Believe it or not we used to celebrate Christmas during communism although not officially of course (for those who don’t know, the communists are atheists). Christmas came packaged with New Year Celebration and they were officially known as “The winter holidays”. We decorated the Christmas tree with whatever we were able to find and on December 24th, “Father Winter”, Santa Claus’ identical twin, arrived with presents. I remember when Father Winter (a colleague of my parents) came to bring me presents when I was about 5 years old. I was so nervous that I forgot the poem I was supposed to recite. However, he was nice and left me presents nonetheless. By and large I had a happy childhood during communism despite the lack of some basic needs. I realize now that it was thanks to my parents who tried to shelter me from life’s reality.
The picture above is from Romană Square. The next two are taken on Magheru Boulevard where the city hall reused some of last year’s decorations (cost cutting in the economic downturn I think). The last one is showing the University roundabout.
I liked your story, glad you had very good parents. Sometimes having too much is worse than having less, but I guess is better to leave this choice to the individual and not to the state…
These light are beautiful and some really elaborate, no favorite this time, these are all wonderful images!
The decorations are so lovely that I think it's smart to reuse the decorations as long as they are in good shape.
It's wonderful that you feel you had a good childhood. That's probably because you had good parents and also because you have a good attitude. 🙂
considering the gnarly knots of electrical wires hanging on every post in bucharest i can't help wondering if this isn't the twinkling cherry on top of the fire hazard cake…
but christmas sure looks nicer than when i grew up there in the 80s.
(love your blog btw)
wow, the luminisceent lights are just pretty! ^0^
and the oh-so-white xmas tree is magnificent…
glad to know that communism days are finally over and sharing your memories of the past…
Some magnificent Christmas decorations and interesting to hear a little about Christmas during the communist era!
galipette: Thank you for the nice words and welcome. Christmas does look a lot nicer than in the 80s. They are in the process of burying the cables, but knowing how things move in Bucharest it will probably take ages until we are aerial cable free 🙂
More villages worth of light at work! This time to very pretty effect.