Passport Perspectives: Boldog Karacsonyt: Christmas in Hungary

The Hungarian city of Kecskemet all dressed up for Christmas

Bill and I celebrated our second Christmas in Budapest this year. Throughout the month of December we took part in joyous Christmas festivities like the Christmas markets, ice skating, baking (really, gluten-free cookies can be good), overindulging on chocolate for St. Nick's day, Christmas parties, and of course lots of Christmas movies. The fun thing about celebrating Christmas in another country is that you can fuse your own Christmas traditions with those in the country you are living in. Since we celebrated Christmas in Hungary the year before we were even more prepared for this year!

Christmas Tree: In Hungary most families don't put up their Christmas tree until just a few days before Christmas, or sometimes even on the morning of Christmas eve. They typically take the tree down on January 6th (or around that date).

Christmas Eve: Unlike most Christian countries where December 25th is the big day of celebration, Hungary places greatest importance on Christmas eve. The evening of the 24th is usually spent with immediate family and is when traditional foods are cooked and eaten and when gifts are opened.

Christmas Day: This is a day for Hungarians to visit with extended family and friends. Some families will travel to where their grandparents live and visit aunts and uncles, while others might have a party at their house where they invite many of their family and friends.

Santa Clause: Santa does not come to Hungarian homes on Christmas, instead a Santa-like figure (Szent Mikulas) comes on St. Nick's day (December 6) and fills children's shoes with chocolates and toys. On Christmas eve the tradition is that Jezuska (the Christ-child) comes into Hungarian homes and leaves presents for children under the tree. Children must leave the room with the Christmas tree while the gifts are brought in, and then they are invited back in after Jezuska visits.

Christmas Food: Two traditional foods that are almost always found on Christmas eve in Hungary are halaszle (fish soup) and beigli (pastry with poppy seed or walnuts). It is somewhat ironic that halaszle is THE Christmas food in Hungary since most Hungarians I know don't like it, and fish is not a big part of the diet in Hungary

Our Christmas in Hungary: We couldn't help but ignore the tradition of putting up a tree just a few days before Christmas. Like most Americans we put ours up a few days after Thanksgiving so we could enjoy it for the whole month of December. Since no one puts their tree up this early though we had to settle for a fake tree and decided to buy fresh branches of pine closer to Christmas day to get the wonderful Christmas tree smell. We embraced St. Mikulas Day and filled each other's shoes with chocolates and fruit, and at AIT (the study abroad program I work with) we dressed up one of my colleagues as Santa and gave out chocolate to the students. A week before Christmas Bill attended a baking class at his school and made beigli, the traditional Hungarian dessert, and on the morning of December 23rd, with the rest of Budapest, we went to the market to pick up our fish (and fish heads!) for the halaszle. On Christmas Eve we ate as the Hungarians did, with halaszle and beigli, but saved the tradition of presents for Christmas morning. We went to midnight mass at a beautiful baroque church and then waited for Santa to come, as we were sure he would not forget about us despite being all the way in Hungary. Christmas day we celebrated as if we were in the U.S., but unfortunately we didn't get to share it with our family. We opened presents in the morning and surprised each other with some really wonderful gifts. We made phone calls to family in the afternoon and enjoyed hot chocolate and Christmas specials by the tree. In the evening we made a lovely dinner with goose legs being the main attraction. It was nice having a relaxing Christmas at 'home' because the very next day we set out for a two week trip to Barcelona and Morocco!