Carp is a more popular dish during the Christmas celebrations than fresh salmon, thanks to the influx of Eastern Europeans.

Haymans fishmongers, in Oxford Covered Market, has been supplying customers with the freshwater fish for 12 years, and this year expects to sell 500 kilos for Christmas, with a turnover of almost £4,500. The number of Polish residents across the UK has steadily increased in recent years.

In 2006-7, 3,000 Polish people registered for National Insurance numbers in Oxfordshire, mostly in Oxford, where 1,000 Poles settled during the financial year.

Carp features prominently in the traditional Polish Christmas Eve 12-course, meat-free and alcohol-free meal, called Wigilia. Haymans' general manager Ray Lindsey said: "The carp we supply is mainly from Holland, where it's farmed in clean water and doesn't taste as earthy as carp from rivers and lakes in the UK. It's full of flavour.

"It's one of the most popular fish at Christmas - more so than fresh salmon. We sell it all year round now, and even have a couple of Eastern European staff.

"We're happy to prepare it, and our customers tend to like eating it as a steak, fried in flour." Maria Balchan, manager of Hajduczek, Polish restaurant in Cowley Road, Oxford, said: "Christmas Eve is a very special night, where we end a day of fasting and eat a lot of fish.

"Turkey is not special to us at Christmas. Carp is very important because Jesus is represented by the sign of the fish."

Carp is so popular among Eastern Europeans, including Czechs who eat it on Christmas Day, that many coarse fisheries have reported foreign anglers stealing stock, even though the animal is traditionally returned by UK fishermen.

But an Environment Agency spokesman said: "We're not concerned. We have anecdotal evidence that carp are taken from the river, but as long as the fishing is legal, then taking them is legal."

Roy Parsons, of the Richworth Linear Fisheries, near Stanton Harcourt, Witney, added: "We have bailiffs on site all the time and the gates are locked at night "We had a few Eastern Europeans here in the summer who were asked to leave because they were quite rowdy, but we're not worried about carp theft at all."

WIGILIA: The meal starts at nightfall on Christmas Eve after a day of fasting.

Its 12 dishes represent Christ's 12 apostles, and the ingredients symbolise food of the world - mushrooms from the forest, ravioli made from grain from the fields, fruits from orchards and fish from seas and rivers. As well as carp, the meal usually includes beetroot soup with small ravioli, known as uszka, mushroom soup, herring, butter beans, and prune ravioli.

Presents are opened after the long dinner.

PUTTING CARP TO THE TEST: The carp steak looked fortifying but when I prised it apart, there was less flesh to be had than first appeared, because the portion contained a chunk of bone, writes food editor Paul Stammers.

The carp was meaty, though not on a par with the likes of fresh tuna. However, the flavour was delicate - some might say a tad bland - and benefited not only from the crispy breadcrumb coating, but also some garlic mayonnaise and parsley. I had to sift a lot of small bones, as is usual with carp.

I preferred the tasty - and certainly healthier - side dish of cold herring fillets, cut into squares and garnished with slivers of pickled onion. The borscht beetroot soup that was presented as a starter was sumptuous, due to the ravioli stuffed with white mushroom and cabbage; the Poles have a knack of crafting some great winter fare.