This weekend we have seen the Bucharest Christmas market open and the city’s Christmas lights turned on. But are you ready and feeling festive at home? Maybe you have all your supplies from last year neatly stored in a box somewhere, but what if you are starting a-fresh with decorating for Christmas? Where do you even begin to look for all you need?

Christmas Trees

Shops are starting to sell real/live Christmas trees now and you will find large parts of the car parks devoted to this outside Ikea, Carrefour and Brico for example.  It is also possible to buy your tree from flower shops like Floraria Trias.  Stores will have the trees on display and once you have selected your tree they will ‘wrap’ it for you to transport home.

If you don’t want a ‘real’ tree then there are many options for plastic/fake trees and the range of offer is much improved from our childhood days!  You can buy these in many large supermarkets (Carrefour and Lidl for example), Ikea (again!) and home improvement stores (Brico etc again).

For both types of tree you will get what you pay for in terms of quality and size.

 

Decorations

So now you have your tree you want to decorate it, right?  Once again the large supermarkets will be your friend (Lidl, Ikea) for both decorations and lights.  Indoor and outdoor lights are available for making your whole house feel festive (home improvement stores will carry the best range of these). Another store that is well worth visiting if you are kitting your place out is Jumbo – although there is not a branch in the north of the city, it is well worth the trip for the range of good quality but affordable decorations and craft supplies.

If you want something a little more unique then try the vendors at the Bucharest Christmas Market, the craft markets at the Peasant Museum and Second Chance for example.

Crafts

Christmas crafts are a lot of fun to do with kids and some of these will turn in to keep-sakes to remind you of these special times.  Crafts can involve making decorations (paper chains, popcorn chains, salt dough cookies, wreaths), making sweet Christmas treats (gingerbread, cookies and cakes) or just having fun (snowman footprints, Santa handprint beards).

Craft supplies can be found in Jumbo again, Casa Retro and the Art and Hobby Centre.  If you can’t bear the thought of cleaning up after a craft session (top tip – stick on a Christmas movie while you clean up!), then you could visit Made By You where you can decorate your own festive pottery pieces.