Zofia Beers, a Student Caregiver at Lancaster Bible College, grew up in the country town of Besko, Poland. She left all she knew to come to America with her mother and six siblings when she was 19 years old. Growing up, Zofia’s Christmas in Poland looked different then Christmas in America.

In Poland, the Christmas festivities began the day before Christmas Eve. Zofia—who serves in LBC’s Student Caregiver role by providing an open heart and listening ear, as well as biblical counsel as needed—remembered going out into the woods with her father to pick out a Christmas tree and bring it back home. She and her family decorated the tree with a star on the top and handmade ornaments. They made paper snowflakes, angels and “kolchatki”—round spiked star-like ornaments. They added garlands made from crepe paper and tissue paper.  Whole apples were hung alongside colorful hard candies wrapped in bright colors they had bought at the store. The tree was adorned with real candles that were clipped to the tree, which they lit in the evening.

LBC Student Caregiver Zofia Beers shares her memories of Christmas in Poland.

“Every house had a manger,” Zofia shared. Sometimes made out of paper, sometimes out of wood. It depended on what families could afford. Some were large, while others were small. “People would often put them on a shelf somewhere in their living room,” she added.

To begin the Christmas celebrations, Zofia and her family would fast all Christmas Eve day, and then eat a progressive dinner. At dinnertimes, they began the festivities by walking to the home of their mother’s youngest sibling to eat the first course. As they walked from house to house in the snow, they would sing Polish Christmas carols.

“The Polish Christmas carols were so melodious and meaningful,” Zofia said. “They really centered on Christ and why he came.”

Once the family reached their grandparents’ house, they would have a full course, often of fish, kielbasa, potatoes, sauerkraut and beans. Christmastime was especially exciting for Zofia as a child growing up in Poland because of the desserts they would bake. The only time they baked sweet things was Easter and Christmas.

“Sugar was very expensive, and flour was not in abundance either,” Zofia explained. “When I was 7, 8, 9, 10 years old, there was not much in the stores because it was after World War II.”

At Christmastime, however, they were able to make cookies, cheesecakes, and poppy seed and walnut roll because of their grandmother who had come to America several years before. “Grandma always sent us at Christmastime, 25 pounds of sugar and 50 pounds of flour,” Zofia said.

After they had eaten the final course at their grandparents’ home, everyone went to the Christmas Eve service at church. It began at midnight, and they sang more hymns and heard a Christmas message. On Christmas morning, they would go to church again for the Christmas Day service.

There were no gifts on Christmas Day, but gifts were given to the children on Dec. 6, St. Nicholas Day. The children would wake up to find little gifts underneath their pillows.

“We would get a coloring book and a few crayons or a pencil and an orange,” said Zofia. “Sometimes there was a man who would dress up like St. Nick, and they would pay him to bring the children’s gifts. My parents could never afford him.”

When Zofia came to America with her family at 19 years old, she was shocked by the vastly different Christmas traditions.

“Everything became new,” she said. “We were surprised that people started decorating their houses so early. They would have a Christmas tree two or three weeks before Christmas. It was very hard to get used to that. The first couple years, we did not do what the Americans were doing. We stuck to the same old fashioned the Polish way.”

What at first felt strange soon became normal as Zofia adapted to the holiday differences, yet she still held onto some Polish traditions. Zofia still makes poppy seed rolls, which is her favorite Polish treat from her childhood. She also hand-makes the round spiked ornaments, “kolchatki” to hang on her Christmas tree and gift to others.

Zofia’ favorite part of Christmas as a child was eating poppy seed roll and singing carols, which were rich in Scripture and pointed back to Christ. Zofia still remembers the Polish carols that loudly proclaimed the joy of Christmas, “that he became flesh and dwelt among us.”