Christmas Eve » 24th December 2016

Christmas Eve is effectively Christmas Day for Czech people, a day most Czechs spend at home with their family. With fewer people around, this is a wonderfully peaceful day to explore Prague. Especially as the squares are often dusted with snow or a heavy frost, giving the city a real 'olden day' charm.

For visitors, there is still sightseeing and plenty of activities and entertainment on offer. But hours are limited and only a small number of shops, bars and restaurants are open, so it takes a little planning.

Traditional Czech family Christmas
To discover what a traditional Czech Christmas is, one has to naturally look at the family and at food.

Czechs spend the afternoon of Christmas Eve at home with their family, dressing the Christmas tree and preparing food for the evening celebrations.

Throughout the day on Christmas Eve, Czechs traditionally are not allowed to have any meat, but eat a dish such as sauerkraut soup. This will ensure they see the golden piglet (which will bring them wealth). It lasts until Christmas dinner is served, after sunset.

Carp is the central ingredient of a Czech Christmas dinner. The fish is typically bought live from street sellers in towns and villages throughout the country in the days running up to Christmas Eve - in Prague you can see carp for sale at stalls on Republic Square (Namesti republiky) for example.

The fish is taken home, prepared, coated in breadcrumbs, then fried. It is served with potato salad as the main course. Fish soup is the starter, with apple strudel or Christmas sweetbread (vánočka) for dessert.

After dinner, the family's presents are brought by Jezisek (little Jesus).

As the family moves from the dining room to the lounge, the children are amazed to see that presents have magically appeared under the Christmas tree while they were eating, and without anyone noticing.

Later on, once the presents are open and with a nicely dressed Christmas tree in the corner, the evening is spent playing games, watching traditional children's stories on television and chatting.

There is always a good supply of home-made pastries and snacks to enjoy throughout the evening. Plus for adults, plenty of Czech beer, wines and local spirits!