Christmas with Bookatiepillar - Traditional Slovakian Christmas

Hello, my fellow Christmas enthusiastic bookworms.

Most of you know I come from a small country in the middle of Europe but not that many of you know that Slovakian Christmas is very traditional with a lot of little habits and rituals. I would like to introduce you to this classic Slovakian Christmas. I will post several Christmas inspired articles in the upcoming weeks and I hope you will enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing for you… so welcome, on this Christmas adventure!

Christmas decoration in my hometown last year.

So what is Slovakian traditional Christmas? How does Christmas look like or feel like in Slovakia? What are the traditions and rituals that people of this little big country in the heart of Europe have?

The Slovaks celebrate Christmas on 24^th of December. But the preparation starts much earlier than that. People pay a lot of attention during the December to cleaning their houses and flats; everything needs to be perfect, clean, tidy and organized. Windows and curtains are being washed. Plants, window blinds and wall decorations are being dusted. Door handles are being polished so when the time comes the Christmas decorations can be placed around the house. There isn’t agreed day when to decorate but most people prefer to decorate a clean house. Some decide to do it in November or beginning of December some take the Christmas tree out on the Christmas Day.

source: bazar.sk

A lot of baking is done prior Christmas. My grandma used to bake thirty or forty different types of goodies. Yes, you read that right. So baking starts at the beginning of December with the assortment of dry biscuits and Christmas shaped gingerbread cookies. Then closer to Christmas Day, it gets shorter lasting cakes are made with jam and cream, some covered in chocolate some in coconut powder. The amount of cakes is not important but more types the better. These are all small tiny pieces that are considered to be snacks, not the desert type of pies as you would expect.

Few days before the Christmas Day vendors will appear in the town centre to sell fish. The fish usually swim in the fountain or in big buckets. You can buy alive fish, keep it in your bathtub and then kill and cook it on a Christmas day. This is very traditional but only families who can actually handle killing the fish opt for this. Kids usually prefer the fish fingers anyway.

The 24^th of December is Christmas Day. The whole day is dedicated to Christmas, people cook dinner and do last minute decorations, watch Christmas movies and fairy tales. Slovaks do not like western movies such as Home Alone. The preference during the festive season is Czechoslovakian cinematography.

source: Vitarian.sk

During the 24^th everybody is fasting and waiting for the dinner. It is between four and seven in the evening when families sit down at the table and have their Christmas dinner. The meal starts with an aperitif (this could be champagne or wine or liquor) and a few words from the head of the family. The dinner is usually made of three courses. There is a special Christmas starter; waffles with honey and an apple is cut in half to see if a perfect star made of seeds is inside which means that the family will be healthy during the upcoming year. The first course is a sauerkraut soup with smoked ham, mushrooms and sausage called “kapustnica” and the second course is fish and potato salad or mashed potatoes. There is no dessert at the dinner as the Christmas table is full of cookies, mini cakes I mentioned earlier and everybody can help themselves to these goodies as much as they like. This tradition is a source of many jokes, one of my favourites: 

24^th December:

Morning: “Don’t you DARE eating the cakes, they are for Christmas!”

Evening: “Don’t you dare NOT eating the cakes, they are for Christmas!”

There is also a tradition that no one should stand up from the table during the dinner as that brings bad luck, but this is limited by how big your dining table is and if you can fit all of the plates, cakes, decorations and candles and pots and bowls containing the next courses on. Another tradition is to set one extra seat at the table in case an unexpected guest arrives during the dinner.

After the dinner, the presents are unwrapped and tested right away (no matter if you got pens or roller skates you have to try presents out in the living room).

The rest of the evening consists of watching more Christmas TV programs or enjoying a drink with family members. Eating the baked goodies or salted snacks and relaxing with a full belly.

Next days the 25^th and 26^th of December are called First Christmas Holiday and Second Christmas Holiday. People go visit the family members they didn’t see during the Christmas Day; uncles and aunts or best friends or cousins meet for coffee or some food.

Of course, that Christmas is slightly different in each family, but the most important aspect of Slovakian Christmas is togetherness.