Christmas Decorations in Poland - A Tradition of Craft and Meaning
Christmas decorations in many Polish homes are kept for decades. Glass baubles, straw stars and nativity figures are repaired, wrapped and stored each January, and the same boxes come out again the following December. For a family with Polish roots in Britain, an old ornament or a home-made szopka can be one of the few objects that came from the grandparents’ side.
Old Polish glass ornaments
Many families still have a box of older ornaments wrapped in tissue paper. Mouth-blown and hand-painted glass baubles have been made in Poland for generations, often in small workshops. They are thin and light, and they break easily.
Common shapes include birds with glass-fibre tails, mushrooms, pine cones, acorns and angels, alongside plain round baubles in deep red, green and gold. In many families one or two of the oldest pieces always go on the tree, however worn they have become.
Polish glass ornaments were also sold abroad, so some British families own them without knowing where they were made. Very thin glass and hand-painted detail are the usual signs.
Christmas Eve decorations
Most Polish Christmas decorations are tied to Wigilia, the Christmas Eve supper.
Before the meal, a little hay or straw is placed under the tablecloth in memory of the manger. Candles are lit, and many families set evergreen branches, apples and nuts on the table.
The tree, the choinka, was traditionally dressed on Christmas Eve itself rather than weeks before. Children hang foil-wrapped sweets, and adults add glass baubles, wooden or straw stars and angel hair. A star usually goes on top. Wigilia begins when the first star appears in the evening sky.
Many homes also have a szopka (nativity scene) made of wood, cardboard or straw. Families often add a figure or two each year, so an old szopka can show several decades of additions.
How the Christmas tree came to Poland
The decorated Christmas tree came to Polish lands from Germany in the nineteenth century and appeared first in towns and manor houses. In many villages it became usual only between the wars or after 1945; before that, homes hung a podłaźniczka, the top of a fir tree or a bundle of branches, from the ceiling. Early trees were hung with apples, nuts, paper chains, straw stars and home-made sweets. Factory-made lights and baubles came later, but many families still put a few home-made or inherited ornaments on the tree.
How long the decorations stay up
On Christmas Day and the days that follow, the tree is the backdrop for visits and family photographs. Old Christmas photographs are worth a second look for this reason: they often show who was at home that year.
Polish families usually keep the tree up well into January, at least until the Epiphany on 6 January and in many homes until Candlemas on 2 February, which traditionally closes the Christmas season.