Polish Christmas Traditions

In Poland, Christmas Eve is the evening everything leads up to, but the season around it is just as rich: glittering cribs built like little cathedrals in Kraków, a tree hung with apples and straw stars, carols by the hundred, and costumed carolers at the door until the Epiphany. The customs below run in calendar order, from the first Thursday of December to the chalk on the door on January 6.

Kraków’s szopka

When: Early December to February. The makers bring their new cribs to Kraków’s Main Square on the first Thursday of December.

What people do: A szopka (plural szopki) is a nativity scene, but the Kraków kind is something else: a tall, many-tiered, brightly colored model in wood and paper, built to look like the city’s own landmarks, with the towers of St. Mary’s Basilica and the Wawel castle. The Holy Family sits at the center, surrounded by figures from Polish history, local characters and the news of the year, often lit from inside, sometimes with moving parts. After the gathering in the square, the city’s history museum shows them from December to February.

Where it comes from: Nativity plays and cribs reached Poland around the turn of the 15th century. The Kraków szopka itself dates from the 19th century. The theater historian Anna Kuligowska-Korzeniewska describes it as the work of the city’s working people, notably bricklayers from the Podgórze district who were out of work in winter and built cribs from wood and paper in the image of the buildings they knew. In 2018, UNESCO added the szopka tradition to its list of the intangible cultural heritage of humanity.

The Christmas tree, and what came before it

When: Decorated in the days before Christmas Eve, usually on December 24 itself.

What people do: The Polish tree, the choinka, has its own look: besides glass baubles, it’s traditionally hung with apples, nuts, sweets in bright wrappers, cookies and straw stars. In old Poland, homes had other decorations instead. A decorated fir or spruce top, the podłaźniczka, hung from the ceiling, sheaves of grain stood in a corner of the room, and some families hung delicate globes made of colored Christmas wafers.

Where it comes from: The decorated tree came to Poland from German lands in the first half of the 19th century, reaching city homes first and villages by the early 20th century. Polish families gave it their own meanings: the apples recall the tree of paradise and stand for plenty, nuts for health. The chain was once read as the serpent of Eden, and during the long years when Poland was partitioned between its neighbors, many saw in it the chains of captivity.

Our card The Wooden Mountain House shows a snowbound wooden house in the mountains at night, a lit tree outside and a red sleigh at the fence.

Christmas Eve and the wafer

When: December 24, from the first star.

The heart of a Polish Christmas is the Christmas Eve supper, Wigilia: the search for the first star in the sky, the sharing of the Christmas wafer, the opłatek, with a wish for each person at the table, hay under the white tablecloth, twelve meatless dishes and an extra place for an unexpected guest. Since 2025 they have been on Poland’s national register of intangible heritage. They deserve a page of their own: our guide to the Polish Christmas Eve supper and the wafer tells the whole evening, dish by dish.

Pasterka: the Shepherds’ Mass

When: Midnight, between December 24 and 25.

What people do: After the supper and the presents, many families go to Pasterka, the midnight Mass. Its name comes from pasterz, shepherd: it’s the Mass of the shepherds who were told of the birth in Bethlehem and came to see.

Kolędy: the carols

When: From Christmas Eve through the weeks that follow.

What people do: Poles sing their Christmas carols, kolędy, at the Wigilia table, at Pasterka and long after Christmas Day. The repertoire is vast, and much of it is sung from memory. Some of the best loved are Bóg się rodzi (“God Is Born”), Przybieżeli do Betlejem (“They Hurried to Bethlehem”) and the lullaby carol Lulajże, Jezuniu.

Where it comes from: The oldest surviving Polish carol dates from the first half of the 15th century, when carols were translated from Latin and Czech songbooks. The great flowering came in the 17th and 18th centuries. Bóg się rodzi was written by the poet Franciszek Karpiński in the late 18th century, as Poland was being divided between its neighbors, and during the partitions it became so dear to Poles that some suggested it as a national anthem. Most popular carols, though, have no known author.

Kolędnicy: carolers at the door

When: Traditionally from just after Christmas until the Epiphany on January 6.

What people do: Groups of kolędnicy go from house to house, singing carols and special wishing songs for the household. Some carry a star on a pole, some act out short plays. The best known is the herody, a folk drama about King Herod. Carolers also dress up as an angel, a devil, or a beast called the turoń. Custom says you let the carolers in and thank them with a few coins or something sweet.

Where it comes from: Polskie Radio traces the carolers’ plays to the religious mystery plays of the Middle Ages. When Polish bishops banned nativity plays inside churches in the mid-18th century, the plays took to the road with traveling cribs and carolers. On January 6 many Polish towns now hold a Three Kings’ procession, Orszak Trzech Króli, a modern street version of the old traveling nativity.

Who brings the presents?

The answer changes from one region to the next. Święty Mikołaj, St. Nicholas, is the best-known gift-bringer, and in many homes he leaves small presents on the night of December 5 to 6. In Wielkopolska, the region around Poznań, the gift-bringer of Christmas Eve is the Gwiazdor. In Małopolska, around Kraków, and in Cieszyn Silesia, it’s the Aniołek, a little angel, who leaves presents under the tree. In Upper Silesia, as in neighboring Czechia, it’s the Dzieciątko, the Christ Child.

January 6: chalk on the door

When: January 6, the Epiphany, known in Poland as Trzech Króli, “Three Kings”.

What people do: Families bring chalk and incense blessed at Mass and write the year on the door frame with the letters K+M+B, for the kings Kacper, Melchior and Baltazar, or C+M+B, for the Latin Christus mansionem benedicat, “May Christ bless this house”. Children once went from house to house with a star, singing carols, and were given sweet rolls.

Keeping the tradition far from home

Polish families abroad have kept many of these customs for generations. A few carry especially well:

• Decorate the tree with apples and straw stars. Add a few walnuts and cookies on ribbons, and the tree looks like your grandmother’s.
• Learn one carol together. Bóg się rodzi or Lulajże, Jezuniu, sung at the table on Christmas Eve, makes the evening sound like home.
• Chalk the door on January 6. It takes a minute, and the letters stay up all year as a quiet reminder of home.
• Make a little szopka. A shoebox, foil, colored paper and a few figures: Kraków’s crib-builders started with what they had too.

When you can’t be at the table in person, our page on missing family at Christmas may help you find the words.

The Christmas greeting in Polish

The Polish for Merry Christmas is Wesołych Świąt, and in its fuller form Wesołych Świąt Bożego Narodzenia. Our guide to writing Wesołych Świąt in a card explains the unusual endings, how to address Babcia and Dziadek, and how Poles sign off.

Cards for a Polish Christmas

Our cards from Poland show a wooden house in the mountains under snow and, below, a cottage where the Christmas Eve table is lit as the first star appears. Each card carries Wesołych Świąt as its greeting, set as text so every accent stays sharp. Send your card by email or text, or schedule it to arrive on Christmas Eve.