In the Czech Republic the Christmas season greeting is Vesele Vanoce! Aside from the language, there are more cultural differences in the celebration of this international feast than you might think.

We decorate the Christmas tree on the morning of the 24th. Usually we eat lightly during the day so we can be assured of being really hungry in the evening. Some people do not eat at all. It is believed that if you fast until dinner, you will see a golden pig on the sky. In the early evening everybody sits down around the table for the Christmas dinner. Tradition demands that the first course is fish soup, basically the head of a carp cooked with some vegetables. The main dish is fried carp with cold potatoes and a vegetable salad. The meal finishes with the Christmas cookies and lots of different sweeties, some of which has to be made a couple of weeks before Christmas.

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As Christmas approaches, thoughts must turn to decorations and, more specifically, Christmas trees. It is no longer simply a case of deciding whether or not you want a real tree or an artificial tree, however, for the days of a lack of choice are long gone. There is the ‘traditional’ plastic tree, the white plastic tree, the metal tree, the pink tree, trees that can be bought ready decorated, trees that have built-in fairy lights, upside down trees (the idea being that it is easier to fit presents underneath); the list is endless. Has the fun gone out of Christmas?

It depends on what you want to get out of the Christmas tree experience. For working people who have little spare time to drive to a garden centre, choose a tree and then decorate it, clearly artificial trees are time-saving creations that bring the joy of the holiday season to any home.

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