by loshani,

let’s talk celebrating christmas in czechia. i’m a sri lankan who lived in dubai my whole life with parents who weren’t religious (at the time) and more often than not worked on 24th & 25th december – so our christmas traditions weren’t really annual practices but rather an evening together enjoying a meal at a restaurant and of course the universal gift exchanges.

i do miss the spontaneity of it all, the christmas mornings by the beach, the 30C weather and the lack of obligations on the day but it’s my fourth christmas here in prague with frank’s family and i love the cultural customs (although i think it’s time i added some of my own in there).

so, how do you celebrate xmas like a czech (not applicable to every czech family and most might just be family preferences)?

1. the tree goes up between 1-3 days before 24th december
2. gifts appear under the christmas tree at 6pm on 24th
3. on the 24th, almost all national tv channels will stream old czech fairytales from sunrise to a few days post christmas. you only watch fairytales during christmas
4. 24th is christmas dinner followed by gift unwrapping
5. christmas dinner = starter soup made of any & all parts of the carp fish + a carp fillet cooked as you wish, typically grilled or fried for the main + potato salad with ham, pickles and mustard as the side
6. in the week leading up to xmas, you will find stalls in public squares, outside supermarkets or your local grocer, with huge tubs filled with live carp that you can buy as you please. some people even buy them a few extra days ahead of time and keep the fish in their bath tubs till it’s time for dinner prep.
7. dessert is a mountain of czech christmas sweets in all shapes, sizes and forms called cukroví. you can make these at home but people usually pre order them months in advance. we ordered 6kg this year!
8. once you sit down to start the christmas meal, no one is allowed to leave the table until the last person has finished all their courses
9. you place a few of the fish scales under each table mat & even in your wallet post dinner as a superstition that it brings wealth
10. each person ends their meal by scratching a lottery ticket
11. you then gather around the tree and the youngest person starts distributing the gifts

if you’re not czech (like me), the all sugar, all fish diet can take it’s toll especially when you repeat the christmas meal 3 days in a row. but that’s christmas for you, universally!

i thought it’d be fun to document this and see how things change over the years. i’ve never celebrated christmas as a sri lankan does? i’m not sure if there is a specific way, but that’s going to be my 2025 homework.

does your family have any fun, cultural or superstitious traditions?

see you on the next one,

by loshani.