Communion money in Poland

Being forced against my will to attend a communion this weekend.
The little bollix is the wife's nephew.

How much money do we have to give the little prat? I'm thinking 400zl is enough, but the wife says it's probably more coz she's related.

If you can't already tell, I don't like him. Also, the parents are knobheads that are having a no alcohol party. WTF kind of losers do you have to be to have no alcohol at a party????

At least I'll be able to watch the Premier League on my phone.....so long as the 3G coverage is OK.

I'd tell them that it isn't a tradition in your culture

Maybe they don't want to drink in front of their kids but I see it can be hard to understand for someone being from alcoholic drinkers family.

A bad example to say the least considering that an essential and unchangeable element of the communion is alcohol.


Like the Holy Family? They certainly liked a tipple, especially at a wedding. I bet they had a good swedge at the evening do.

A book or some book tokens would be a nice present.

More than enough Smurf. Would you give more than 100 euros to an Irish child?? I certainly wouldn't. In fact I wouldnt' give money at all. It's a disgusting practice that's got completely out of hand in recent years. A gift to mark the occasion by all means but money, no. Actually it's becoming fashionable now for a lot of Irish kids to give some of the money they get to charity because they collect obscene amounts. I would say a nice silver medal or religious themed thingy and a few book tokens as Jon suggests, 100zl is plenty. The medal is a gentle reminder to the parents that this is supposed to be a religious occasion (after all if it's tee-total out of respect to the Almighty, let's go the whole hog - no alcohol, no cash).

It sucks that your alcoholic mother and father mistreated you. It explains why you're such a nasty loser though.


NAw, won't work, sure all Poles know us Irish are from the same sh!tty cloth as them


Lol, give it another go there Wulkan #eggonyourface


It's a nice idea, but I read somewhere that in the EU Poles read less than anyone else. Maybe the little prick might learn something if he read instead of constantly playing angry birds on his tablet

Well if you don't like him the book tokens are an ideal punishment :) Or I just had a brilliant idea - a donation to a childrens' charity on his behalf. Can you imagine the parents' faces?!


Did a bit of googling and the going rate in Ireland now is up to 50 euros for a nephew/niece but 30 euros seems average. I think the recession kind of put a stop to the Communion/Confirmation madness.A few people said 50 euros for a nephew if he's also your godchild. I don't know what the cultural norm is in Poland but I just think 400zl seems crazy. Up to yourself though.

Jaysus, no wonder all my Irish nephews love to see me coming to their stuff, I'm getting fleeced ;)

Oh, I do think it's crazy, we're gonna pay 400zl to a kid we don't like and have to spend hours at a crap party with no booze where we'll be out numbered by old people by 3 to 1. But take the good with the bad y'know, hopefully the following weekend we'll win the lotto and be on the first plane to somewhere exotic, like Inishmore or Valentia :D

400zł is way over the top!

Give him a nice piece of jewellery (you can get some nice stuff from those random shops that you can find full of religious stuff) - a nice silver cross for instance. If the nob doesn't appreciate it, it's not your problem.

But don't bloody give him money. That just reeks of "only being invited so that the brat can get loads of cash".

On my communion day I didn't get any money that I can recall but I got a silver bangle with my name and the date engraved on it. I was beside myself with joy, what with that and my handbag! I still have the bangle somewhere. Actually a watch used to be a popular communion/confirmation gift. But the problem nowadays is that kids pretty much have all that stuff already. Nothing feels special anymore.

Smurf, here are some of the suggestions from our countrymen which I quickly assembled via the magic of the good old interweb - some great ideas here but it may make you homesick:

Suggested Communion gifts:

Richard Dawkin's book.
'Something made of wood like Jesus would have given them, maybe a spice rack, kids love that'.
A card and an IOU.
A scratch card.
A euro for every question they can answer correctly from the Cathechism.
Forty pieces of silver.

says you, maybe you're just channelling your life onto others?


Was that so hard mate? Nice that you fianlly, fainlly contributed something of worth to the forum. High 5!
Let love into your heart, be a good Christian, we can all get along buddy. I can see a day when you'll learn to love and dismiss hate, use the Force Luke, don't let the Dark Side tempt you


Ha, that's a good one, nice way to troll the wee f!cker too, he'll have to like it coz of some receiving god something something reason :D :D


I like it, if I give a proper present that's **** we'll never be asked to their crappy events again, good thinking.


Naw, I did, I got hundreds of pounds, Celtic Tiger was kicking off ;D it was awesome. Bought a Flying V guitar and some transformer toys.


Yea, no points in watches anymore, time is displayed on your phone/tablet. I've worn a watch once n the last 5 years and that was me wedding day


Hahahah, wonderful ideas, thanks Atch :D :D :D

Exactly! And think about it, there's no way any other family members are going to invite you again if you make it clear that you expect the day about the kid and his relationship to God rather than about how much cash the little buggers can get.

I remember in work, one kid was going on and on and on about how he was going to get a tablet for the day. The religion teacher (who is a brilliant woman) had a sly word with his parents, and he got...no tablet :D

None at all. Buy him a bible and donate 500zl in his name to a charity that educates kids in the developing world. It'll do him good to sponsor some less fortunate kids.

Bringing up an old topic i know. My partners godson is making holy communion this year. We asked in laws how much should we contribute and they are advising at least 1000 zloty! Is that the norm. Bare in mind my partner is the godmother, the godfather is his uncle so would get similar from him?

I think that's the foreign tax version... I would normally think about half that would be appropriate. Where (in general terms are they... Warsaw? Another major city? Small town? Village hole? What part of Poland?)

Welcome to Poland and the infamous Polish in-laws :)) If you look back over this thread you'll see that a few years back I was horrified at the idea of giving even 400zl but not long after that, I bumped into a neighbour here in Warsaw who was buying a Communion present for a kid in the extended family and it was a digital camera costing around 1,000zl. I think it's bloody ridiculous and I wouldn't do it myself.

How does your partner feel about it? You see Roibeard, you haven't been that long in Poland and you'll find that Poles are conformist by nature and even if she thinks 1,000zl is outrageous, she's still likely to say 'oh, but we must'. My advice is to start as you mean to go on and don't bow to pressure. As you're Irish, I'm presuming you're a Catholic, so you can't be accused of not understanding or respecting the religion. It's supposed to be a religious occasion so I would give a nice illustrated Bible, or there's a range of Communion gifts in jewellers. Give the kid a pressie and a couple of hundred zloty, the equivalent of 50 euros or so.

If your partner is the godmother, then it's the child's spiritual welfare that she's supposed to be mentor and guardian of and she shouldn't be encouraging them to be greedy and materialistic. A grand for a small kid is actually downright disgusting.

@mafketis
We live 40 mins from Krakow (Libiaz) small ish town

@Atch

Ya she is not happy about it, finds it extreme. The kid will end up with around 5000 zloty between godparents, grandparents etc. Madness, With the restaurants closed we won't even get a dinner out of it lol

500 tops and not one grosz more.... (maybe less) What does your partner say?

Another issue is that there will be lots more occasions when she's expected to be giving a gift... (Polish kids get lots of them through the year) so she doesn't want to set an example that she's always expected to match.

500 is good, plus a small but cool gift. Not a rosary.

Rosary and a light up figurine of Jesus , done and dusted

@dolnoslask

Sounds about right to me..... :-)

My wife gave 1000$ to her niece,but we got a nice dinner in a restaurant cpl years back,but thats in the USA same like zlotay in Poland and $ is USA,so 1000Pln is a norm now.

Glow in the dark ones are fine. About 10zl with a stopper in the bottom to fill with holy water that slowly goes green.

Or a picture of Pope Benedict with eyes that light up.

Now, now Jon, there's nothing 'cool' about Catholicism. We don't want that child to enjoy himself. We want him to have a good, miserable old time of it. I've just had a great inspiration! What about a pair of knee pads that he can wear when kneeling in the confessional! After all, he's just done his First Confession, so he should be trotting along to the church every Saturday from now on. He'll get plenty of use out of them.

@Roibeard, is the girlfriend any good with a needle? She could embroider the knee pads with the Stations of the Cross - a lovely, family heirloom :-D

@Atch
Luckily for the child she's not 😂

Yes, godparents are supposed to give such an amount if they are considered well-off by the rest of the family. If not, 500 will be enough. That is why I have always tried to avoid being a godfather - coz I am mean. :):)