The closer Christmas gets, the more everyone realizes what they still haven't gotten done. Mailing Christmas cards, buying that gift for Auntie, making those special rum balls, picking out a Christmas tree. Yet another event in the pre-Christmas obstacle course. Christmas trees can be bought in most town squares and other open spaces, and every year they get more expensive. Inflation, of course, and it becomes so much more obvious around Christmas, when you see something which you clearly remember being much cheaper last year! Various qualities of trees are sold, but suffice it to say that the better the quality, the thicker the tree. The most expensive are fir trees, followed by pine and then spruce trees, and then the person selling the trees determines the price by its height. Most Czech families keep their trees out on the balcony, where it remains until Christmas Eve.
Once the house is clean, the sweets all baked, the gifts bought, the Christmas cards sent out and the Christmas tree out on the balcony, it's time to arrange Christmas visits with friends and relatives, to organize the Christmas decorations, to prepare for the Christmas party at work, to get all the right ingredients for the potato salad and buy the Christmas carp. Carp is only a recent addition to the Czech table, and according to studies, is part of Christmas Eve dinner in three quarters of Czech households, while the remainder prefer "normal" fried fish or filets.
The carp-sellers are a common sight on the streets in the wintry weather prior to Christmas, pulling carp out of the tanks of icy water, and even killing and gutting them there if the customer desires. Some people take them home, however, and put them in the bathtub. There are 2 MAIN things to remember concerning the keeping of the Christmas carp in the bathtub:
1) Don't feed it! Tis is so it doesn't have full intestines when Dad guts it after killing it!
2) Don't give it a name under any circumstances! this is so that the kids or their parents won't feel sorry for it and run out on Christmas Eve to return it to the Vltava River or one of the other polluted Czech rivers.
Now then comes the last day of work before the Christmas holidays! And of course this can only mean office parties to celebrate the upcoming escape from work. If you manage to get through this Christmas tradition unscathed, you can jump out of bed on the morning of Christmas Eve and begin to savor the atmosphere of the holidays with those near and dear. The most important day of the Czech Christmas celebration, the 24th of December is naturally as idyllic for adults as it is for children, who have a day full of traditional Christmas fare to enjoy.
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