Who is the Christmas gift-giver in Poland?

Answer 1

Gwiazdka. (meaning literally "a little star"). Christmas starts in Poland on Christmas Eve in the evening. Children are told that they cannot to proceed

to take Christmas presents from under the tree unless there is a "falling star"

in the sky being a sign from the Heavens. Often parents with children would starr at an evening dark winter sky hoping to catch a glimps of a shooting star.

Sometimes they were lucky and there was a real shooting star to be seen. In most cases however they would pretend that they have just seen one and

convince the child(ren) that they just had missed seeing it.