The week before Christmas Eve, a Polish family does one big shop. If your store is out of carp, herring or opłatek, they drive to the store that isn't. Then they buy the pierogi, the poppy seed cake and the Tymbark there too. One stockout moves the whole basket. For stores that serve Polish and European shoppers, Wigilia is the biggest basket of the year. It is one meal, twelve dishes, bought all at once. Here is what sells, and when to order so you have it.

Wigilia is twelve dishes, and you stock all of it

Wigilia, the Christmas Eve supper, starts when the first star appears on December 24. The meal is meatless. Tradition calls for twelve dishes, one for each apostle and each of the twelve months, as the Adam Mickiewicz Institute's culture.pl explains. Guests taste a little of everything, so families buy a lot of everything. The dishes are built from pantry and deli items, not restaurant food. Carp, herring, beet soup, mushroom soup, pierogi, sauerkraut with mushrooms, cabbage rolls, poppy seed cake, gingerbread, dried fruit compote. Every one of those is already a product on your shelf or in your case.

What sells, aisle by aisle

Fish drives the meal. Stock carp, and herring in oil, cream and pickled. Soups come next. Barszcz needs beets and a sour base, mushroom soup needs dried forest mushrooms, so keep both deep. For the mains, carry pierogi with cabbage and mushroom or sauerkraut filling, plus sauerkraut, dried white beans, buckwheat and rice for cabbage rolls. The sweets sell hard in the last week: poppy seeds, makowiec, piernik, honey, walnuts, almonds, and dried plums, apples and pears for kompot. Round it out with flour, lard, gingerbread spice and plum preserve, Tymbark and Kubuś for the table, and Cracovia pickles, beets and sauerkraut for the cold dishes.

Opłatek is the one thing you cannot run out of

The opłatek is a thin wheat wafer. Before anyone eats, the family breaks it together and shares wishes for the year ahead. The Smithsonian Folklife Magazine calls it a “tradition of friendship and forgiveness.” No wafer, no supper. The catch is that almost all opłatek is made in Poland and it is hard to source late. If you sell Polish Christmas, carry it and order it early. A shopper who comes in for opłatek fills a full cart while they are there.

When to order

Order in two waves. Place your first holiday order by the middle of November, around the 15th, to lock in the shelf-stable core: fish, sauerkraut, pierogi, baking goods, sweets and drinks. Reorder the fast movers in early December once you see what is selling. Time fresh and last-minute items to the week before Christmas Eve, and build in a buffer. Running out on December 22 is worse than a little extra in January, because the shopper who leaves does the rest of the trip somewhere else. We deliver greater Chicago on our own trucks and nationwide through our partners, so ask your rep for order-by dates and lead times in your area.

The bottom line

Polish Christmas rewards the store that stays in stock. Plan the whole basket, not single items, and order early enough to cover the rush. Eagle has supplied Polish and European favorites to independent stores since 1992, with more than 1,000 products and exclusive brands including Tymbark, Kubuś and Cracovia. Request the full catalog, become a customer, or call 773 775 5777, and we will help you build your holiday order in time.