At beginning of December, the attractive aromas of Christmas confectionery begin emanating from Czech kitchens. Even if more and more Czech housewives lack the courage to bake a vanocka Christmas loaf, baking Christmas sweets at home remains a Czech speciality. The more types of sweets on the table during Christmas, the better. The custom was that the children would help their mothers, who often weren't looking forward to the baking and considered it a necessary evil and an inseparable part of the holidays. The custom was also that the children, along with their fathers, would steal the sweets before Christmas from the box where their mothers had put them for safe-keeping. Another rule was also that housewives and grandmothers would bake even more kinds of sweets to get a headstart on them. The results of all these actions can be seen in extra weight around he middle after the holidays...
Towards the end of November, Christmas markets begin to appear in the squares in towns, filling them with smells of pine, from all the large Christmas trees erected there, and constantly reminding passers-by that Christmas is near.
Neither the house-cleaning nor the cooking compares with the suffering endured in all the lines and queues in the department stores and other shops. People from the countryside come into larger cities such as Prague, along with people from other cities and towns. The most common spot for Christmas shopping is still the Prague department stores Kotva, Bila Labut and Maj (once K-Mart, now Tesco, but for many residents of Prague, as well as the Czech Republic, it's still Maj). Everyone is affected by pre-Christmas madness, as this is the only excuse for how rude and unfriendly they are to each other in the shops. This nerve-wracking atmosphere is only worsened by the behaviour of the shop clerks, who only grudgingly aknowledge customers, but that's not just during the Christmas season.
In this pre-Christmas hustle and bustle, people still think of all their relatives and friends as they also remember to send their Christmas greetings to them. Designsw of Christmas cards varies each and every year, but them are always some cards featuring the Czech artist Josef Lada. These are typical Czech Christmas greetings and people send man of them, even though the Czech Post is continually raising postal rates. The Czech Post does think of its customers, by trying to soften the blow by issuing brand new stamps every year at Christmas with holiday designs and motiffs.
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