Christmas Season Cooking for the Holidays
We are coming down to the home stretch to Christmas Day. Now it the time to get our acts together and if we are serious about baking our family favorites we better get started planning. There is not much time left. I save the main dish cooking on Christmas Eve when I make my pagach and maybe some final batches of pierogies.
See https://slaviccooking.com
Christmas Season Traditions
In the U.S. Christmas is celebrated mainly on December 25th, in Slovakia Christmas Eve Day, December 24th, is the most special. The day starts shortly after midnight. The lady of the house begins kneading dough for the many kinds of baked goodies she will prepare. Baking had to be finished before the sunrise and the quality of the desserts was a matter of prestige. Hurrying was never good. The dough had to rise and the crust remain intact, otherwise, bad luck would surely fall upon the household.
For second and third generation Slovaks and other West Slavic people (Czechs, Poles etc.) in the U.S., Christmas Eve and its beautiful velija supper, steeped in tradition and ceremony, prepares them for the birth of the Christ Child. Deviating from the customary “American” holiday meal, the velija is a dying tradition still celebrated by select Slovaks and Czechs as a connection to the “home country” and their childhood memories. It is a fasting meal since it is the last day of Advent, but it is by no means a meager meal.
Oblátky – Christmas Wafer
For me I usually bake the filled cookies, maybe some sugar cookies and of course make pierogies, pagach, and fish with veggies for the traditional meatless Christmas Eve dinner. I love the filled cookies made using the cream cheese dough. And then with our dinner we would pass around a Christmas Wafer called oblátky that my mom usually bought from The Holy Trinity Parish Rectory. Before we eat, everyone at the table will break off a small piece of each others wafer and then eat the pieces we collected with our remaining wafer.
I hope that you all have a very Merry Christmas and let’s keep our Slavic Traditions of the Christmas Holiday alive. Whether you be Polish, Slovak, Hungarian, Russian, German or any of the other countries that make up the Slavic Heritage, Christmas is a time for families coming together and sharing, giving, food , great desserts and most importantly celebrating the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. Without Christ there would be no CHRISTmas.
Veselé Vianoce (Slovak); Wesołych Świąt (Polish); Boldog Karácsonyt (Hungarian); Frohe Weihnachten (German); С Рождеством (Russian); Срећан Божић (Serbian); З Різдвом (Ukrainian); Cestitamo Bozic (Yugoslavian)
Have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
It’s so important and fun to keep the traditions of our ancestors!
I learned how to prepare the Stedry Vecer Christmas Eve dinner
from my mom who was a first generation Slovenka. Now, my daughter,
who is 30, has learned from me. God’s will, she will teach her
children when the time comes.
Vesole vianoce!
Jerry in Columbus, Ohio
Fran have you ever made these?
Love this tradition. We still do all the same things my Grandparents did.
Merry Christmas Richard
John, Merry Christmas from an old Hunky.
I’m all.done amen
I’m all.done amen
Tradition in our home.
I am thankful to bring some home from Bratislava.
Hey CindyShamy,how are you?this is Donna Arvelo from JFK. I saw your post on this website. How is life treating you.
Oplatki. Is the wafer. A beautiful tradition
That is the polish spelling 🙂
Daniel, I mention the name (Oblátky) on the webpage the link goes to but forgot to mention it here in the intro like I have in the past. Oppps.
What are those waffers called again…I had them every Christmas Eve dinner years ago….
The wafers are called oplatek (pronounced: opwatek)
We used to pass them every year as well…can’t find them here in DE 🙁
kasadi soup joe’s auntt always made it
Never found my babalki. ?
They sell babalki at Lucia’s Polish Deli in Toms River.
I hope things get back to normal very soon… or you will have some very upset dinner guests tomorrow. Merry Christmas and thanks for posting!
Thank you! Yes, I will 🙂
Hi Gary. off the top of my head, I remember a Slovak soup called Kapustnica which is made from Sauerkraut and mushrooms.
Mushroom/barley soup?? Miss my NaNa’s.
Power just went out! Perogi dough and prune cookie dough is resting in the fridge!!!! Ugh!
John, for
Christmas eve a very good friend of mine, Basha, would make a mushroon and saurkraut soup, do you know what that is called? Thank you, Gary Wilgus
We make a mushroom soup, carrots and mushroom main ingredients. My nephew Matthew now has the honors. This year’s was the best!!!
I enjoy your posts so much! Thanks for keeping the spirit alive.
lol
I am resting for the xmas day dinner…
Merry Christmas to all!Khrystos Razhdajetsia! – Slavite Yoho!
Brings back a lot of memories. Thanks John and Merry Christmas.
Yes we still have it on Christmas eve. Our family shares the wafer with each other and everyone breaks off a piece and makes a wish. we get ours at St Spehens. After we break off a piece we dip in honey. We also have a traditional slavic meal. we start with mushroom soup, we also had fried fish and bolbalky (little bread with sauerkraut) We are trying for the first time to make our own babka. My dad used to make my grandmother’s recipe but he’s not up to it this year
I still make the onion and potato..we called it paprikas” potatoes…I guess because we topped it with the paprika too. The other potato dish was made with what my mom called rontash>>>> a blend of bacon fat. flour and ketchup mixed with milk and poured over boiled cubed potatoes….we kids called it pink potatoes because the cream took on a rosy hue….she also did this rontash with the mushrooms and onion but no cream.
its mushroom and barley and sauerkraut
We shared the oblatky at Christmas eve dinner. My dad would break them and hand us a piece and he also dipped them in honey. I also bought them a few years ago at Holy Trinity
We never did the honey!
What are the ingredients in kasadi soup?
we did the wafer with garlic and honey , babalki,kasadi soup,pieroghis and the kolacky.We are slovak and that was our family’s tradition.
we used to do the wafer with honey and garlic at my sister in laws house. also the pieroghi and kasadi soup which isa garlic and barley soup. and babalki with sauerkraut. sadly we no longer do this because my sister in law passed away two years ago and my father in law is now in Louisiana with my brother in law.
Yes….My Polish/German side of the family shares before we eat on christmas eve….We Get it From St. Stephens Church!!!!
That is actually the traditional way with the honey on the forehead. Personally, the sticky honey would distract me during the dinner as it is supposed to be left on throughout the meal.
My grandmother would pass the oblatky around at Christmas Eve, she would make the sign of the cross with honey on our foreheads. I don’t know what that signifies.
John Nielsen The Priest came to the house to bless it.
Yes we do. Its funny everyone tries to break off the tiniest corner piece to see who is left with the largest piece at end of night been doing it since I was a little girl. My grandma taught us & she turns 91 on Christmas day. I now taught my Puerto Rican family the tradition & they embrace it every Christmas eve as well.
My mom says Holy Trinity in Perth Amboy still sold them last year and she just asked someone to pick her up some from there since she can no longer get out of the house… She said also try St. Stephens.
We shared the oblatky up until a few years ago when I was no longer able to buy it. Anyone have any source?