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With less than a month to go now until Christmas, Prague's traditional Christmas markets opened earlier this week. The biggest of them all is on the capital's Old Town Square. Along with the usual stalls selling presents, decorations and mulled wine, and the traditional very tall Christmas tree, this year the square also features an ice rink. Coilin O'Connor sets the scene:

My Letter from Prague today is going to be about Christmas or rather the ever earlier occurrence of signs indicating that the great holiday is coming. If you expect now a traditionalist bashing of consumerism... you are partly right.

Police have issued their traditional firework warning ahead of New Year's Eve. A spokesman said people should only buy fireworks which carry official safety certificates, and should purchase them in shops, rather than from street markets. Dozens of people are injured each year in firework accidents, and there have been several fatalities.

Prague, the Golden City, the Heart of Europe, is undoubtedly a magical place, especially in Christmas. Those who hear that I live in Prague say "Oh, you're so lucky". Yes, I was lucky to have been born here but, for the looks of it, I was also lucky to have left just after I was born.

Christmas trees are an inseparable part of Christmas, but there certainly there are countless ways of decorating them, according to cultural taste. In the Czech Republic, hand-made decorations have a long tradition. However, as Alena Skodova reports traditional Czech decorations are now facing competition from abroad.

Today's Mailbox includes: Topics: Christmas greetings. Pen pals. Christmas customs. Quotes from: Anele Chidiebere, Sheila Hughes, Mauro Bertini, Annabel Grieco, Brad Wilson.

On December 5th Prague kids got an early Xmas present - an outdoor ice skating rink in the very heart of the city. The idea proved to be an enormous success with young and old and may set a new tradition. Find out more in this week's Magazine.

Advent is a time when most Christmas exhibitions open throughout the Czech Republic to make people stop in the pre-Christmas hustle and bustle and think about the spiritual values of the season. One such exhibition opened earlier this month at the Ceska sporitelna bank premises in the centre of Prague.

In this pre-Christmas time we bring you the last Czech language programme this year, and of course, it is a Christmas special. The Czech word for Christmas, Vánoce, is of German origin, from the term Weinachten, or holy nights.