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Prague Mayor Bohuslav Svoboda on Saturday lit a 28-metre-tall Christmas tree in Prague’s Old Town Square, and opened a Christmas market in the square. The spruce, which is around 90-years-old, came from a forest near Rokycany, in western Bohemia. Organizers said tightened security measures were applied at the event which each year attracts thousands of people.

Visitors of the many outdoor Christmas markets around the Czech Republic will not be able to enjoy the traditional rum-based hot drinks like punč and grog this holiday season. The authorities have announced that they will strictly enforce a law prohibiting non-licensed vendors from selling drinks with alcohol content higher than 15 percent. In the past, the police turned a blind eye to such practices at the festive Christmas markets, but following this year’s methanol-crisis which claimed 37 lives, they have decided to take a harder line. The sale of hot drinks will be restricted to mulled wine or tea.

Prague will get a new Christmas market this year, with one set to be held on the square Malé náměstí, a short distance from the traditional market on Old Town Square. The mayor of Prague 1 said on Wednesday that the local council did not want to see Christmas celebrations concentrated on one site, adding that he favoured the sale of traditional Czech goods, such as a pastry known as “trdelník”. A pedestrian zone was created on Malé náměstí earlier this year.

A Catholic charity organization (ACHO) in Olomouc has invited Czechs to buy Christmas gifts for orphans in Ukraine. The charity has been involved in this project since 2008. It gets a list of children from several orphanages with details regarding their age, dress size and interests. People who want to give Christmas presents to a child who may never have received one in their lives, are requested to bring a Christmas package to the tune of 1,000 crowns to the charity organization by December 13th.

Over 200 000 Czechs are spending the Christmas holidays in mountain resorts at home and abroad. Tourist agencies report that despite the mild weather and poor skiing conditions most Czech mountain resorts are fully booked for the holiday season. German and Russian tourists make up 30 percent of the holiday makers.

One of the many Christmas masses celebrated over the past weekend was a mass for the Vietnamese community celebrated by Prague Archbishop Dominik Duka in Prague’s Žižkov district. It was dedicated to the Feast of the Holy Family and attended by over a thousand Vietnamese who have embraced the Christian faith.

It is a well-known fact that the traditional Czech heavy Christmas menu is a burden on the digestive system. Fewer people know, though, that fat is not only bad for the gall-bladder and arteries but can also cause problems to the sewage system. Especially in densely populated areas the sewer pipes and sewage treatment plants experience something of a fat overdose at Christmas time. The problem is faced by all cities and some have already taken measures against it.

Czechs and foreign nationals were able to visit traditional midnight masses on Christmas Eve at dozens of Catholic churches in the Czech capital. Some of the services were held in Italian, French and Vietnamese. Prague Archbishop Dominik Duka, primate of the Czech Catholic Church, celebrated midnight mass at St Vitus Cathedral at Prague Castle and Bishop Václav Malý, a former dissident, led the mass at St Wenceslas Church in the Smíchov district. In some churches, ‘midnight’ masses were in fact not held at 12 am but several hours earlier.

A few days ago David Vaughan went to meet the Slavíčci – or Nightingales – one of Prague’s best-known children’s choirs. He talked to members of the choir about the rich tradition of Czech Christmas music, about why you might find yourself sharing your bath with a carp in the days before Christmas Eve, and what it’s like to sing beneath the towering Gothic vaults of Saint Vitus’ Cathedral. And, of course, the choir also brings us some of the best loved Czech carols, recorded especially for Radio Prague. That and more, in Radio Prague’s special Christmas

Christmas celebrations in the Czech Republic are muted in the wake of Vaclav Havel’s death. Many firms and institutions scrapped their Christmas parties and outdoor Christmas markets toned-down their events in a show of respect for the late president. Millions of Czechs will be sitting down to their traditional dinner of fried carp and potato salad on Saturday evening and for many people the events of the past few days will highlight the spiritual aspects of the holiday.