Nutshell English

Ready to celebrate? People in the Anglosphere mostly have to wait until tomorrow, but most of Europe is getting ready for Christmas Eve supper tonight — so let’s join them! 🥳
Merry Christmas! 🎄

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - DAY 🔟
Today I have a game for you! 😜
Here is a list of jumbled Christmas traditions – some from the UK, some from Poland. Can you sort them out?
· Hay under the Tablecloth – Symbolizes the manger where Jesus was born.
· Empty Seat at the Table – Set for unexpected guests or absent family members.
· Pulling Christmas Crackers at the Table – Crackers are decorative paper tubes that “crack” when pulled, revealing a small toy, a joke, and a paper crown. Usually, everyone pulls crackers together during Christmas dinner.
· Sharing the Christmas Wafer – Each person breaks a piece with every other person at the table, exchanging good wishes.
· Flaming Christmas Pudding – Brandy is poured over the pudding, which is then set alight at the table.
· A Coin in the Pudding – The person who finds the coin will have a year of good luck.
· Twelve Dishes on the Christmas Table – Representing the twelve apostles.
· Cookies and Carrots for Santa – Children leave cookies (and sometimes a drink) for Santa, plus carrots for his reindeer. By the next day, they’ve usually disappeared!
· Christmas Wafer for Domestic Animals – Horses, cows, dogs, and other household animals are given leftovers from the Christmas table and pieces of the wafer to protect them from disease.
· Boxing Day (26th December) – Traditionally a day for giving gifts to service workers and the poor.
Easy, wasn’t it? 🤓

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - DAY 9️⃣
Today, let’s look at the main dishes served during Polish Christmas Eve and the Christmas dinner in the Anglo-Saxon tradition. The main difference is that in Poland we celebrate on the 24th, which is the vigil waiting for the birth of Jesus. Since the main festivities haven’t started yet, it is customary to abstain from meat dishes. This is why we eat fish🐟
Although you can choose any variety you like, the most common one is carp. Not because of its unique taste, but for practical reasons—it is a freshwater fish that can survive for long periods in cold, low-oxygen water. In the era before modern refrigeration, this made it easy to keep alive until needed.
The English-speaking countries, on the other hand, have their main feast on the 25th, a time to indulge in any food you like. Meat was traditionally reserved for special occasions, as it was expensive and not available daily. In the old days, Christmas dinner was often roast goose 🪿, but as turkeys 🦃 became more popular in Europe—having been imported from America—they gradually replaced goose, being larger and more affordable (though not necessarily tastier). Most people like the turkey though.
There is, however, one side dish that ignites the same emotions as carp does in Poland: boiled Brussels sprouts. Many people serve and eat them purely out of tradition, not because they particularly enjoy the taste.
Are these hated food traditions really worth cultivating? Is this part of the "spirit of Christmas"?

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - DAY8️⃣
Today I will tell you about a Christmas tradition that is virtually unknown in Poland. In fact, it’s hard to call it a tradition at all, as it’s only about 20 years old and was introduced as a commercial product in the US. I'm talking about the Elf on the Shelf.
You've heard of elves - small magical creatures that like playing tricks on people. This one is a scout for Santa Claus, sent to check on the children before Christmas to see whether they’ve been good and deserve presents (or, on the contrary, a piece of coal — the equivalent of a "rózga" for naughty children). The idea is to place the elf in various, usually surprising locations around the house, sometimes arranged in a funny or mischievous scene, and the children's task is to find the elf every day. They're not supposed to touch the elf, who would be watching them and each night it would report the child's behavior to Santa Claus and reappear by next morning in a different spot.
What do you think of the idea? Is it a tradition worth adopting in Poland? Some people are trying to introduce it here, but will it catch on?

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - DAY 7️⃣
What a dark and grey day! 🌧️ We need more light and colour in our lives! ✨
Enter: Christmas decorations. 🎄🎅⛄️
We associate Christmas with certain colours and ornaments, like bells, angels and stars, candles and lanterns (lampiony), wreaths (wieńce) and garlands (girlandy), mistletoe (jemioła) and holly (ostrokrzew), Christmas stockings (skarpety, a właściwie pończochy), candy canes (cukrowe laseczki), and of course a plethora of accessories associated with winter and Santa Claus: sleigh (sanie), reindeer (renifery), snowmen (bałwanki) and snowflakes (płatki śniegu) - which may be the only ones we will see this Christmas... 😭
The centrepiece remains the Christmas tree with its lights, baubles and tinsel (łańcuchy).

Oh wait, I almost forgot something - the Nativity scene (szopka)!
Christmas has become so secularised that it's easy to forget that it is rooted in the Christian tradition - after all, as the name suggests, we are celebrating the birth of Christ. Visit any church at Christmastime and you will see a Nativity scene with Mary and Joseph and Baby Jesus (laid in a manger), surrounded by shepherds, animals and angels, possibly being visited by the three Magi.

I hope this has given you some inspiration for decorating your home 🙂 Good luck!

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - DAY 6️⃣
How many Christmas carols (=songs) do you know? We have a rich tradition of carolling in Poland, but carols are sung in every language, including English.
I am sure you know Silent Night: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_ES6YdXrOc - not strictly British, because the original is in German, but still very popular.
You might also recognize Hark! The Herald Angels Sing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=slOBjPXqDDM ("hark" means "listen")
or Joy To The World: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jgAZVgfUxcg
But apart from these strictly religious carols, there is a rich selection of classic Christmas songs. And I don't even mean titles like Last Christmas (I Gave You My Heart ❤️), (I'm Dreaming of a) White Christmas ❄️ or All I Want for Christmas 🎁 (Is You), but such traditional songs such as Jingle Bells 🔔, We Wish You a Merry Christmas☃️(and a Happy New Year), or my favourites:
Deck the Halls: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RPCXMTnO2Yw Fa La La La La, La La La 🎼 😄
and The Twelve Days of Christmas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsiFj5LPOZ4
I challenge you to learn it by heart and sing 🎤it in the car at Christmas time like I do - I always get it wrong... 😂

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - DAY 5️⃣
Anybody planning to send some Christmas cards ✉️📮📯 to family and friends? You'd better hurry ⏱️ then - they take their sweet time... Can't rely on the post anymore... 🙄
But honestly - do you? When was the last time you did? Do you still get any?
The answer might depend on your age. My parents would have answered 'yes', but for most of us, it's a dead tradition, replaced by far more convenient texts, e-mails or any other form of digital communication.
Christmas cards have been around for a long time, ever since postal and rail services allowed efficient delivery. Beautifully decorated, they were displayed around the house and later collected (sometimes being reused for Christmas craft projects). They also served as a way for families to exchange news in the days before widespread telephone use. Sometimes children were involved, drawing their own Christmas illustrations. The final step was to fill the addresses, put the stamps on and post them.
Do you miss that? Do you think it's worth keeping the tradition alive? 🤨

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN – DAY 4️⃣
Another common ingredient in Christmas desserts (apart from spices) is dried fruit — raisins or sultanas, figs, dates (daktyle), apricots (morele) 🍑, prunes (suszone śliwki), candied citrus peel 🍊, and nuts: almonds (migdały), hazelnuts (orzechy laskowe) 🌰, and walnuts (orzechy włoskie).
In Poland, we add dried fruit to many Christmas cakes and dishes, like kutia, not to mention the traditional dried fruit compote.
In the Anglo-Saxon tradition, they also have fruitcakes (similar to our keks) and Christmas pudding (think of it as a thick and fatty version of kutia), but the most characteristic are mince pies.
The name is actually quite tricky, as the main ingredient, called mincemeat, does not contain meat, but is a mixture of fruit, spices, and animal fat. Historically, “meat” used to mean “food” in general, so mincemeat literally means “crushed food” or something along those lines. You can make your own mincemeat or buy it ready-made (like our masa makowa, but without the poppy 😉).
Here are some recipes if you want to try it: https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/mincemeat

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN - DAY 3️⃣
Time for Christmas gingerbread cookies! Somehow they always taste better in December, don't they? 😋 Especially the homemade ones...
The aroma of spices filling the house - cinnamon, ginger (imbir), cloves (goździki), nutmeg (gałka muszkatołowa), allspice (ziele angielskie), cardamom and more... And the fun of decorating them together with the family 👧👦👱‍♀️👩‍🦳🧔‍♂️
Gingerbread cookies are especially popular in Northern Europe, with each country having its own variety, like speculoos (Belgium) or pepparkakor (Sweden) - or our Polish (Toruńskie) pierniki ;)
Have you made yours yet?

CHRISTMAS COUNTDOWN – DAY 2️⃣
🎄 Oh Christmas Tree, Oh Christmas Tree! — do you know the song? 🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8qPPev3QJ4E

If you thought this has been a Slavic tradition from times immemorial — wrong again 😉
We actually adopted it from the Germans - or partly even from the English after they adopted it from the Germans... ;)
Prince Albert is the one generally credited with introducing the Christmas tree, together with other German Christmas customs to the British royal court, from which it spread through the rest of the country... and the world.

And no wonder — after all, who doesn’t like a Christmas tree? 🎄🙂
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxYq82AFox8