It includes even seemingly trivial things. For example, when children in pajamas dip a spoon into the salad in the morning and nibble on a cold schnitzel as if it were the most common breakfast in the world. Or how someone in every household solemnly guards "their" salad recipe – somewhere without peas, not even in the morning, while elsewhere the salad can do without them. Yet we all know very well that the one that tastes best is the one prepared at home every year in exactly the same way.
Family rituals are repeated as well, which perhaps no one else would understand, but they simply work for us. Some buy a new ornament for the tree every year – perhaps an elephant, the symbol of their team, or a locomotive – while others invariably set off for a winter walk after dinner, as if someone had programmed them. And then there’s the traditional gift-giving 'one by one', which sooner or later turns into a pleasant Christmas chaos as everyone eagerly watches each torn piece of paper.
The True Taste of Christmas
The Christmas Eve table also holds a firm place in Czech Christmas traditions. It is set with the same care year after year, whether at grandma's house or in a new apartment. It includes things that no one would skip – salad, schnitzel, carp, sweets… And also a glass of beer, which has maintained its unchanged taste for generations. For many families, this reliable element is Pilsner Urquell – a Czech lager, whose place at the Christmas Eve dinner is as natural as sparklers after the meal or the journey to midnight mass after a demanding evening.
Whether we turn on cartoons in the morning, decorate the tree in mid-December, or anxiously wait to see if the Christmas lottery will bring at least a symbolic win, it is precisely these moments that create our true Christmas. They don't have to be perfect – it’s enough that we look forward to them. Every year, without exception. And perhaps it is this very unchanging nature that gives Czech Christmas its unmistakable atmosphere, just like the taste we toast with family during the holidays. Pilsner Urquell simply belongs to them. Year after year.
