In our country Christmas Eve – December 24 – is the most important day for Christmas celebration. This day is very special, because you could see the whole family around the table keeping its own customs.
In fact everything starts four weeks before Christmas on the first Advent Sunday. From this time everybody prepares for the long – awaited holiday in his way. Homes are filled with the aroma of freshly baked Christmas sweets. Vanilla rolls, cookies from Linzer dough, gingerbread and sweets with nuts, almonds and coconut are baked in most familiesl. A week before Christmas fathers buy Christmas trees, they can choose a pine, spruce or fir. You also have to buy a Christmas carp which weighs about three kilos in the market.
On Christmas Eve the house must be decorated. White stars and various decorations made from paper are situated in the windows, mistletoe hangs above the table, there are two or three branches of cherry tree called „Barborka“ in Czech in the vase. It means that these branches were picked on Barbora’s day on December 4 and it is supposed to be in blossom right on the Christmas day. We set a table with a Christmas tablecloth, a candle or garland, festive tableware, cut glass and a triple - platter with sweets or fruit.
There is a nice custom in our country - not to eat anything until Christmas Eve dinner comes. If you manage it, you will see a golden piglet which will bring you good luck. Many people break this custom. They have a good reason. Czech cuisine is one of the best in the world.
First mums prepare breakfast, which consists of several slices of special Christmas cake smeared with butter, honey or piquant marmelade. We drink coffee, cocoa or tea which can be enriched by vanilla, cinamon and clove to scent our home.
Lunch has to be plain. One of the courses should be cooked from pulses. Lentils or peas are are mostly used – they say the pulses look like small coins and it means they will bring us money next year. In our hilly region a meal called “Kuba“ is cooked for lunch. Peeled barley is boiled until it is soft, then it is mixed with cut bacon, mushrooms and garlic, This mixture is baked until its surface is gold. It is served with sauerkraut.
Christmas dinner starts about six o‘clock. After the toast we eat fish soup – many children don‘t like it in fact - , a fish scale is given under each plate to bring money. Then we eat fried breaded fillets of carp and potato salad ( with carrots, peas, pickles, celery, onion, eggs and mayonnaise) and finally we have fried sausages. People who don‘t like fish eat Wiener schnitzel instead. We drink wine, punch or some soft drinks.
After the dinner we can go to the living room, sing Christmas carols and open presents from under the tree.
And now we can remember some other Christmas customs such as making little boats from nutshells and sending them out in a wash – basin. They say whose boat gets to the opposite side of the wash – basin he or she will get to travel a lot. The owner of the boat which sinks, will fall into some troubles. Cutting apples to know whether a star or a cross will appear in the middle is also popular.
At midnight we can go to the church for midnight mass. It is nice Christmas atmosphere there, people sing and everything is decorated. After that the most beautiful part of Christmas feast is over and we will have to wait till next December again.

Written by the students of the 4A form
Kateřina, Jitka, Tomáš, Štěpánka, Jan, Alena, Ema, Zdeněk, Ondřej, Michaela, Dana,Renata, Aneta, Tereza, Barbora, Lukáš, Petra, Mirek, Denisa.