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A traditional Polish Christmas Eve dinner consists of 12 dishes. One for each month of the new year. Some claim that one should try every dish to secure good luck throughout the upcoming 12-month period. Classic Polish Christmas dishes include, amongst others, cabbage and mushroom pierogi (dumplings) and poppy seed cake.

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If you find some hay beneath the tablecloth  at a Polish Christmas Eve celebration, don’t assume your hosts did a poor job of tidying up. The hay is there on purpose, as a way of remembering that, according to the Bible, newborn Jesus was put in a manger to rest.

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Christmas in Poland is a pesco-vegetarian’s dream. In strict keeping with old Catholic tradition, Poles usually abstain from meat and hard liquor on Christmas Eve.  However, wine and fish are acceptable, and the latter is abundantly featured in traditional dishes. If you're worried about your Polish dinner manners, brush up with this handy guide.

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Once everybody sits down at the table to taste the delicious Christmas dishes you might notice that one place is still empty.  Many Poles still  leave an empty place set at the table in case a person down on luck should show up and ask for shelter. While this rarely happens nowadays, the tradition nevertheless requires that lone strangers be taken in and treated as family.

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Opłatek is an unleavened wafer made of flour and water embossed with a religious image. Every person attending the Christmas celebration gets one and then shares pieces of it with everyone else. This is accompanied by exchanges of good wishes and occurs before sitting down to eat. This tradition is linked to the breaking of bread at the Last Supper.

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Waiting for the first star to appear in the sky

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Waiting for the first star to appear in the sky

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Many Poles wait until the first star appears in the sky before sitting down to eat on December 24th. This tradition commemorates the Star of Bethlehem, which according to the New Testament guided the Wise Men to the birthplace of Christ. Nowadays, with so many satellites circling around the Earth and reflecting light, its sometimes tricky to adhere to this tradition, but many families do their best.

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In Poland, Advent is the beginning of Christmas Time. It's a time when people try to be peaceful and remember the real reason for Christmas. People try not to have excess of anything. Some people give up their favorite foods or drinks and parties and discos are not widely held. Some people also go to Church quite frequently.

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These cookies are very popular in Poland during the holidays. They are very similar to American gingerbread cookies. To hang decorated pierniczki on your Christmas tree, the way it is done in Poland, you should make a hole in the cookies before baking with a plastic straw. After baking, decorate and thread a thin ribbon through the hole in the cookie to hang it on your tree.

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Dumplings

They are an indispensable part of the Christmas Eve supper in all parts of Poland. They have been known in Poland since the 13th century, and were probably brought over from the Far East. In the past they were cooked exclusively for holidays. Each housewife had her own recipe that had been in the family for many generations. This is why Poles have so many recipes for the perfect pierogi dish. They often differ in the texture of the pastry, compactness, shape and size of frills. Pierogi with sauerkraut and mushrooms are a variety that is most often found on the Christmas Eve table.

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Sour soup

Typical soups served on Christmas Eve include sour rye soup (also known as white borscht), red borscht soup traditionally served with uszka, and mushroom soup. All of these soups are made with fermented ingredients. This may be rye flour, in the case of sour rye soup, or sauerkraut. Mushroom soup, which was eaten on Christmas Eve in parts of Poland such as Mazovia, was prepared on a sauerkraut base fermented in a barrel. – The secret was an excellent combination of two tastes: sweet and insipid mushrooms, which burst between the teeth, and sauerkraut, explains Robert Piotrowski.

Usually, only one type of soup is served on Christmas Eve. The mountaineers of Podhale are the exception. They eat both borscht and mushroom soup during their Christmas Eve supper. An interesting variation of both soups is the Pomeranian borscht with mushroom noodles.

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Carp

The tradition of carp farming in Poland is at least 700 hundred years old. However, it became an eminent part of Polish culinary traditions only after World War II. It is more popular than noble fish like sander, eel or pike. Today carp is the Christmas Eve must-have in many families. Poles developed species of carp (for example, karp zatorski) which are certified regional products of good quality. Christmas Eve carp is often accompanied by hot sauerkraut with dried mushrooms, a vegetable salad or potatoes. There are numerous local, ancient and interesting recipes, inlcuding carp in grey sauce, carp with dried mushrooms and cream or stuffed with parsley.

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Mushroom soup

This soup which is also served very often at Christmas Eve dinner is made from dried forest mushrooms (the best ones are ceps). The flavor of dried forest mushrooms is part of the Polish culinary heritage. This delicious soup usually comes with square or thin noodles. Other traditional Christmas Eve soups are soft water fish soup (for example, carp), white bortsch, vegetarian Christmas Eve sour rye soup or old fashioned sweet almond soup.