Christmas Sights Around Olsztyn

Well, before I land in America and see all of the decorations there, I wanted to get out and take some pictures of the Christmas decorations here in Olsztyn. As to be expected, they celebrate Christmas a little different here. Here are some of the differences I've noticed so far:

*The decorations come out a little later here. Many of the stores and streets have been decorated for a couple of weeks now, but most people are just now putting up their decorations at home. They just really started selling the Christmas trees this past Saturday.

* They celebrate the bulk of their festivities on Christmas Eve

*There are vendors selling misteltoe EVERYWHERE! The funny thing is, I just learned that misteltoe is actually a parasite! It just sucks life off of the trees where it grows and it grows everywhere here. I'm still unclear if they have the same tradition with mistletoe here as we do in America. I'll work on figuring that one out (not by experience, mind you!)

*On December 6th, the kids set out their shoes (after they thoroughly clean them, of course) and this is the day they believe Micholaj (again, wrong characters for the letters, but close enough!) comes and leaves little sweets or goodies for the good kids. If you're not good you get a twig off of a tree. I think it's just a ploy to get kids to clean their shoes...let's just say there are a LOT of dogs here in Poland and I don't think Pooper-Scoopers have made their debut here.

*The Poles do not randomly throw around salutations of "Merry Christmas!". They only say it once, so they have to wait and strategically plan when to say their Christmas greetings on what they figure to be the last time they'll see you. The other day, we were all meeting over at the Stevenson's house and one of our Polish friends came over. He said good-bye and walked out of the door, only to return and give his "Merry Christmas", knowing that he wouldn't see us again before the holiday! So, when a Pole says "Merry Christmas", you know he means it!

*As I said before, Christmas Eve is the big celebration here and families have a traditional 12 course meal throughout the night (eating lots of food to celebrate is definitely a common factor across all cultures!) mainly consisting of different dishes made with carp. Starting about 2 weeks ago, there were large pools set up in many of the grocery stores selling live carp. That's right. You pick out a live one. Hmmmmm....I'd better stop here on this one.

So, those are some of the different Christmas traditions that I've learned about so far here in Poland. And here are some pictures that I took tonight. Amber and I both liked to drive around in America with a cup of hot coffee (or hot chocolate for Amber) and look at Christmas lights. Since we can't do that here, we put on the long johns, grabbed a travel mug, and hit the pavement to see some of the lights in beautiful Olsztyn. Enjoy!

This is the view on one of the main streets here in Olsztyn. This is the street we walk down to get to the mall (it's on the left hand side of the street here) and to Old Town. The tall building at the end of the street is Ratusz, or city hall.
This is a closer picture of ratusz and one of the many city busses passing by.
This is the view looking up the street in Old Town. These lighted swags are hung across the street almost all the way down the street throughout Old Town. It's so pretty, no picture does it justice, of course.
This is actually the sign outside of our neighborhood grocery store. It says "Wesolych Swiat", which is Merry Christmas in Polish! (and actually, these aren't all the correct characters for the letters, but I can't get them to work right on here!)
This is another view down one of the streets in Old Town.