Hello guys, my holidays traditions have change a lot in 41 years since I'm operating in this reality plane, let me tell you how awkward this has been:
When I remember as a kid, when my country was under the regime of pseudo communist dictatorship, and Romania was propriety of the URSS, but not a part of it, they only take our resources and our finest industry products as well as a big portion of the agriculture and other types of technologies, we still got Christmas holidays, but the fat old man that Coca Cola invented was not called Santa Clause and dint not dress in red and had a factory of toys with enslaved elf. Instead he dressed in green and was called Father Frost, or "Moș Gerilă" in romanian, and as a comunist tradition, before '48 we had Santa, so Santa was deleted from our traditions between 1948-1989, strange bu true.
As a specific Orthodox tradition from my country, we also had another character who brought gifts before Moș Gerilă (Father Frost), and his name was Moș Nicolae (Father Nicolas). Translated into English, he was Father Nicholas, who brought gifts of lesser economic value, usually sweets, exotic fruits, and clothing.
After the USA "bought" Eastern Europe from the Russians at the end of the 1980s, a major power take over followed in my country, organized by russian, american, austrian, and german agents. Romania then became part of the U.S. sphere of influence, after which they introduced a form of neo-marxism with a seemingly democratic voting system meant to create the illusion that the people had power. That's when Coca-Cola changed Romanian holidays and introduced its chubby red-dressed mascot, naming him Moș Crăciun, which translates as Father Christmas, not Santa Claus. Suddenly, all sorts of imported items from the west started appearing.
My family's traditions, however, remained unchanged: the same family dinners with my grandparents, writing letters to Santa and leaving them under the Christmas tree, and then receiving presents a few days later, which we opened on Christmas morning with my brother.
This lasted until I was about 10 years old, around 1993, when I realized that Santa wasn't real. My parents then changed the tradition, but we still decorated the Christmas tree, it had already become a ritual. They started giving us gifts directly, without the letters. Family dinners continued. When I got a bit older, the boys in the neighborhood would form caroling groups and go around singing traditional romanian carols. Caroling had two stages: the Christmas carols and the New Year's carols. Some were Orthodox, while others were pagan or dacian pre-christian traditions preserved in Romanian culture. These weren't religious but rather superstitions and blessings for the households we visited and the people living there.
When I left the country and moved to Spain at about 18 years old, our Christmas traditions changed significantly. My father adopted Spanish customs and started decorating balconies and windows with LED lights every year. Natural Christmas trees were no longer available, so we used an artificial one. We still decorated it, but it didn't feel the same. My mother continued cooking traditional Romanian dishes while also preparing typical Spanish food, which included crabs, prawns, langoustines, and other Spanish delicacies. We always bought a leg of ham (jamón), but it was just the three of us. The only family connection during this time was through Yahoo Messenger video calls.
Over time, we lost many traditions, especially after my grandmother passed away. It wasn't the same anymore. My younger brother would visit us from Romania for the holidays, but we no longer went caroling, as this wasn't practiced in Spain. Although they have similar customs, they're not widely accepted. For about 16 years, we didn't celebrate as we used to, adapting instead to Spanish customs. During the holiday season, we typically had a dinner with coworkers, followed by a night out at the club to drink and have fun. Then there was a dinner with close friends and another with family, that was about it. In larger cities, Christmas markets were organized, concerts took place, and temporary amusement parks were set up.
Three years ago, I returned to Romania. Without grandparents and with my family separate, my brother now lives in another city with his young daughter and cannot travel, the last time we were all together was in 2022. We had a family dinner and then a party with my friends. That's about it now. I'm unmarried, like most of my friends, so we don't have our own families and usually spend Christmas together. The tradition now involves a small family dinner from 8 PM to 10–11 PM, followed by a party.
I no longer feel like partying and celebrating, given the chaos we're living in. I was deeply affected by the plandemic, then the war in Ukraine, and finally the rise of AI chatbots, which turned my life into a nightmare. As a multidisciplinary designer, I've witnessed the market's collapse and how hard it has become to make a living, especially now that I'm working in Romania, where pay is a quarter of what I earned in Spain.
In conclusion, I had a pretty good experience with Christmas as a child. As an adult, it has become more of a period of nostalgia and regret an consumist type of holiday, we lots of propaganda from the companies that sell you stuff that you don't need and is very expensive. But compared to the vast majority of children, I had wonderful experiences and very pleasant memories.
Now I,m in a bit of hurry, I will update the post with some photos and more details, see you soon and wish you all a nice day, have fun
