Anybody else ever run across this phrase, or is it an invention of my dad’s?* My parents used to use it to describe a house that appeared to have all the lights on, and so do I from time to time. I assume it refers to the candles Catholics light for Mass.
I have no idea what the offense factor is. I’m a good percentage Polish myself, if that makes any difference (I doubt it).
*Maybe, maybe not. When I was a kid, I had also only heard the words skosh and kludge from my dad, and was floored as an adult the first time I heard anyone else say them.
Doesn’t “lit up like a Polish church” have something do with Polish churches being bombed during WWII? Just my WAG.
I’ve never heard of this phrase before, by the way. And it took me longer than it should have to figure out what you meant by “skosh” and “kludge”.
Hmmm, I hadn’t thought of that interpretation. It does make more sense (why a Polish church more than any other?). My dad does have an affinity fir the tasteless.
I grew up going to a Polish RC church, and I’ve never heard that phrase before. Nor do I understand it – the Polish church was never lit up any more than the other churches in town. I suspect it’s an invention of your Dad’s, or else an extremely local phrase.
I’ve never heard this phrase before. But I’ll give my take on it.
When I was young, my family attended a traditional Polish Catholic church. It’s been decades since I’ve been in that church, so perhaps my memories of it are iincorrect. However, I seem to remember that at Christmas they added 4 or 6 small flocked Christmas trees with bubble lights to niches on the high altar. I think there were a few more trees and other not-completely-religious seasonal decorations around the church (no Santa Claus, though 
).
So if you change the phrase to “like the inside of a Polish church at Christmas”, that might be more accurate.
I’m half-Polish, with my mother being the source pool, so to speak. I’ll ask her and see if she knows when she gets home.