We invite you to Christmas Krakow. It is worth a visit!
Guests who come to Krakow during the holiday season will be satisfied. Regardless of the weather, you will be able to feel the unique atmosphere in the city, because the mood is created primarily by people - residents and our guests. We invite you to familiarise yourself with Krakow's Christmas offers!
There are many attractions ahead of us. One of the most characteristic events taking place during the Christmas season is the Christmas Market. It started on 25 November and will traditionally take over half of the Main Market Square. The stalls will offer Christmas decorations, including Christmas tree baubles, handicrafts, ceramics, leather, cloth, wood and metal products, jewellery, toys for children and a wide range of Krakow souvenirs to buy. There will be delicacies: chocolate and marzipan products, roasted nuts, iced fruit, gingerbread and Christmas cookies with icing.
Those who are tired of shopping can enjoy refreshments in the food stalls. Both traditional Christmas dishes and delicacies of various world cuisines will be waiting for them in numerous restaurants in the city centre and along the Royal Route. The fair will be accompanied by artistic and musical performances a tall Christmas tree near St. Mary's Church. The most colourful supporting event will be the carol procession.
Gifts with a soul
Christmas baubles will also delight with their colours and shapes. Many of them are true works of art. Polish baubles are an exclusive and luxurious product in many countries around the world, and the "Made in Poland" tag indicates the highest quality on the market of glass Christmas decorations. Among them, you can find both traditional and those formed in typical Krakow motifs, such as baubles shaped like the Wawel Dragon, Lajkonik, Stańczyk known from Jan Matejko's painting, carol singers, animals, flowers, snowmen and many others.
It is not surprising that the Krakow Christmas Market is, in the opinion of The Times, among the most attractive European Christmas markets, which can boldly compete for visitors with its counterparts in Strasbourg, Brussels, Berlin in Vienna and Copenhagen.
The making crib tradition
It is also worth recommending, especially for lovers of beauty enchanted in detail, the exhibition of Christmas cribs, which are displayed in various parts of the city in illuminated showcases and in shop windows. The Krakow crib is a phenomenon on a global scale. Its creators prepare multi-level models, richly decorated with details of characteristic elements of the city's historic architecture, which have been fancifully combined or processed. Shepherds, characters in Kraków costumes, the Wawel Dragon, and even figures from contemporary public life carol together in the nativity scenes at the Bethlehem manger. The most beautiful works are selected by a jury consisting of historians and art historians, ethnographers, visual artists and architects and are put on display at the Museum of Krakow in the Krzysztofory Palace.
The museums invite you
At the market square, exactly opposite St. Mary's Church, it is there that the most extensive collection of Krakow cribs can be found. In addition to beautiful and finely finished miniatures measuring from 2 meters to several centimeters, you can see the exhibition "Kraków from the beginning without end", where one room has been converted into a fragment of a nativity scene.
On the first Thursday in December, the works submitted for this year's 80th anniversary will be displayed at the Adam Mickiewicz Monument Krakow Nativity Scenes Contest They will be presented to the public from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. before being moved to the Krzysztofory Palace to await the judges' assessment. Krakow cribs are on the National List of Intangible Cultural Heritage, and in 2018 they were also included in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. It is also worth visiting church nativity scenes.Particularly praised are the one at the Church of the Bernardine Fathers at the foot of the Wawel Castle, where there is a whole miniature town with a Bethlehem stable, and the living nativity scene prepared by the Franciscan Fathers at the Basilica at Franciszkańska Street, who, as every year, invite you to watch nativity scenes and sing carols together.
The rich cultural offer can also make your Christmas stay in Krakow even more pleasant. These include "The New Crown Treasury" and other exhibitions at the Wawel Royal Castle, as well as shows devoted to Tamara Łempicka at the National Museum and by Helena Rubinstein at the Galicia Jewish Museum. There are plenty of proposals for leisure prepared by other museums, theaters and cultural institutions.
Krakow is worth visiting at any time of the year, but the magic of Christmas certainly makes a stay in the capital of Lesser Poland even more picturesque.