How did people celebrate Christmas under socialism? These RETRO photos will make you nostalgic!

Today, you can find Christmas tree decorations in stores in all kinds of shapes, sizes and colors. We are back in the past they could choose between glass balls, straw decorations or other handmade products. Loungers and fragrant honeysuckle often hung on the tree. The atmosphere was also completed by candles and other lights, with which dried fruit cooperated for decorations that scented the whole house. Years ago Christmas was more modest, but we still managed to enjoy it perfectly.

Exotic fruit was a luxury

During socialism, it was a big problem whether you would have enough food during the Christmas dinner. Exotic fruits such as bananas, oranges and lemons were very hard to come by and were sold in limited quantities. Today, many households even throw these snacks away, but in the past parents had to wait in endless lines and we respected him much more because of that.

As for gifts, the children mostly found Merkúr or Variant kits made in Czechoslovakia under the tree. But there wasn’t a wide selection popular toys usually sold out very quickly. In the past, there was more snow in Slovakia during Christmas. Currently, in the south or west of Slovakia, you can expect snow very rarely during the holidays. Skating on the lakes was a matter of course and today’s children from more southern regions can often only dream about this activity.

Many fathers a few days before Christmas they brought home a carp in the bathtub and the family could only bathe in the sink. Mothers usually prepared cakes, which many of them still bake today, with their recipes passed down through the generations.

As for the decorations, people used to have artificial snowflakes, chains, glass mushrooms or slats on the tree. The top of the tree was decorated with a star or a glass spire. In almost every household there was also a carillon that spun thanks to the candles. On the tree chocolate collections could not be missing eitherwhich, together with the lounges, the children secretly ate during the entire holidays and put change in the empty containers to make it look like they were full.

People lived more modestly

You are trees people were often sawed off even in the forest, because in the past they were not so guarded. Most, however, reached for an artificial tree, because live hemlocks in stores were more for wealthier families.

In the past, we didn’t find many beautiful gifts under the tree, but families got together more during the holidays and were closer. People were more modest and we had no idea about the big consumerism that rules the world today. Families and friends used to send each other Christmas cards, which is rather a rarity these days, as most people write their wishes via SMS or the Internet. So remember with us through retro Christmas photos from the past.