The unleavened wafers are baked from pure wheat flour and water, are usually rectangular in shape[4] and very thin; they are identical in composition to the altar bread that becomes the Eucharist at the consecration during Mass in the Roman Catholic Church.

The Opłatki wafers are embossed with Christmas-related religious images, varying from the nativity scene, especially Virgin Mary with baby Jesus, to the Star of Bethlehem.

[6] The breaking of the Christmas wafer is a custom that began in Poland in the 10th century and is practiced by people of Polish ancestry around the world.

The father is seen as the link in the unbroken chain of One Body, One Bread, One Christ, and One Church, while other family members join him in this eternal procession.

The tradition traces its origins to the times of early Christianity (see Antidoron) and is seen as a non-sacramental foreshadowing of the liturgical partaking of the Holy Eucharist (Host), unleavened bread consecrated into the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ.

It was the part of the szlachta's (Polish nobility) culture and the custom had spread throughout the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth and neighbouring countries.

In the 20th century, "opłatek" custom went beyond families and gained another meaning: the meeting of present or past co-workers or students.