Wigilia with kids: Polish Christmas Eve traditions to share

Wigilia, Polish Christmas Eve, is one of the easiest holidays to share with small kids, because so much of it is a game: waiting at the window for the first star, breaking a wafer and making a wish for everyone at the table, checking whether the cat will talk at midnight. Below are the main traditions with sources from Poland's national cultural institute, how to adapt each one for a toddler or preschooler, coloring page and craft ideas, and the few books worth finding.

Families from different regions of Poland, and Polish American families several generations in, keep Wigilia differently. Ask the oldest person at your table what theirs was like, and keep the parts that are yours.

Wigilia traditions, and how kids can join in

Culture.pl, published by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute, explains that most Polish Christmas celebrations happen on December 24, and that for many Poles it is one of the most significant and family-oriented days of the year, usually celebrated with a family dinner at home. The same article describes the customs below.

Waiting for the first star. Many Poles wait for the first star to appear before sitting down to eat, in memory of the Star of Bethlehem. Give kids the job of star watcher: a window, a flashlight for pointing, and a promise that dinner starts when they spot it.

Sharing opłatek. Opłatek is an unleavened wafer of flour and water embossed with a religious image. Each person gets one and shares pieces of it with everyone else while exchanging good wishes, before the meal. For a preschooler, practice one simple wish ahead of time: "I wish you a happy new year" or "I wish you lots of pierogi."

Hay under the tablecloth. Culture.pl explains that some families put hay beneath the tablecloth to remember that, according to the Bible, the newborn Jesus was laid in a manger. Let your child tuck a small handful under one corner.

An empty place at the table. Many Poles leave one place set in case a person down on their luck arrives, and tradition says a lone stranger who comes is taken in and treated as family. Ask your child who they would invite to that seat.

Animals that talk. An old Polish legend says animals are given the gift of speech on Christmas Eve, as a reward for their role in welcoming Jesus, and Culture.pl notes that children often try to coax a word out of the family pet. This one needs no adapting.

The twelve dishes, for small eaters

A traditional Wigilia dinner has twelve dishes, one for each month of the new year, and Culture.pl adds that Poles usually abstain from meat on Christmas Eve, though fish is welcome. Its guide to Polish Christmas food describes the dishes kids are most likely to meet:

• Red barszcz (beet soup) served with small mushroom-filled dumplings.
• Pierogi filled with sauerkraut and mushrooms, cheese and potato, or berries.
• Carp, which the guide says became a central part of Polish Christmas only after World War II.
• Kutia, a dessert of wheat, poppy seeds, honey, dried fruit and nuts, typical of Eastern Poland.
• Dried fruit compote, a drink made from dried and smoked plums, apples, pears, raisins and apricots.
• Ginger cookies, which the guide says Poles also use as Christmas tree decorations.

Jobs for small hands: counting the dishes up to twelve as they come to the table, pinching pierogi edges closed with a fork, and decorating ginger cookies for the tree. The same food guide says some people believe you should try every dish to have good luck for the year, so a toddler-sized taste of each counts.

Wigilia coloring pages and crafts

Page or craft	What to make	Good for
The first star	A night sky over your house with one big star and space for kids to add more	Toddlers, and the star watcher
Opłatek	A rectangle with a simple manger or star pressed into it, the way the real wafer is embossed	Talking about wishes
Twelve plates	A table with twelve empty plates for kids to draw a dish in each	Counting, ages 4 and up
The empty chair	The family table with one extra place set	A conversation about welcome
A talking cat or dog	Your pet with a speech bubble left blank	Every age
A paper szopka	A tall, colorful nativity "castle" with towers and windows	Older kids who like detail

The szopka needs a word of explanation. Culture.pl describes the Kraków szopki as elaborate, colorful nativity scenes built like castles, shown each December in a competition on Kraków's Main Square since 1937, and inscribed on UNESCO's list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2018. A drawn szopka is a perfect long coloring project: towers, domes and dozens of little windows. A shoebox version, with paper towers glued on top, is a good afternoon for a five- or six-year-old with a grown-up.

To make any page printable, trace over your drawing in black marker and photocopy it. Our guide to how to print coloring pages has tips for clean, dark lines.

A carol to go with it. Culture.pl's guide to Polish carols describes "Lulajże, Jezuniu" (Sleep, Infant Jesus) as a lullaby-like carol that Chopin used in one of his works. It is gentle enough for bedtime after a late dinner.

Books for Wigilia

English picture books about Wigilia are hard to find, so this list is short and honest:

• A Polish Christmas Eve: Traditions and Recipes, Decorations and Song by Czesław Michał Krysa is a guide for grown-ups covering Christmas customs, music and decorations in Poland. Read it yourself, then tell the stories in your own words.
• Wigilia Misia i Tygryska is a Polish-language Christmas Eve story by Janosch about his Little Bear and Little Tiger characters, useful for families reading with kids in Polish.

Public libraries in cities with large Polish communities, such as Chicago, carry Polish-language children's books. Ask your librarian, or see our guide to bilingual coloring books for writing Polish words on your own pages.

A page with your own family in it

The page a child keeps is the one with their own Wigilia on it: Babcia carrying the barszcz, the cousins at the window, the empty chair, the dog with its blank speech bubble. Trace a photo from last Christmas Eve, or draw stick figures and let your child fill in the rest.

Colorkin can make a coloring page of your family from a photo, drafted with AI illustration tools and checked and finished by a person. We are making a Polish American coloring storybook about making pierogi with Babcia. It is not on sale yet, but the free sample shows what a page of your own family looks like.

For neighboring traditions, see our German Christmas traditions for kids and Christmas coloring pages starring your own family. More holidays are in our family and heritage guides.

Questions parents ask