As rain streams off the window of her Mission Street apartment, Jana Dlabikova patiently stirs a pot of sauerkraut soup simmering on her stove.
“Back home, we always eat this soup on Christmas,” said Dlabikova, who is an immigrant from Slovakia. A pungent aroma fills the kitchen as she recounts her personal Central European Christmas story.
December 24, or Christmas Day in Slovakia, is a holiday that comes rooted with traditions that the 31-year-old immigrant brought with her to San Francisco four years ago. It’s a day for the close family to cook and pray together, and to be thankful for the completion of another year, she explained.
This year will be the first time that she has invited other Slovakians to her home for a Christmas dinner, which she has made a tradition of opening up to her “orphan” friends. “My friends are Mexican, American, Moroccan — anybody who doesn’t have a place to go on Christmas can eat with me,” she said.
Although the Hispanic population in the Mission District has dropped to 48 percent, foreign born residents still make up a large part of the population and like Dlabikova, who came here to work for a startup, many of them continue the traditions from their native countries.
Dlabikova warns her friends to eat lightly or to “not to eat anything all day,” because in Slovakia, the tradition is to fest until dinner.
Back home, Christmas dinner is the the same each year, and it’s fairly straightforward. Dlabikova’s family abandons their generally meat-heavy diet for a breaded sweet water fish, like carp, served with a side of traditional Slovakian potato salad and the signature sauerkraut soup appetizer, which is prepared with white beans and dried mushrooms.
The sauerkraut ferments in Dlabikova’s kitchen for up to a week. “My American roommates love me for it,” she jokes.
A few days ahead of Christmas, the fish is traditionally bought alive at Slovakian supermarkets. She remembers her grandparents putting the carp into their bathtub, where it lived until Christmas.
“My parents didn’t want to kill the fish, so they never did that,” remembered Dlabikova. “But my grandparents are more traditional.”
At La Palma at 2884 24th St., 13-year-old Brandon Hernandez and his father, Juan, check a bulk of tortillas off of their Christmas dinner shopping list.
“The tortillas are for the enchiladas that my parents make,” said Brandon. “But my favorite thing to eat on Christmas are the sweet tamales with raisin and strawberry.”
The Hernandez family also makes a special “ponche de frutas,” a fruit punch made with sugar cane, raisins, apples, guava, and chamomile. “That’s 100 percent our recipe,” said Brandon.
“This tradition started with me, when I was younger than this guy,” said Juan Hernandez, Brandon’s father. Hernandez fondly remembers growing up in Guerrero, Mexico, where he said Christmas is a month-long celebration.
“My mother was always working on Christmas day, so my sisters and I would make the fruit punch while we waited for her to get home,” he said.
Comparing Christmas celebrations in Guerrero to the traditions that his children are growing up with in San Francisco, is like “another life,” he said.
“We had pinatas and fireworks, the whole town would celebrate,” said Hernandez. “Even if you didn’t have money, there would be food on the table, because you could go to anybody’s house in town and be fed.”
Hernandez explained that January 6, or Three Kings Day, is celebrated as the awakening of baby Jesus, on which “rosca de reyes,” a pastry-like cake with dried fruits and stuffed with baby Jesus figurines, was served.
“You cut the cake in pieces depending on how big your family is. If you have four family members, its four slices. For six people, six slices, and so,” he said. Whoever found “baby Jesus” in their slice of cake would be tasked with making tamales for everyone.
“It’s very different than Christmas here,” said Hernandez. “My son won’t know what that’s like until he goes to Mexico. Maybe next year.”
Along with her mother and daughter, Lena Mouton Lugo also shopped for Christmas ingredients at La Palma. With roots in Mexico and Peru, Mouton Lugo said her family celebrates “more on the Mexican side,” with tamales.
Mouton Lugo’s husband is Puerto Rican, so every year, she is sure to serve up Puerto Rican rice with black beans, as well as the fixings of queso and crema. This year, she plans on making pork quesadillas with green chile.
In the spirit of Christmas, Mouton Lugo prepares a Puerto Rican alcoholic drink called coquito, made with Bacardi rum, egg yolks, cinnamon and condensed milk, that she compares to horchata.
“We drink and eat tamales on Christmas,” she said. “I have four children, and they go wild.”
While his kids enjoy an “American” Christmas with his in-laws, Scott Lai, owner of Basa Seafood Express at 3064 24th St., is usually hard at work.
“Christmas is our busiest time, so we work more than we can enjoy,” said Lai, who is from Vietnam, adding the holiday is not his priority. But this year, Lai will close his store on December 25 to partake in a small family gathering.
“We are doing an American dish, seafood gumbo,” said Lai. “After all, seafood is our specialty.”
When asked what Christmas is like in his household, Awad Faddoul Jr., the owner of Cafe La Boheme at 3318 24th St., suddenly became very serious.
“Well, my family is from Bethlehem, and as you know, that’s where Christ was born,” he said. “It’s a very religious and authentic day for me.”
Faddoul, who immigrated to the United States 30 years ago, remembers Christmas Day in his hometown as quite a spectacle. Musicians from different cities would fill the streets, welcoming the Cardinal to the city.
He explained that a “massive mass” would take place at Manger square, the focal point of the Christmas celebrations, which is located just a few minutes from where he grew up.
“We would give food for the elders, and it was a day of love and respect for everyone,” said Faddoul, adding jokingly that it might be different now, with the advent of Facebook. “I try to teach my children these traditions, but they cannot experience what I experienced as a child.”