If you come to the Czech Republic during Christmas, you might be suprised to find that we celebrate Christmas on 24th December. This is when we eat a special meal and open our presents.

1. you can decorate Christmas tree2. you can bake cookies3. you can give and get presents on 24th December4. you can watch fairy tales on TV5. you can listen to christmas carols6. you can eat fried carp and potato salad7. you can see „the golden pig“ on your living room wall

if you get hungry enough by fasting all day8. you don‘t have to wait for Santa Claus, because Baby Jesus brings our presents

Eight reasons why you should celebrate Christmas in the Czech Republic

This is an Advent wreath. The first Sunday of Advent is four weeks before Christmas. The four candles represent the four weeks that we wait for Christmas Eve. Every week we light one new candle.

How to prepare Czechtraditional Christmas cookies

Recipe for tiny vanilla crescents:Dough:15 dg of smooth flour dg of granulated

sugar dg of blanched

almonds dg of butter1 egg yolkand a dash of vanilla

sugar

Topping:8 dg of powdered sugar

Our Christmas trees

Step 1 – Get a carp. Buy it or fish it out of a pond.

Step 2 – Put the carp into the bath if you’re not going to eat it right away. Kill it somewhere else.

How to prepare Czech Christmas dinner

Step 3 – Fry the carp.

Step 4 – Wait for the first star in the sky.

Step 5 – Prepare the table with fish soup, carp and potato salad, cookies and candles.

- We crack nuts open, and put a candle inside the shell, and float it in a basin of water, like a little boat.If the boats (shells) stay together, The family will stay together.

- We cut an apple in half to see the star inside. If the star has five points, we will be healthy. If there is a cross, it means bad luck or illness.

- Some people practice another old custom: they pour hot lead into water, and according to the shape it makes as it cools, we predict our future.

- If two people (a couple) are standing under mistletoe, they should kiss each other, because it brings good luck in love.

This is one of our typical Christmas carols. Try to sing it.

For breakfast, we usually have Vánočka, a kind of sweet bread, or apple strudel with cocoa. Then we watch fairytales on TV. The most famous is Cinderella. (You can hear the music from this fairytale throughout this presentation.) Then we go to visit our relatives for lunch. Some more Christmas presents can be found under their Christmas trees. After lunch we go for a walk, and we enjoy the time we have together with our friends.

25th December