Polish Christmas vs American Christmas | Holiday Traditions, Music, Food | USA VS Pl

so the first one that i wanted to talk about though is i’m pretty sure a polish legend and it is very interesting which is that animals can speak and start talking on the night of the 24th into the 25th. today guys we’re going to be talking about all things christmas between Poland and usa we’re just going to be going over the differences between the two countries now i’m an american who’s been going to Poland for quite a few years now and this is going to be i think my third or fourth christmas now in Poland so i’m starting to lose count which is kind of starting to scare me but um yeah so today we’re going to be talking about the differences between you know food family gatherings alcohol uh decorations all of that stuff we’re just going to be talking about it in this video we’re also going to be talking about the similarities as well and if i miss out on any leave them in the comments section down below so anyways guys let’s just get started all right so the first point is going to be christmas trees now in america everyone gets their christmas trees after thanksgiving so it’s usually always religiously pretty much after thanksgiving is when everyone’s going out and getting the trees and i used to work at a christmas farm actually in the us and the busiest day or the busiest weekend of the year would always be the one right after thanksgiving so usually polls will get their tree around the 6th of december which is a day called St. Nicholas Day and i’m going to be talking about that a little bit later but yeah so usually they get their tree around that day or just a few days or maybe a week or two before the 25th so usually polish people will get their tree a lot later than americans so that brings me to december 6 which is St. Nicholas Day and this is basically saint nicholas day so it’s like santa claus day and typically this is really just for kids but also sometimes adults will participate in that as well and also i noticed that a lot of adults will give each other gifts on this day as well so yeah this is also quite different because in the us i don’t remember this ever being a thing we don’t have that at all in the u.s and so yeah basically kids will write a letter to santa a few days sometimes before the sixth and then they’ll write a letter to santa and they will also prepare cookies you know just like you know in the u.

s when you’re a kid it’s like kind of the same thing 02:16 - for santa you leave them on the windowsill all of that stuff but i also notice which is quite honestly it’s not surprising but i noticed that the amount of gifts that are exchanged in Poland are way smaller than what it is in the us so on the 6th of december kids are getting gifts and also adults are getting gifts as well but i noticed like i said earlier the amount of gifts is much smaller and now the gift-giving day in the us is on the 25th so christmas day and so basically in the u.s kids will get you know piles and mounds of gifts you know sometimes stacked as high to the ceiling basically and usually after the 25th you can watch a bunch of videos on youtube of kids you know crying that they didn’t get the latest iphone or phone or you know gaming console or whatever so i realized going to Poland that a lot of americans are really really spoiled and you know here in Poland usually it’s only an exchange of like a few gifts and like that’s it other than that it’s like mostly family time versus in the us usually it’s like gift giving gift giving etc opening gifts receiving gifts you basically go and do your thing so like if you’re a kid and you get a gaming console then you just run away and you’re just playing your games all day versus you know in Poland it’s like more about spending time with family and also i don’t know if it’s a thing here but in america a lot of people will actually go broke buying gifts for people basically because you know everyone has an obligation to buy gifts for everyone in the family so in Poland there’s three days about christmas and actually i have a question about this do europeans i don’t think they do this i think they would do this actually if they wanted to say three three days of christmas around Poland so on the 24th there’s a day called eve i’m pretty sure that’s how you pronounce it and this is christmas eve so on the 24th usually families are gathering with each other and also with friends and usually people will meet up in the later afternoon and sometimes there’s a small exchange of gifts but really not much especially if you wanted to compare it to the us uh it’s not a whole lot it’s usually like something small something small and sweet usually and so yeah people will meet up and then they will have a dinner together but i don’t know if this is a polish thing or a european thing or maybe where you’re supposed to do that in america too i don’t know but uh the tradition says is that you have to wait until the night sky until you can see the first star so correct me if i’m wrong but i’m pretty sure that’s how it is so basically if a family meets up with another family and you’re about to eat you have to wait for the first star in the sky and then at that point you can eat but i’m pretty sure most families don’t really do that instead they just start eating when it’s dark out for the most part and also with this star it’s supposed to be a resemblance of the star of Bethlehem so then everyone will meet at the table and then at that point they will eat something called aquatic and this is like kind of like a communion type of bread i don’t know how you would describe it because it’s like it’s not a cracker but it’s not a wafer you wouldn’t say that it’s a piece of bread that’s all that matters so anyways people will meet around the table and then at that point they will exchange the bread and then from there you have that and then usually it’s kind of like a toast maybe maybe some wine or some water or something like that maybe mead i don’t know and then at that point usually people will start you know kind of like wishing each other the best for the year and for christmas and all that and then at that point people will sit down and then start to eat so the tradition says that there are supposed to be 12 meals during this feast and also there is no red meat at all it’s only fish so basically there’s a lot of different dishes around fish like herring carp and maybe cod but i’m pretty sure herring and carp is kind of like the big ones and usually this can be warm meals it can be hot meals it can be cold meals a bunch of different meals and also there’s just a ton of different foods usually that are eaten around this time in general which i’m about to get into but also some families will even put hay under the tablecloth to resemble like the whole nativity scene i’m pretty sure it’s supposed to be around like jesus in the manger and stuff like that so i’m not going to go into all of the different meals if someone wants they can list that down below because there’s so many and i don’t know all the names to them because sometimes i just kind of struggle with polish names so anyways one of the meals that you usually will eat around this time is beet soup and basically this is a beet soup so it’s like the liquid of a beet but it’s kind of like a sweet um type of soup it’s really good and sometimes there’s even like a dumpling in there they’ll have like different dumplings in there i’m not really even sure what they’re filled with but they’re really good and it’s something that i definitely enjoy but just be careful though because um if there is a white tablecloth you’re probably gonna spill it but also i noticed as well like a lot of people will wear typically like black clothes and they won’t wear white usually like it’s typically just black so if you’re an american and you don’t know what to wear i would just say maybe wear like a dress up black shirt as well as like maybe black pants or khaki pants or even like black jeans or something like that just keep it black keep it elegant and simple that’s all you gotta do so there’s a bunch of different meals surrounding carp and herring and then there’s also pierogis as well and there’s usually like a poppy seed type of cake dessert it’s it’s kind of like a bread but in the bread there’s like a sweet poppy seed in there it’s really good and i guarantee there’s going to be something that you like on the table because there’s going to be usually a ton of options it’s like a buffet almost so before going to Poland i thought that a lot of polish people would be drinking alcohol before you know surrounding you know christmas days and all that but that’s not really the case and also this just depends from family to family so compare that to the states my family never met up usually with another family on the 24th it just didn’t happen usually we were just all hanging around maybe watching tv or a movie so nothing happened to the point of it being a full tradition just like in Poland so anyways on that night on the 24th in Poland there’s something called eve church service and this is the christmas eve into uh the 25th christmas day service church church service church service where you know they usually talk about jesus’s birth and all of that stuff and so this service is usually all day long but i think it’s most popular to go you know from midnight into the next day into the 25th so this is also actually similar to the us a lot of people will go to church on the 24th into the 25th or usually just at some point in the evening of the 24th you know people will light candles in the church service and all that i haven’t been to the church service in Poland at all yet but i plan to be doing that this year so i’m kind of excited about that i want to see how it’s different i’ve heard stories of people going to this service like really drunk so maybe i’m going to be seeing that maybe it’s going to be kind of entertaining i don’t know but anyways let’s get into the 25th so on the 25th in Poland it’s called God’s Birthday so usually on this day people will go to church in the morning if they’re a practicing catholic maybe not you know it just depends and um also usually people will meet up in the afternoon and they’ll hang out with their family again usually on this day there’s a bunch of different christmas meals and they are so good and also i noticed maybe this is just my girlfriend’s family i’m not really sure it kind of depends on you know everyone’s family’s a bit different right but my girlfriend’s family usually they’re they bring out the vodka on the 25th and we’ll do a bunch of shots of vodka and i know this depends obviously on each person each family but this is kind of something that my girlfriend’s family does and yeah it’s a fun time and so comparing christmas day to the us usually people will wake up they will open their presents and then maybe have a breakfast meal together and then also like a dinner meal together and it’s also sometimes people will go to church in the mornings as well you know it just depends on the family right and then after that basically everyone will open their gifts and then that’s pretty much it uh my family didn’t really hang out with other families too often on this day some years occasionally we would on christmas day but for the most part not really and in fact most of the time for me it was spent going from one of my parents to the other parents because they’re divorced so yeah i don’t know maybe that’s the same for you divorced people and kids in Poland i don’t know but that was just how it was for me in fact i would go from one parent at first and then i would just simply go to the other and i would have different meals and different presents like from each so yeah just maybe a bit different from how most people are but that’s kind of how i grew up so the 26th is the second day of christmas which even though i was mentioning before that there is like you know three major days of christmas in Poland the 24th 25th 26th for some reason the 26 is the second day of christmas so that’s i don’t know that’s just what they call it here so anyways on this day usually it’s kind of like a relaxation day sometimes people are visiting with friends getting caught up with them because on the previous days most of the time people are just hanging out with like strictly family for the most part so usually on the 26th people will either just hang out chill and relax or they’ll meet up with their friends and give each other gifts something like that where in the us i guess it’s kind of the same most of the people are doing just nothing just relaxing maybe watching like football those people aren’t doing a whole lot sometimes they’ll go over to the friends and exchange gifts as well pretty much the same thing as in Poland so one thing i want to talk about is that polish people are religious about the movie home alone and i didn’t really know this until i went over to Poland people are crazy about this movie here to the point where one year the tv station that was airing it every single year basically said that they weren’t going to air it that year what happened was basically the entire country signed a petition for pulling for that polish tv station to then play that movie and ever since then they’ve still been playing it and i’m pretty sure that that was a couple years ago so that’s a bit of a fun fact uh that they weren’t gonna air it one year and everyone basically decided though you’re gonna air it you’re definitely gonna air it so uh yeah a bit interesting how people are really into that movie i guess it’s pretty similar to the states you know people are usually watching elf and home alone and you know all the classics as well so i don’t really think that differs at all but the next point i wanted to talk about is music and now for the most part music christmas music will start in stores pretty much pretty much the same time as in Poland so you know people will start playing their christmas music in stores grocery stores you know malls etc etc and they will be playing that around you know later october or sometimes even into november and that’s pretty much the same thing as in the states now in the states there’s something called the christmas creep not like a creeper but like the christmas creep and basically what this means is that stores in department stores malls basically they’ll start displaying like christmas ads christmas trees all of that stuff sometimes even into november in the states most people just absolutely hate this when they start playing it so early before they even have a thanksgiving meal but it’s the same thing in Poland a lot of times stores here will basically just start putting out christmas ads and trees and gifts and all of that stuff out in their stores sometimes in late october so yeah a bit of annoyance it’s something that i definitely don’t like to me it’s you know christmas starts after thanksgiving any time before that in november it’s just fall and the christmas music is usually just in english a lot of polish people and polish radio stations will play music that’s like only in english so it’s something that kind of you know it’s it’s not something that i personally like i wish i could hear more like polish uh songs and stuff like that but polish people are really into english music alright so i have two more things left that i want to talk about so the first one that i wanted to talk about though is i’m pretty sure a polish legend and it is very interesting which is that animals can speak and start talking on the night of the 24th into the 25th let me know down below if that’s actually a real thing or what but i’m pretty sure this is a polish legend that pretty much states that you know animals dogs all of that can start speaking and talking from the night of the 24th to the 25th so quite an interesting one i’ve never heard about that in the us and if this really is a polish thing in just polish let me know in the comment section down below i’m quite eager to hear about that so in the us it’s kind of the thing to have the most amount of tacky and blow up snowmans in your yard as well as having the most amount of lights on your house to basically use more electricity than some small countries this is actually to the point where some neighborhoods will have like tours of just people’s lights and stuff like that and a lot of people are so dedicated to this where they will set up designs every single year people will pull over to the side of the road and they will make it to the point where they will actually sell like hot chocolate at these people’s places so you can like go walk around look at their lights and have hot chocolate and all that stuff which is really interesting whereas in Poland that’s not really the case at all and also in Poland a lot of people are more into gates and having their yards closed off so there you know for the most part in Poland there is not a thing of a front yard that you’re going to be able to see anyways and also some people will put their lights around you know their evergreen trees in their yard but other than that i don’t really see a whole lot of decor and outside decorations at all in Poland it’s it’s it’s just much smaller than what it is in the states to where in the states it’s like it’s just such a big thing every single year so anyways guys that was it for this list and like i said earlier if there’s anything that i missed out on that you think i really should be talking about leave them in the comment section down below i would love to hear back from you and as always guys merry christmas such a difficult word to say anyways guys have a good one and i will see you later you .