Christmas In Romania

I love Christmas! Most Americans complain about the commercialization of it…and rightly so. The decorations and sale catalogs are out in full force even before Thanksgiving is over and then it escalates from there. Although I do agree that the emphasis is all wrong, I can’t help loving all the decorations and the festive atmosphere and the Christmas music playing everywhere. I love to celebrate Christmas and I wondered what it would be like so far from home and in another country. I am happy to say that I was not disappointed. I had a wonderful Christmas here in Romania because the reason for the celebration is the same no matter where you are…Jesus…the greatest gift of all.

Romanians don’t celebrate Thanksgiving, so there were no “Day After Thanksgiving” sales and the Christmas decorations were not up in November as they are in the States. It felt weird not hearing Christmas music in the stores or “silver bells” ringing around town, but all that changed about the second week of December. Suddenly lights were going up all over town. Every main street had huge strands of lights strung from one side of the street to the other and repeated about every 100 feet or so.
Each street was different…red lights on one, white on another, light blue on one, alternating white and blue on another. The strands of lights were different too…some hung down like icicles, others were swags or panels of lights…single strands, multiple strands, tons and tons of lights. The city center was decked out with a huge tree surrounded by rows of trees all covered in white lights. The store windows were adorned with lights or had decorated trees in them. The whole city was so festive and beautiful no matter where you went in town. It was glorious!

I did most of my Christmas shopping at Kaufland…a new German-based grocery store that opened in town…because they had some great prices on toys as well as groceries. It’s a huge store…definitely the biggest in Bistrita. It’s a little larger than a typical Albertsons and has the high ceiling like at a warehouse store. It has a large assortment of produce as well as a huge deli and bakery. It also has quite an assortment of non-food items including clothing, household items, electronics, toys, and seasonal merchandise. I love it! It’s not like Bistrita doesn’t have a ton of grocery stores already…it’s just that most of them are tiny shops with limited varieties, quantities, and assortments. Great for picking up the basics, but not the typical “one-stop” shopping we Americans are used to. The opening of Kaufland changed all that and because it opened just before Christmas, it will be forever associated with my first Christmas in Romania – ha! I can’t tell you how many evening shopping excursions Clare, Nicu, and I went on to buy toys for the kids and other necessary grocery items. It started becoming a routine…one which I enjoyed very much. My craziest memory was a few days before Christmas…we went to Kaufland for the “last” trip before Christmas to pick up more wrapping paper, a couple more toys and some final Christmas dinner items…a quick trip we thought. We were surprised to see so many people in the store…but not nearly as surprised as when we saw the check out lines! The lines filled the aisles from the checkstands in the front to the coolers in the back! We made poor Nicu stand in one of the lines with the cart while Clare and I ran all over the store finding the items and dumping them in the cart. It was hilarious and made me feel like I finally got that “after Thanksgiving sale” experience! Ha! I think Nicu may have refused to ever come with us again if it hadn’t been for some previous positive experiences with their bakery. They have these great little cakes…kind of like cupcakes…only in the shape of a frog! It’s extremely moist chocolate cake with a green hard sugar frosting on top with little frog eyes. They are adorable…and yummy! Several times we splurged the one lei (about 30 cents) for a frog and Nicu was a happy camper. I bet you want to come and experience a shopping trip at Kaufland with me now don’t you? 

One of the Christmas traditions in Romania is caroling…they do it all during the week before Christmas, but especially on Christmas Eve, Christmas evening, and New Year’s Eve. Most of the time, people are caroling for money…and if you allow the group to carol for you at your home, you will be expected to pay them – or at the very least feed them. It’s a way to earn a little extra cash at the holidays, emphasis on “little”. For example, three of the young boys who are “Clare’s kids” earned 5 lei (about $2.00) caroling this year. I’m not sure how many hours of singing this money represented, but I can tell you the amount of love it reflected because they spent the entire sum on a gift for Clare instead of buying something for themselves or even for their families! It was incredibly heart melting! I was fortunate to go along on a couple caroling expeditions and I also had a rather unique caroling experience I want to tell you about. My first caroling experience was with the foster kids from New Beginnings. Our social worker also happens to play the guitar and taught the kids several Christmas carols. They were all decked out in Santa hats and I got to go along with them as they sang at a couple of offices and homes. The kids loved the cookies and juice they were rewarded afterward, but I just enjoyed hearing the familiar tunes sung in Romanian. The kids were awesome and it felt a bit like The Sound of Music as we walked through town…Nikki carrying her guitar and the rest of us skipping along wearing our new “play clothes”. Ha! Riding in the van with all those sugar high kids was also an added bonus –ha! My other caroling experience was with a large church group that needed help with transportation, so we took our van and became part of the caroling caravan that stopped at half a dozen homes on Christmas evening. There were at least 50 young men and women singing 3 and 4 part harmonies on the most beautiful songs I’ve never heard before. I just stood there and said, “wow” as I listened because it was so beautiful. I did recognize one of the songs…it was one that our kids had sung and because I had learned it with the kids I was able to join the group for that one. It was so much fun! Most of the houses invited us in for a feast, but by the third house we were too full to accept any more food invitations! My most unique caroling experience was the day our front door opened without warning and a man, uninvited mind you, just walked right in and started singing really loudly a song I had never heard before. I was alone downstairs in the kitchen, so I was a bit freaked out. I yelled for Nicu to come down…”Nicu! A strange man just walked into the house…and he’s singing! Help!” Ha! Nicu came running down and after he saw the man, just smiled and said…”Oh, he came last year too. I really like him. He’s okay…we need to find some money to pay him though.” I just stared at Nicu in disbelief because it was no big deal to him that some strange guy was in the house…singing! I locked the door after that and made sure it stayed locked! So, I guess the biggest differences between caroling here in Romania and in the States is that of expecting payment, walking in and singing without being invited, and one other thing I found fascinating. The carolers here sing until the wee hours of the morning! No kidding…there are people out caroling until 1:00 or 2:00 in the morning on both Christmas Eve and Christmas evening! Christmas caroling in Romania…truly a unique and wonderful experience!

Another big part of my Christmas in Romania was the kid’s Christmas pageants. Both the foster kids from New Beginnings and Clare’s kids had Christmas programs and I got to help! Clare pieced together a play from several plays, writing the introduction and conclusion herself. She’s really quite amazing. She also made some exquisite costumes for the kids…I’m not talking sheets with holes cut out for heads and arms and ropes for belts either. These costumes were made from really fancy fabric donated by Clare’s mother from the States. The kids worked so hard on memorizing their lines and really did an awesome job for their parents.


























Over half of the 11 kids in her program had family members show up for the performance. Afterward, the kids and their parents enjoyed refreshments while they colored paper Christmas stockings which we hung up on the walls. It was a great way to get the parents involved and everyone had a really fun time. Although the costumes for the New Beginnings kids were sheets with holes cut out for heads and arms and ropes for belts…they were cute nevertheless. They too worked really hard on memorizing their lines and did an outstanding performance.

I am happy to report that just like in America, food is a big part of the Romanian Christmas. I enjoyed some delicious cakes and pastries that were new to me as well as many other traditional Romanian dishes over the holidays. Our Christmas dinner was a mix of traditional Romanian and American dishes and was a wonderful experience! As many of you know, I am an extremely picky eater…so believe me when I say that Romania has some amazing food and you can find just about every variety at Christmas…breads, pastries, cakes, main courses, side-dishes, salads, dips, etc…and all homemade! You’ll just have to come to Romania to fully appreciate the food. Describing it with words…even in great detail…cannot do it justice!


One of my favorite parts of Christmas this year was watching the kids open their presents. To see the expressions on their faces as they opened the gifts was priceless. So much joy and excitement and smiles and laughter…it was so fun! And I knew which presents they would like the best…the ones with batteries required – ha! How do I know? Because the guys who helped install the batteries and “test” the toys had such a great time playing with them! Ha! So, in a way, I got to see two sets of kids playing with the toys…big ones and little ones…and except for their size, there was no difference in the way they enjoyed the experience! I just love how Christmas brings out the kid in all of us.

There are so many wonderful memories of my Christmas in Romania that I’m sure I’m leaving something out, so if I think of anything else I will add it later. If you have any questions or want to know about something in particular, please let me know! I’ll be happy to share more of my experiences with you! I just hope you had as wonderful of a Christmas as I did this year!