A beginner's guide to festive Czech baking, cooking, and holiday traditions

Shops and services may be reopening just in time for the holiday season, but online retailers are still bracing themselves for a surge in Christmas orders as shoppers seek to avoid the crowds.

Some retailers such as Rohlík will be extending their delivery hours due to an increased demand that began already in November as people seek to truly stay "home for the holidays".

We asked Rohlik's recipe coordinator Žaneta Kratochvílová how to go about sourcing everything you need to make a traditional Czech Christmas or New Year's Day feast entirely online. Her stress-free guide to holiday gifts, cooking, baking, and entertaining will help you cross all the Czech and international holiday essentials off your list -- without checking it twice.

Traditional Christmas cookies can seem like a complex topic to tackle. Did you know that Czech folklore says that the 12 different varieties of cookies represent the 12 months of the year?

In order to bake your holiday cookies, your shopping list should include a number of essentials. According to Kratochvílová, quality ingredients will make or break your cookies, so it's important to use the best possible ingredients. That means real butter instead of Hera, genuine chocolate instead of cheaper chocolate coating, and organic eggs.

Czechs make a variety of tasty Christmas cookies, from wasp nest cookies to vanilla crescents and more. Some can be easy to execute (for example, Linzer cookies) and some can be a bit more tricky (like wasp nest cookies). Try your hand at some of these recipes for traditional cookies.

TIP: You can cheat and buy pre-made dough for vanilla crescents, gingerbread, Linzer cookies, and more through a variety of online sources, including Rohlik (which has gluten-free cookies and healthier Christmas cookies as well).

A traditional Czech Christmas dinner features fish soup as a starter and includes fried carp and potato salad as the main course (vánočka, a braided sweet bread, is typically enjoyed earlier in the day for breakfast though some families may serve it after dinner with sweet tea and rum).

These easy recipes for Czech Christmas classics of fried carp and potato salad are best paired with a chilled light beer. Did you know that you can also use beer to give your carp a crispier crust? Beat 4 tbsp of beer into the two eggs called for in the recipe below for a more distinctive crumb.

TIP: If you're looking to lighten the workload, many online retailers, including Rohlík, offer a variety of ready-to-eat options for Christmas Eve dinner. Check out your options here.

Czechs ring in New Year's Eve with chlebíčky, or open-faced sandwiches, with an array of different toppings. You'll also find jednohubky, or one-bite canapes, homemade brambůrky, or potato chips, and other nuts and nibbles, on the buffet table.

Many of our readers say they have adopted Czech Christmas while teaching their Czech families about their own. Traditions such as advent calendars are universal but Czechs also make room for the advent wreath, lighting a candle each Sunday in advent. Slicing an apple to reveal a star and floating walnut boats, are important local customs. Many international families say they enjoy Christmas turkey and all the trimmings, Marks and Spencer Christmas puddings, fruit cakes or panettone, and visits from Santa alongside the traditional Czech Christmas festivities.

This article was written in cooperation with Rohlík. To read more about our partner content policies see here.