The szopka, or Christmas crib, is a long-standing tradition in Kraków dating back to the Middle Ages. Described by the "Kraków in your pocket" local guide as "[s]omething of a strange cross between a nativity scene, gingerbread house and dollhouse," szopki are on display in Market Square early in December for a festival and judging, and then are exhibited in the history museum on the square until the third week of February. The guide's excellent piece on szopki is here http://www.inyourpocket.com/poland/krakow/Szopki-Krakowska_70931f

We had planned to go to the festival but due to an unfortunate mix-up, bought tickets for the wrong weekend and so missed it. I was so disappointed that I wanted to drive to Kraków in the dead of the Polish winter to at least see the exhibit, and so we did. It was marvelous. There are both large and small categories in the competition: It's hard to tell from the pictures, but the large szopki measure maybe a meter and up, and the small ones about a foot high or so.

All the szopki in the exhibit were beautiful and incredibly creative; some were harder to photograph than others in this very low light environment, so image quality varies quite a bit.