had researched and cooked. We read the Christmas story from Luke. We do a reading about the importance and symbols of the Polish Christmas traditions then break the blessed wafer with any guests we have. I set an extra place at the table and place straw under the tablecloth. Like his family, we include meat and do a smaller variety of Polish dishes but with my own twist – mushroom/barley soup, several varieties of pierogi, meat filled cabbage rolls, prune stuffed pork roast, beet salad, kraut w/polish sausage, rye bread, fruitcake, chocolates and cookies.

On Christmas Eve we exchange a Polish gift – book, crystal, ornament…use our Polish names, listen to Polish music and so on. On Christmas day we have a traditional American Christmas with stockings and ham and turkey. We open the remainder of our gifts Christmas night.

We also began the tradition of inviting friends over for Sunday evening suppers during Advent for a “Polish Christmas Eve”. Everyone has loved it, in spite of my husbands family being offended – it’s not traditional and I’m not Polish and blah, blah, blah!”

Sadly, I don’t understand her husband’s family’s reaction, certainly not in the Christmas spirit. But that’s just goes to show you how fiercely protective Poles are when it comes to “their” traditions and customs.

The second entry is from Kaz in Malaysia (Malezja), and I also like what she does – a combination of Polish and tropical celebration:

“We do both, which is interesting in equatorial Malaysia! J, my Polish hubby, was adamant that we wouldn’t have wet tissue; i.e. carp! But it’s Christmas Eve dinner, Portuguese Eurasian food (roast chicken, curry, rice), salads, pates, mulled wine, fake fireplace. And we go truly international for dessert…NY baked cheesecake, crepes suzette. I should take photos, shouldn’t I? Oh, and we had Mikołaj with the kids, and are looking forward to post-breakfast Christmas Day for the family loot-swapping!”

Mary in the UK, on the other hand, is a very lucky lady, as she can have both – one year the full thing in Poland, and the next – a mixed English/Polish Christmas in the UK:

“We tend to do both when we’re in the UK and have more of a Polish Christmas when in Poland.
Oddly, I only do the church thing in the UK.We don’t have the 12 dishes and the only person who’ll eat the fish with Mr K is my dad.
We do try to have different things each year through and people tend to enjoy it. Or they dsay they do anyway!

Presents are still a 25th thing as is the usual Christmas dinner (which I miss every other year.)
It does tend to spread things out because we see our extended family on the 26th!

So, that’s how we do it. It’s generally an amalgamation of traditions because neither of us wants the other to feel home sick.”

Ladies, thank you so much for all your comments and suggestions. They sure gave me something to go on. I still don’t know how exactly I’m going to go about it, but at least now I think it’s not as impossible as it had first sounded to me.
It’s been already decided however, that nasza Wigilia (our Christmas Eve) would be moved to Christmas Day, but other than that, if we pay no attention to the calendar, we should be fine.
Now I just need to figure out where to get opłatek. Hmmm…
P.S1. And forget about the fish. I can’t stand carp. Nienawidzę karpia.

and P.S2. And I think it’s safe if I say that I’m speaking for everybody here, Miss Kaz, we’re expecting photos of your polsko-malezyjskiej Wigilii!

Polish Christmas Eve Abroad

Posted by Anna 9 Comments
Dec 8 2009

So, have been naughty or nice? Did Święty Mikołaj bring you anything exciting? What? Don’t tell me that you forgot about Mikołajki (6 grudnia – December 6th).

I wrote about Mikołajki last year, and I’m sure you remember that I think it’s a totally unnecessary tradition. I would much rather hold off for a bigger and better present on Christmas.

And how is your writing of Christmas cards (pisanie kartek świątecznych) coming along? I’m very proud to say that I only have a couple left to send out. And after that’s done, I’ll finally have enough time to sit and ponder how I’m going to throw a traditional Polish Wigilia (Christmas Eve dinner) in this foreign land.

And actually, I have a question for those of you with Polish spouses: how do you celebrate Christmas? Do you do it the Polish way? Or the “foreign” way? Or a combination of both, perhaps?

Do you do the whole Wigilia bit with 12 different dishes and hay under the tablecloth? With opłatek and gifts on the 24th?


Barszcz – one of the traditional Christmas Eve dishes.

I am asking because this year I was drafted to prepare tradycyjne polskie święta – a traditional Polish Christmas. And frankly, I’m worried. Very worried. My utter lack of culinary skills combined with the utter lack of Polish products here is a very bad combination. So your suggestions regarding how I can solve this problem will be much appreciated.

And descriptions of your traditional polskie święta na obczyźnie (Polish Christmas in foreign lands) will be very helpful as well.

So please, don’t be shy and do share! I’m sure we all can learn something new and interesting from each other.

Święta, Święta i po Świętach…

Posted by Anna No Comments
Dec 28 2008

Soooo…. The shortest day of the year is behind us (that’s a good thing, at least in my book, I like to see daylight for a bit more than just a few hours), Christmas is behind us (that’s a good thing too – no more carp for at least another year, yay!). Now there’s only New Year’s Eve to look forward too. And what else? Loosing all the weight we’ve gained during the holiday season. Making New Year’s resolutions (postanowienia noworoczne), which we won’t stick to anyway. But who does? So what else is there to look forward to? Spring cleaning and mycie okien (window washing)? Ugh…

Nah, the only one of the bunch that I look forward to is the days getting longer now.
When I was a kid, I heard this saying that they’re getting longer like this:

It means, more or less, that for Christmas – like a hen’s step, for New Year’s – like a ram’s leap. Which means: very little (though I can’t imagine just how big an average hen’s step would be) and quite a lot – that’s referring to the poor ram leaping, of course.

My friend just gave me a long and interesting (surprise, surprise!) lecture about the ancient pagan Slavic traditions that incorporated themselves neatly into the Christian reality. These hens a-stepping and rams a-leaping supposedly had something to do with it. You know, winter solstice… In all honesty, what the Slavs (Słowianie) were doing wasn’t all that different from the stuff practiced by the Celts, and the Vikings, and other old cultures.

But why dwell on old traditions, when we have new traditions to embrace and uphold? After-Christmas sales! According to the site cogdziezaile, poświąteczne przeceny (after-Christmas sales) have already begun. And just like elsewhere in the world, the stores in Poland will do their best to convince customers to part with their hard-earned cash.

And here’s a list in Polish of what (co), where (gdzie) and how much (za ile) off you can expect.

Almost Christmas!

Posted by Anna No Comments
Dec 21 2008

How’s your Christmas shopping coming along? I haven’t even started mine, to be honest. And if someone asks me why, I’m going to tell them that I’m turning Greek orthodox this year. Speaking of which, these guys have it so easy – everything is on sale for THEIR xmas. Not fair, so not fair…

And everybody asks me what I want to get “pod choinkę” or “na Gwiazdkę” or “na Święta.” Well, let’s see… I want an orange 350Z, and a new MacBookPro, and a live-in maid, but I’d settle for a Sony Alpha 700. And oh yeah, world peace and all that.

But let’s back up for a sec.

  • choinka (fem., pl. choinki) – Christmas tree.

So “pod choinkę” means “under the Christmas tree.”

Święta Bożego Narodzenia (though, normally “Bożego Narodzenia” is implied and understood) – Christmas.

Or you can simply say “Boże Narodzenie” which literally means something like “God’s Birth.”

And now, “Gwiazdka,” hmmm… Remember when in the post about Święty Mikołaj I mentioned this other guy – Gwiazdor. His name comes from the word “Gwiazdka.” And that literally means “little star” from the legend that a star appeared in the sky when baby Jesus was born.

So, if someone asks you “Co chcesz na Gwiazdkę?” or more politely “Co chciałabyś (or chciałbyś if you’re asking a guy) dostać na Gwiazdkę?” they’re simply asking you what you want (or would like) to get for Christmas.

And finally:

  • zakupy świąteczne – Christmas shopping
  • prezenty świąteczne – Christmas presents

Now I’m off to the kitchen trying to figure out how to help my friend with her traditional Wigilia dinner. Twelve different dishes, hay under the table, opłatek (Christmas wafer), the whole nice yards. And between the two of us, we don’t even know how to make barszcz czerwony (red borscht).

This shall be interesting…

Wesołych Świąt!!!

PS. Image: Wikipedia

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