Back to Basics: Czech Xmas Guide!

Need a recipe for cookies or carp? Looking for the perfect gift? Advice on where to buy (and find ornaments to trim) your tree? We’ve searched our archives to bring you a gift bag of Christmas articles to help you survive the holidays in good spirits and with sanity intact. 

Apart from the carp vendors and shop displays, one of the sure signs that Christmas is fast approaching is the appearance of Christmas tree sellers near the annual Christmas markets or outside of large shopping malls in Prague and beyond. Here are some tree tips we’ve picked up along the way…

Using a map of Prague, you can create a perfectly personalized ornament to pay homage to this fabulous city. Just cut two circles from a map, make a sheet of painter’s tape by layering strips, and cut your design from the painter’s tape…

In need of inspiration? Fear not: we’ve compiled a round-up of craft tutorials, complete with tips on where to track down the necessary materials. We’ve also thrown in our very own guide to making pesronalized Christmas cards. Miss out on the Christmas craft fun and yule be sorry…

Christmas and carp (and potato salad!) go together like a hand and glove. In what is now the Czech Republic, first mentions of carp for Christmas stretch as far back as the 17th century. Widespread consumption, however, is traced to the 19th century. The original fried carp recipe, still used to this day, has been attributed to Magdalena Dobromila Rettigová (1785-1845), who is considered by many to be the mother of Czech cuisine…

For many families, Czech, expat, or otherwise, one of the holiday highlights is the Christmas meal. In preparation for this year’s holiday, we present: Tablescapes. “Table-whats?” you ask. Tablescapes. Ideas for how to decorate your table. It’s pretty easy if you follow these tips…

In the English-speaking cinema world, there’s no shortage of Christmas classics, ranging from It’s a Wonderful Life, to National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. In the Czech Republic, however, you’ll be hard pressed to find a popular film that actively deals with the topic of Christmas (years of religious suppression under communist rule may have something to do with that). Instead, there’s another holiday viewing tradition: feel-good fairy tales. There are a number of classics from the 50s through the 80s that remain quintessential holiday viewing…

Breweries in the US, UK, Belgium and other countries have been producing seasonal winter or Christmas beer for awhile now. They are typically of a higher degree and sometimes include wintery spices like cinnamon, clove, nutmeg and orange peel. Higher-degree beers are made with more malt, and the increase in sugar creates a beer with a higher alcohol content. Czech breweries are starting to realize the marketing opportunity of seasonal beers. But unless you visit a beer shop or pub serving beer from smaller, more local breweries, it would be easy to miss Christmas beer completely…