The first part of the paper describes a variety of changes that encompass the traditional model of Christmas celebration among Serbs living in Timisoara Romania (reduction, simplification, revival of tradition, adoption of foreign cultural elements and so on), during different time periods. My analysis shows that Christmas customs stand for as markers of the Serbian family and minority in both ethnic and social sense; at the same time, the customs serve as means of ethnic identification and facilitate social hierarchy within the given minority and majority.
