Polish Christmas Traditions: Wigilia, 12 Dishes and How to Say Merry Christmas in Polish

Every December the same two questions land in my inbox: how do you say Merry Christmas in Polish, and what exactly happens at a Polish Wigilia? I grew up in Wrocław, where Christmas Eve is the one evening of the year when nobody is late for supper, so this is the guide I wish I could hand to every partner, friend and new colleague of a Polish family before 24 December – the greetings, the twelve dishes, the customs and the words you will hear at the table.

How do you say Merry Christmas in Polish?

Merry Christmas in Polish is Wesołych Świąt! (veh-SO-wikh shfyont), literally “merry holidays”. It works everywhere – with your in-laws, your boss and the cashier at Biedronka. The full, more formal version is Wesołych Świąt Bożego Narodzenia!, and the classic card line adds the New Year: Wesołych Świąt i szczęśliwego Nowego Roku! If someone wishes you first, answer Nawzajem! (nav-ZA-yem) – “likewise” – or simply repeat the wish.

A small grammar note, because my students always ask: why wesołych and not wesołe? Polish wishes hide the verb życzyć (to wish), which takes the genitive case – the full sentence is Życzę ci wesołych Świąt, “I wish you merry holidays”. That is why the adjectives in every wish end in -ych or -ego. In the respellings, capitals mark the stressed syllable – in Polish it is almost always the second-to-last one – “kh” is the rough “h” of Scottish “loch”, and w next to a voiceless consonant sounds like f: Świąt = shfyont.

What to write in a Polish Christmas card

Polish cards are short and warm. A natural text looks like this: Kochani! Wesołych Świąt Bożego Narodzenia i szczęśliwego Nowego Roku! Dużo zdrowia, miłości i spokoju życzy Tom. – “My dears! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Lots of health, love and peace, wishes Tom.” Yes, the name comes last: życzy Tom, “wishes Tom”, is how Poles sign their cards. Kochani and miłości are for family and close friends. For a colleague or a neighbour, open with Drodzy Państwo! (the polite “Dear all”, for a couple or a family) or Droga Aniu! (“Dear Ania”, to one person) and write Spokojnych i radosnych Świąt oraz wszystkiego najlepszego w Nowym Roku życzy Tom. – “Peaceful and joyful holidays and all the best in the New Year, wishes Tom.” Writing to your Polish partner? You may also want my post on how to say I love you in Polish.

What is Wigilia?

Wigilia (vee-GEE-lya) is the Polish Christmas Eve supper on 24 December, and for most Poles it is the heart of the whole Christmas – more important than Christmas Day itself. The family waits for the first star, shares opłatek with wishes, sits down to twelve meatless dishes, opens presents after supper and, in many homes, ends the night at Pasterka, the midnight Mass. The word comes from the Latin vigilia, “a vigil” – a day of waiting before the feast. The Polish government’s study portal has a good overview of Polish Christmas traditions; here is how the evening feels from the inside.

The first star (pierwsza gwiazdka)

Supper does not start at a fixed hour – it starts when the first star appears in the sky, in memory of the Star of Bethlehem. Watching for it is the children’s job, and in a Polish December that is usually around four in the afternoon. In most families somebody “spots” it suspiciously early, just as the soup is ready.

Hay under the tablecloth and the extra plate

Under the white tablecloth there is a handful of hay (sianko), a reminder of the manger. The table is set for one more person than will eat: the extra plate is for an unexpected guest, because nobody should be alone on Christmas Eve – and quietly also for the family members who are no longer there. In a 2023 CBOS survey quoted by Notes from Poland, 83% of Poles said they still set that extra place.

Sharing opłatek

Before anyone sits down, each person takes a piece of opłatek – a thin, white, unleavened wafer, often embossed with a nativity scene – and goes round the room. You break a corner off the other person’s wafer, they break a corner off yours, and you exchange wishes: health, happiness, a new job, a baby. This is the moment when Polish families say the things they do not say out loud the rest of the year, so expect hugs and a few tears – according to CBOS, 97% of Poles take part. If you say only one thing in Polish all evening, say it here: Wesołych Świąt, dużo zdrowia i szczęścia! – “Merry Christmas, lots of health and happiness!”

No meat – but carp

Wigilia is meatless: no pork, no poultry, no beef. Fish is allowed, which is why karp (carp) is on almost every table – fried in breadcrumbs or set in jelly – next to herring in oil and herring in sour cream. Carp is a surprisingly young tradition: before the Second World War pike, zander and other freshwater fish were just as common, and it was the post-war state, pushing cheap farmed carp, that put it on every table (Culture.pl tells the whole story). The famous live carp in the bathtub is dying out – many shops no longer sell live fish – but every Polish adult has a childhood memory of it.

Presents and Pasterka

Presents are opened on Christmas Eve, straight after supper – not on Christmas morning. Who brings them depends on the region: Święty Mikołaj (Saint Nicholas) in most of Poland, Gwiazdor (the Star Man) in Greater Poland, Aniołek (the Little Angel) around Kraków and the south, Dzieciątko (the Baby Jesus) in Silesia. Then the carols start, and at midnight many families walk to Pasterka, the Shepherds’ Mass. Between the presents and the Mass there is one more, very modern ritual: Kevin sam w domu – Home Alone – which Polsat has shown every Christmas for over twenty years to around four million viewers.

What are the 12 dishes of Wigilia?

A traditional Wigilia table holds twelve dishes – one for each apostle or, in the other popular explanation, one for each month of the coming year – and you are supposed to try every one, or that dish will be missing from your life next year. All twelve are meatless. The exact list changes from region to region and from family to family, but at a table anywhere in Poland you will meet most of these:

Regional differences are real. In Silesia you will be served moczka (a sweet gingerbread-and-dried-fruit sauce) and makówki (poppy seeds layered with bread rolls and milk), in Greater Poland makiełki (poppy seeds with noodles), while kutia belongs to the east and to families with roots in today’s Ukraine, Belarus and Lithuania. Families count generously – the bread, the kompot and the dessert all count – and the dishes come in waves, so nobody minds if you take a break between the soup and the pierogi.

Polish Christmas vocabulary: 30 words you will hear

These are the words that come up at every Polish Christmas, from the tree to the midnight Mass. Capitals mark the stressed syllable.

Polish Christmas calendar: Advent to Three Kings’ Day

Polish Christmas is not one day but a season. It opens with Advent at the end of November and Mikołajki on 6 December, peaks at Wigilia on 24 December and closes on 6 January with Three Kings’ Day, when carols are still being sung and the letters K+M+B appear above front doors. 24, 25 and 26 December, 1 January and 6 January are public holidays, when shops and offices close (Christmas Eve became one in 2025); 31 December is a working day with shorter hours.

One more date: by tradition, carols are sung and nativity scenes stay up until 2 February, Matki Boskiej Gromnicznej (Candlemas), which is why you will still hear kolędy in Polish churches at the end of January.

What to say at a Polish Christmas table

You do not need fluent Polish to be a good guest at Wigilia – you need about seven phrases. Wish everyone Wesołych Świąt! while sharing the wafer, say Smacznego! before the first spoon of barszcz, praise the food with Bardzo smaczne! and ask for seconds with Poproszę jeszcze. Nothing makes a Polish host happier than a guest who asks for more pierogi.

If you are learning Polish because of a Polish partner, this is the evening your first words matter most. My A1 Polish course for people with a Polish partner is built around exactly these situations – Sunday obiad, Wigilia, the phone call with your mother-in-law. And if you only have a week, start with the basic Polish words every beginner should know: dziękuję and proszę will carry you through the whole supper.

Five Polish carols (kolędy) to know

Poles sing carols at the table after supper, at Pasterka and all the way to February, and everybody – including people who never go to church – knows the first verse of these five. Learn the chorus of one and you will be invited to join in.

1. Cicha noc – Silent Night. The Polish version of the Austrian carol from 1818, sung slowly, usually as the last one of the evening.
2. Bóg się rodzi – God is born. Words by Franciszek Karpiński from 1792, a melody in the rhythm of a polonaise and the nickname “the queen of Polish carols”. It opens with a famous paradox: Bóg się rodzi, moc truchleje – “God is born, power trembles”.
3. Lulajże Jezuniu – Hush, little Jesus. A lullaby carol known since at least the 18th century; Chopin wove its melody into his Scherzo in B minor, Op. 20.
4. Przybieżeli do Betlejem – They ran to Bethlehem. A lively 17th-century carol about the shepherds, with the refrain Chwała na wysokości – “glory in the highest”.
5. Wśród nocnej ciszy – In the silence of the night. Printed in the 19th century and traditionally the carol that opens Pasterka.

If this is your first Polish Christmas, you do not need to understand every toast. Learn Wesołych Świąt, Smacznego and Dziękuję, try all twelve dishes and let the family teach you the rest – they will love it. And if the evening leaves you wanting more, here is what you need to know at the A1 level and an honest answer to the question everyone asks me in January: is Polish hard to learn?