The last weeks of the year are ahead of us - a winter time of rest and celebration with family and friends. Although Western consumer culture tells us to go crazy in shopping malls and turn our homes into twinkling plastic palaces, remember that many Christmas traditions have their roots in Slavic times, when our ancestors celebrated the Bountiful Wedding. Christianization moved the celebration time by a few days, but in Slavic lands the customs associated with this time of year remained. In the last century, Christmas time began with the arrival of astronomical winter, i.e. the winter solstice, and lasted until Epiphany, i.e. January 6. Tradition required farmers to rest after the year-long hard work and focus on family life. Further relatives and neighbors were visited, and Christmas treats were served on every table.
Advent itself – the month of December – was a time of silence and waiting. The tradition included preparing Advent wreaths and making Christmas tree decorations with your own hands. Today we have a huge selection of ready-made ornaments and decorations, it's true - but we encourage you to prepare the decorations together with your family or friends. All you need are a few beautiful spruce or pine branches, arborvitae from our garden, and red beads on barberry twigs to create a beautiful wreath or decoration. Nature gives us nuts, red apples and pine cones. An ideal reference to tradition will be spice cookies in Christmas shapes, decorated with icing and hung on a Christmas tree or wreath. We bake them for you every year and offer them ready for decorating, also in packages with icing markers.