As the older ethnographic descriptions of Slovenian traditional dishes indicate, the main ritual dish used in Christmas time in previous centuries was Christmas bread; in the regions of Gorenjska (Upper Carniola), Notranjska (Inner Carniola), in Posočje (Soča Valley) and in a part of Štajerska (Styria), it is called poprtnik, whereas in the regions of Koroška (Carinthia) and Styria it is also called božičnik or mižnjak. The first written mention of Slovenian Christmas bread dates back to the 17th century. In the past, its shapes and ingredients differed considerably between Slovenian regions. Before the Second World War, it was customary in Slovenian households to serve three different Christmas breads for Christmas: one made from wheat flour, one from rye flour, and the third from buckwheat flour. According to ethnologist Rajko Ložar, this bread remained on the table under a tablecloth for all three major winter holidays: Christmas, New Year and Epiphany. After the Second World War, the baking of Christmas bread and the performance of rituals associated with it were abandoned. Instead of Christmas bread, they baked potica (walnut cake) as a typical Christmas dish and various pastries. The baking of Christmas bread has been revived over the last two decades.

In Svibno and the surrounding areas, the knowledge of baking Christmas bread has been passed down from housewife to housewife, from mothers to daughters in the home kitchen for more than 300 years. Perhaps the remoteness of the hillside village and the surrounding hamlets has helped to preserve the practices and rituals associated with Christmas bread for so long in a traditional form. The recipe for and knowledge of making Christmas bread is passed down orally; the recipes are not written down. The skill of bread decoration is improving; some women decorate Christmas bread with a cross, while other housewives have developed the skill of rich decoration with dough figurines. Today, farm women's associations play an important role in preserving the knowledge of baking Christmas bread; they are organizing courses in baking Christmas bread, various lectures and exhibitions. It is particularly important to pass the knowledge of baking down to younger generations. In the village of Svibno, they find that young housewives do not have much time for baking because they drive to work to faraway places in the valley; therefore, only some young women are able to attend the courses in the baking of Christmas bread. That is why the associations are mostly focused on educating children. Every December, they prepare a children's workshop on the baking of Christmas bread at the Svibno Primary School. The children want to participate in these workshops, and many of them have already been taught this at home.

Before the end of the 1960s, when the rapid urbanization of the countryside began, Christmas bread was an important cultural component of winter celebrations and rituals in the greater part of Slovenian territory. It was then that this practice started becoming extinct; the baking of bread was kept alive only by individual housewives.  Over the last two decades, the knowledge of baking has been revived by experts and rural women's societies. In the area of Svibno in the Sava Hills, in contrast to other Slovenian territories, the baking of Christmas bread never stopped and has been kept alive to this day. Nowadays, about 35 farms bake bread and carry out routine rituals associated with the baking and consumption of Christmas bread. As in the past, today's housewives are bothered by the fact that loaves of Christmas bread are being baked in various ways, based on one's knowledge and manual skills. Particularly important are the activities of the Arnika Farm Women's Association from Svibno; each year, it organizes workshops on baking Christmas bread. It has also organized exhibitions of Christmas bread and, together with the Svibno parish, the blessing of the Christmas breads and their exhibition on 5th January, on the eve of Epiphany. The baking of Christmas bread in Svibno has an extremely important social and cultural function; it connects people and encourages them to work together in their home place. It has become part of the local identity of the inhabitants of Svibno; a tradition, which they present to the visitors and include in their events and the meetings of locals. Today, Christmas bread has also become a gift that is given to the most important visitors to Svibno.

Over the last decade, the baking of Christmas bread – poprtnik – has been the subject of various initiatives that have led to its protection, promotion, visibility and revival. The Parnas Institute has linked housewives who still bake Christmas bread throughout the territory of Slovenia and ensured the preservation and promotion of this tradition. This institution also organizes exhibitions and publishes publications on Christmas bread. Once a year, the Parnas Institute organizes a meeting of housewives, members of the Farm Women's Association, who still bake Christmas bread. In the area of the Sava Hills, where the tradition of Christmas bread baking has been uninterrupted for centuries and is still very much alive, the Arnika Farm Women's Association ensures authenticity and viability. This association organizes weekly meetings of farm households in the public spaces of Svibno. In the months of November and December, it organizes a workshop on the baking of Christmas bread. This knowledge is also passed down to children, since every December it organizes a children's course in the baking of Christmas bread at the Svibno Primary School. In January, the housewives of Svibno prepare an exhibition of Christmas breads and the blessing of breads. They often exhibit their Christmas breads at events in other Slovenian regions and participate in presenting this heritage at ethnographic and tourist events. Members of the Arnika Farm Women's Association participated in the preparation of material on the baking of Christmas bread in Slovenia and in its inclusion in the Register of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Slovenia. Particular mention was made of the President of the Association Marjana Dolinšek, who passes her knowledge down to the younger locals and visitors to these parts. In the village of Svibno, the baking of Christmas bread – poprtnik – is a piece of living heritage that connects the locals on many occasions and events in the region and which they are keeping alive.

The ICH element Baking poprtniki (Christmas breads) was included in the Register of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Slovenia. Inscription in the register took place on May 28, 2013. It is available on the register's website; the text is also furnished with photographs from different Slovenian regions, also from the village of Svibno.