St Nicholas Day 2026: Mikolajki Traditions and UK Gift Ideas to Send to Poland

St. Nicholas Day in Poland is coming up on 6 December! So, if you have family there, now’s a good time to pick a gift and send them a little surprise from the UK.

In Poland, you don't have to wait until Christmas to give presents. On 6 December, everyone celebrates Mikołajki, or Polish St. Nicholas Day. Kids wake up hoping to find a treat or a new toy, and adults get little surprises too. If you're living in the UK, you can send something special that might be hard to find in Poland – British brands, football club merch, or gifts inspired by popular TV shows and hobbies. And Meest UK will help get your parcel there in time for the celebration!

When Is St. Nicholas Day 2026 Celebrated in Poland?

What day is Saint Nicholas Day in Poland? Remember the date: December 6. In 2026, it falls on a Sunday, so kids will have time not only to find their gifts, but also to look them over, play with them, and even show them to their friends.

The history of Saint Nicholas Day goes back to the 4th century and Saint Nicholas, the bishop of Myra in Lycia. According to the stories, he helped the poor and secretly left people money and gifts. That’s where the tradition of giving surprises without waiting for a thank you comes from.

Don’t mix up Mikołajki with Christmas. On December 6, people usually give small, symbolic things, and the main gifts wait for Christmas in many families. So a huge box with a big bow isn’t necessary at all.

Mikolajki Traditions and Gift-Giving Customs

The most famous celebration of St. Nicholas in Poland is pretty simple: kids get gifts in their shoes, under the pillow, or by the bed. It all happens in secret while everyone’s asleep. On the evening of December 5, kids clean their shoes and put them out, and in the morning they run to see if Nicholas dropped by. There’s usually chocolate and sweets, a small toy, a book, or some other little surprise.

Schools and kindergartens join in too. Kids swap small gifts, draw names for a Secret Santa, or show up in red hats. Grown-ups don’t miss out either. Coworkers swap little presents, and friends put together small surprises for each other.

Best St. Nicholas Day Gift Ideas for Family and Friends

So, what do Polish children get for Mikołajki? Most often it’s sweets, books, toys, craft sets, or small building sets. For teenagers, people pick games, stickers, posters, and comics. And for adults, you can give something that fits their interests, from a vinyl record to an unusual souvenir from Britain. 

If you live in the UK, you don’t have to buy a gift from the nearest supermarket. Check out museum shops and official club shops, where you can find books, posters, puzzles and notebooks. You can find things there that are harder to get in Polish shops, or that are just more fun than a regular souvenir. That said, there is a list of items you can’t send from the UK to Poland, so check it first. And we’ll look through the best gift ideas.

For kids who love to collect and play:

• LEGO. Right now in the UK, the Speed Champions sets with Formula 1 cars and the Fast and Furious sets are big. For a collector, it’s a ready-made Mikołajki gift.
• Collectable figures in blind boxes. Nobody knows which figure is inside, and that’s the whole fun.
• Card games. Pokémon, Top Trumps or Match Attax, the British football cards. They’re easier to find in the UK than in Poland.
• Beano Annual. A yearly collection of British comics that people here have been giving at Christmas for ages. If someone’s learning English, it’s a funny way to practise.
• Meccano. A British metal building set with nuts and bolts, so kids build a crane or a plane themselves, no screen needed.
• A “dig up a dinosaur” kit. A block of plaster with bones hidden inside, and a tiny hammer. A quiet evening sorted.
• Where’s Wally? A British series of search-and-find books with hundreds of characters on every page. Great for kids, and for grown-ups who “just want to help”.

For teenagers:

• Heartstopper. A British graphic novel that became a series, and teens often read it in one go.
• Illustrated Harry Potter editions. With drawings by Jim Kay. For the one who says they’ve already read it all, it’s a way to read it again.
• LEGO Technic or LEGO Art. Technical models with moving parts, or mosaics that turn into a poster for their room.
• An escape room board game. Puzzles, codes, and envelopes you open in order. An evening with friends and no phones is almost guaranteed.
• A sketchbook set. A notebook, pencils and an eraser, for anyone who draws on the back page during lessons.
• F1 or Pokémon trading cards. Popular in both Britain and Poland, so there’s always someone to swap with.
• A journaling set. A planner, stickers and washi tape to decorate every page.

For adults:

• A 1,000-piece puzzle by Gibsons, a British brand, to fill a long winter evening without a screen.
• Cluedo, the detective board game that was invented in Birmingham.
• A vinyl record by a British artist. Just pack it really well.
• A model kit from Airfix, or a metal model of a London double-decker bus.
• An illustrated book about London or Scotland.
• The Thursday Murder Club. A series of mysteries by Richard Osman about a group of retirees who solve murders. British humour at its best.
• Penguin Clothbound Classics. Old favourites in beautiful cloth covers that look great on a shelf.
• Agatha Christie in illustrated editions. For anyone who loves a mystery, and for anyone who was ever told “don’t spoil the ending”.
• A cookbook by a British chef. For someone who loves to cook: Nigella, Jamie Oliver, or Mary Berry from Bake Off. Recipes travel just fine, even without the ingredients.
• A baking set. Cookie cutters and silicone mats. They look good, and the cookies will be baked at home, which is even better.
• An Ordnance Survey map. A detailed paper map of the Lake District or the Scottish Highlands, for people who love to wander and don’t trust GPS.
• A scratch-off world map. A poster where you scratch off the countries you’ve visited. Once it fills up, you’ll already know where to go next.

You can look for gifts like these in London, Manchester, Birmingham, Leeds or Glasgow. And you don’t have to go from shop to shop, because most official stores sell online. Just make sure your order arrives before it’s time to send the parcel.

What St. Nicholas Day gifts to send to Poland from UK for someone who has everything? Give them something you can’t buy in any shop: a puzzle made from a photo of you two, a city map with pins on the places where you laughed together.

How to Pack and Send Gifts from the UK to Poland

So, you’ve picked traditional Polish gifts for Saint Nicholas Day for everyone in the family. Great. Time to pack.

A sturdy cardboard box is what you need. Wrap each item separately, and fill any space with paper or padding you find at home. This matters most for figures, LEGO sets, and anything with small parts.

You’ll need to fill in the customs declaration yourself too, and it’s not hard. The form is online. Just list everything in the box, say what each item is, how many there are, and what they cost. For a gift box with three things in it, you’d write “LEGO Speed Champions car set, 1, £17”, “children’s picture book Where’s Wally?, 1, £7” and “Pokémon trading cards, pack of 10, £5”. Each line says exactly what the item is, how many there are, and what it costs. Don’t just write “toys, 3 items, £29”, because customs can’t tell what’s in the box from that. 

One more important thing is the customs value. For parcels sent from one private person to another (C2C) worth up to 45 euros, there are no duties or taxes. If the value is higher, the parcel goes for individual customs clearance, and the recipient in Poland pays the charges.

Done! Now pay for the parcel online and drop it off at one of the drop-off points near you. Tracking is easy with the parcel tracking number.

Send St. Nicholas Day Gifts and Parcels to Poland from the UK with Meest

You’ve got gift ideas for the celebration of St. Nicholas in Poland, so now it just needs to get there. That’s our job. We at Meest UK have been delivering parcels between countries for over 35 years, and holiday gifts are nothing new to us. But before the holidays, there are more parcels and the trip takes longer, so it’s best to send early. For your box to arrive by December 6, send it in the middle of November, or even a bit earlier. And if you miss this date, Christmas parcels to Poland can still be sent until December 14, 2026.

You can’t be there with your family on the holiday, but you can make that morning a little more special and become Saint Nicholas yourself. So, what do you give on St. Nicholas Day for Poland? Please share.

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