Christmas in Poland

How Poland celebrates Christmas

Poland's Christmas, Boże Narodzenie ("God's Birth"), is one of the most tradition-bound in Europe. It is a Catholic festival above all, but its rituals are domestic: what matters most is the family supper on Christmas Eve, with its fixed order of wafer, wishes and meatless dishes, followed by carols and midnight Mass. Polish carols, kolędy, are sung at home and in church right through the season; the best known, "Bóg się rodzi" ("God Is Born"), serves almost as a national Christmas hymn.

Advent and Mikołajki

Advent is a time of preparation: homes are cleaned, pierniki (gingerbread biscuits and cakes) are baked in the shapes of hearts, animals and St Nicholas, and city squares fill with lights and Christmas markets. Mikołajki, St Nicholas' Day on 6 December, is the unofficial start of the festive season. Overnight, small presents and sweets appear; tradition says that the badly behaved receive a lump of coal or a rózga, a bundle of twigs, instead.

Szopki krakowskie: Kraków's nativity scenes

Kraków has its own form of the Christmas crib, the szopka krakowska. Instead of a stable, these nativity scenes are tall, brightly coloured and glittering constructions modelled on the city's landmarks, above all the two unequal spires of St Mary's Basilica, but also Wawel Castle, the Cloth Hall (Sukiennice) and the Barbican. Alongside the Holy Family, they may feature Polish legends such as the Wawel Dragon, the sorcerer Pan Twardowski and winged hussars.

The tradition began in the 19th century, when Kraków masons and craftsmen built szopki to earn extra money in the winter months. In December 1937 the city launched a contest, and except during the Second World War it has been held every year on the first Thursday of December, when makers carry their szopki to the Main Market Square beside the Adam Mickiewicz Monument. The best are then put on display in the Krzysztofory Palace by the city's historical museum. In 2018 the szopka tradition was inscribed on UNESCO's Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.

Wigilia: the Polish Christmas Eve

Wigilia, from the Latin vigilia, "watch" or "vigil", is the most important day of the Polish Christmas. The Christmas tree is traditionally decorated on the morning of 24 December, with glass baubles, painted eggshells, apples, walnuts and chocolates. Christmas Eve was a day of fasting, and the supper may not begin until the first star (pierwsza gwiazdka) appears in the evening sky, recalling the Star of Bethlehem; the youngest in the family are usually sent to the window to watch for it.

Sharing the opłatek

Before anyone eats, the family shares the opłatek, a thin, unleavened wafer stamped with a nativity scene. Each person breaks off a piece of another's wafer while exchanging wishes for health and happiness in the coming year, and old grievances are meant to be forgiven. The wafer is a sign of unity and peace.

The table

A few wisps of hay are laid under the white tablecloth in memory of the manger, and some families also tuck money beneath it for prosperity. An empty place is set for an unexpected guest or hungry wanderer, or in memory of a relative who has died, and a stranger who knocks is traditionally welcomed in.

Twelve meatless dishes

The supper traditionally has twelve dishes, one for each of the Apostles, although some families serve an odd number for luck. All are meatless: fish, mushrooms, cabbage, beetroot, poppy seeds and dried fruit. It usually opens with clear red barszcz (beetroot soup) with uszka, tiny mushroom dumplings, or a mushroom soup, followed by pierogi filled with sauerkraut and wild mushrooms, herring, and carp, the centrepiece fish. Desserts include makowiec, a poppy-seed roll, piernik, and kutia, a dish of wheat grains, poppy seeds, honey, dried fruit and nuts that is especially associated with eastern Poland. Kompot z suszu, a dried-fruit compote, is drunk with the meal.

The carp is often bought live days before Christmas. In the years of communist Poland, when food was scarce, the fish was commonly kept swimming in the family bathtub until it was cooked.

Who brings the presents?

Presents are opened on Christmas Eve, after supper. Who brings them depends on the region, and many families simply credit Święty Mikołaj, St Nicholas.

The name Gwiazdor comes from gwiazda, star; in some villages gwiazdory, star-carrying carollers, also walk from house to house between Advent and Epiphany, singing and performing nativity scenes.

Pasterka and Christmas Day

Christmas Eve ends with Pasterka, the midnight Mass, whose name recalls the shepherds (pasterze) who came to Bethlehem. Churches are full, and the congregation sings kolędy. Many churches also put up large nativity scenes, and nativity plays, jasełka, are staged through the season.

Christmas Day, 25 December, is a quiet public holiday spent at church and at home, with meat back on the table after the Wigilia fast. 26 December, the second day of the holiday and the feast of St Stephen, is for visiting relatives and friends. Carollers (kolędnicy), sometimes in costume with a star, may go from house to house through the season.

Christmas holidays and shop Sundays in Poland

Christmas Eve became a public holiday in 2025. An act dated 6 December 2024, which came into force on 1 February 2025, added 24 December to the Public Holidays Act, giving Poland 14 public holidays a year. As on other public holidays, shops are closed.

Poland restricts Sunday trading, and the same act changed the pre-Christmas exception: instead of two shopping Sundays, the three consecutive Sundays before Christmas Eve are now trading Sundays. In 2026 these fall on Sunday, 6 December 2026, Sunday, 13 December 2026 and Sunday, 20 December 2026. No shop employee may be required to work on all three.

The other Christmas-season public holidays are 25 and 26 December, 1 January and 6 January.

Traditional Polish Christmas food

Sylwester and Trzech Króli

New Year's Eve in Poland is Sylwester, named after Pope St Sylvester, whose feast falls on 31 December. It is celebrated with parties and fireworks at midnight, and 1 January, Nowy Rok, is a public holiday. For a message to Polish friends at midnight, there are ready-to-send New Year wishes for Sylwester, as well as free Happy New Year 2027 cards and quote images.

The Christmas season closes on 6 January, Trzech Króli (Three Kings), the feast of the Epiphany. It has been a public holiday, a day off work, since 2011. Some families keep the Christmas tree up until 2 February, the feast of the Presentation of the Lord.

Polish Christmas season dates 2026

Christmas in Poland: frequently asked questions

Christmas in nearby countries