Our Polish Christmas

The Christmas season in Poland began much like it does in the U.S., except a bit earlier here because they don't have Thanksgiving to worry about. The grocery store across the street from our apartment building had lights and garland up by the last week of November, and Piotrkowska, the big and beautiful shopping street in Lodz, was covered in hanging lights early this month. It made things so merry and bright.

And then as we got closer to the actual holiday, we noticed something really odd. Almost all day long, when we were home, we heard this loud, rhythmic pounding outside. It sounded like someone was bouncing a basketball, but it was too loud and too rhythmic and too frequent to be that. This went on for several days, remaining a mystery to us, until we were walking down our street last week and saw that someone had hung a huge floor rug over a giant metal bar outside their apartment and were beating the dust out of it. I guess everyone in the city was cleaning up in preparation for company.

Our celebrations began the Saturday before Christmas with a dinner with our branch. (At their request, I brought cream cheese brownies and they were devoured. I'm glad I could share a little bit of American goodness with them.) They had a program afterwards where all the kids got to sit with Mr. and Mrs. Claus, and then their parents were asked if the kids were naughty or nice. Anna sort of participated. She wouldn't sit with the Clauses, but I said that yes, she had been good this year, and they gave her a bag of fruit and candy, which mostly Trevor and I have eaten.

Our friends Magda and Darek from Warsaw invited us to spend Christmas Eve with them, which is the day they celebrate the most in Poland. We spent Monday morning and afternoon in and out of the kitchen, helping to prepare the traditional food and decorate the Christmas tree. In Poland it's tradition to have 12 courses for Christmas Eve dinner, as a symbol of the 12 apostles, we think. Here's what we had:

• Barszcz (the Polish word for borscht, which is beet soup) served with ravioli
• mushroom soup
• pyrogi (dough pockets filled with cabbage and mushrooms)
• potatoes
• cabbage and mushrooms
• fried fish (usually carp, cod, or some kind of pollock)
• a salad sort of like potato salad, only this one also had carrots, corn, peas, and apples
• a dish layered with fried cod and shredded carrots and parsnips in a tomato sauce
• a sweet pasta dish with poppyseeds and raisins
• almond poppyseed cake
• Polish cheesecake, called sernik
• compot, a hot drink made from dried fruit (I think)

Everything was delicious and it was really cool to see how everything was made. We began our meal by breaking wafers (like they use for communion in the Catholic church) with everyone, giving wishes to them and hearing their wishes for us for the new year. Magda and Darek's grandmother was the only other guest and she told Trevor that she wished for a "man child" to come to our home this year. He was a bit flustered, because he was still figuring out the word for "man child," and he said, "Same to you." There's a classic Christmas memory for us.

After the meal we opened our presents. Magda and Darek were so kind to us. They gave us a book, a beautiful tablecloth, chocolates, toys for Anna, and their grandmother gave us a pretty crocheted pillowcase. It was fun to be there with them and to see a real Polish Christmas dinner.

It also got me thinking about American Christmases and how there really isn't traditional Christmas dinner food. Each family might have their own traditions, but the whole country doesn't. This got me kind of down, but then thinking about Thanksgiving and how that's pretty traditional fare cheered me up. Anyway, I thought it was cool to see how they do it in Poland.