Christmas Concerts in Budapest 2026: Bach, a Folk Nativity, Gospel and Fischer's Secret
On this page
- 📋 At a Glance
- Bach, Handel and Charpentier: The Oratorio Nights
- Organ, Choirs and Carols
- Tchaikovsky Week: Three Ways to Hear the Nutcracker
- Gospel Karácsony: Atlanta at MOM Sport
- Christmas Concerts for Children and Families
- Between Christmas and New Year
- Booking: Early Pays at Müpa
- Making an Evening of It
- Related Articles
Budapest takes its Christmas music seriously. Between the last Sunday of November and the 23rd of December, the city’s three big halls and its coronation church put on Bach cantatas, the Christmas Oratorio, Handel’s Messiah and a French midnight Mass, plus a folk Nativity, a gospel choir from Atlanta and a Nutcracker that runs into January. Then, on the 24th, the music stops almost everywhere at once.
This guide lists the 2026 concerts the venues have already put on sale, in date order, with prices from their own programme pages. The markets and the lights have their own guides; this one is for the evenings you spend sitting down.
📋 At a Glance
| Date | Concert | Venue | Tickets |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sun 29 Nov, 19:30 | Advent Concert: Benjamin Appl and the Lautitia choirs | Müpa | 4,900 to 17,900 HUF |
| Sat 5 Dec, 19:30 | Ábrahám Consort Advent concert: Corelli, Bach, Vivaldi’s Winter | Liszt Academy | 5,800 to 9,900 HUF |
| Sat 5 Dec, 19:00 | Gospel Karácsony: Vincent Bohanan and The Victorious Army | MOM Sport | on sale |
| Sun 6 Dec, 19:00 | Advent with Bach: five cantatas, Purcell Choir, Orfeo Orchestra | Liszt Academy | 3,900 to 8,900 HUF |
| Mon 14 Dec, 19:30 | Hungarian Radio Children’s Choir Christmas concert | Liszt Academy | 3,900 to 6,900 HUF |
| Tue 15 Dec, 19:30 | Christmas organ concert: Iveta Apkalna and the State Choir LATVIJA | Müpa | 4,900 to 17,900 HUF |
| Thu 17 Dec, 19:30 | Christmas Oratorio, Cantatas 1 and 2, plus Honegger | Müpa | 6,500 to 14,000 HUF |
| Fri 18 Dec, 19:30 | Danubia Orchestra: the complete Nutcracker score | Liszt Academy | 7,900 to 14,900 HUF |
| Sat 19 Dec, 15:00 and 19:30 | Concerto Budapest and Sergej Krylov: Tchaikovsky | Liszt Academy | 5,500 to 24,000 HUF |
| Sat 19 Dec, 20:00 | Bach and Charpentier’s Messe de minuit | Matthias Church | via the Radio’s box office |
| 19 to 23 Dec | Wonderful Nativity, Hungarian State Folk Ensemble | Müpa | 3,900 to 12,900 HUF |
| Sun 20 Dec, 19:30 | Christmas concert with Andrea Vigh and Dénes Várjon | Liszt Academy | 5,000 to 25,000 HUF |
| Sun 20 and Wed 23 Dec, 19:00 | Bach’s Magnificat and Handel’s Messiah | Opera House | on sale |
| Tue 22 Dec, 19:00 | MÁV Symphony Orchestra Christmas concert | Liszt Academy | 6,000 to 8,500 HUF |
| Sat 26 Dec, 19:45 | Budapest Festival Orchestra Secret Concert | Budapest Congress Center | sales open 13 Oct |
Prices are in HUF, which is what you pay at the box office. Converted at 1 USD = 320 HUF, the ECB rate on 25 September 2026. Rates move, so treat the converted figures as indicative.
Bach, Handel and Charpentier: The Oratorio Nights
If you come for one concert, make it one of these. Budapest has a deep early-music bench, and December is when it plays its full hand.
Advent with Bach, Liszt Academy, Sunday 6 December, 19:00. György Vashegyi conducts the Purcell Choir and the Orfeo Orchestra on period instruments in five cantatas, from the early Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich to Das neugeborne Kindelein, the one that already sounds like Christmas. Tickets 3,900 to 8,900 HUF (about $12 to $28).
The Christmas Oratorio, Müpa, Thursday 17 December, 19:30. Vashegyi again, this time with the Hungarian National Philharmonic, the Hungarian National Choir and the Kodály Choir School. The first half is Cantatas 1 and 2 of the Christmas Oratorio, opening with Jauchzet, frohlocket, which is as good a reason to buy a ticket as music offers. After the interval come Schumann’s Nachtlied and Honegger’s Une cantate de Noël, his last work. Tickets 6,500 to 14,000 HUF (about $20 to $44).
Bach and Charpentier, Matthias Church, Saturday 19 December, 20:00. The Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir under Máté Szabó Sipos play Bach’s Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern, BWV 1, and Charpentier’s Messe de minuit pour Noël, a Latin midnight Mass built on French carol tunes. Hearing it under the church’s painted vaults on the Castle District’s main square is the point. Tickets go through the Hungarian Radio ensembles’ own box office at mrme.jegy.hu.
Magnificat and Messiah, Hungarian State Opera, Sunday 20 and Wednesday 23 December, 19:00. The Opera’s orchestra and chorus pair Bach’s Magnificat, in the original E-flat version with its Christmas insertions, with the best-loved parts of Handel’s Messiah in Mozart’s arrangement, accompanied by projections. It runs about two hours with an interval, with Hungarian and English surtitles. The Opera House guide covers the building, which deserves the visit on its own.
The Ábrahám Consort, Liszt Academy, Saturday 5 December, 19:30. The chamber version of the same idea: Corelli’s Christmas Concerto, written for Christmas Eve, Bach’s E major violin concerto and two arias from the Christmas Oratorio, then Vivaldi’s Winter and a Handel concerto grosso. Tickets 5,800 to 9,900 HUF (about $18 to $31).
Source: mupa.hu, zeneakademia.hu, matyas-templom.hu and opera.hu programme pages, read 3 October 2026.
Organ, Choirs and Carols
Advent Concert, Müpa, Sunday 29 November, 19:30. Müpa’s annual Advent concert opens the season. The German-British baritone Benjamin Appl sings songs from his Christmas album, with the Lautitia choirs from Debrecen under József Nemes and the Anima Musicae Chamber Orchestra. Tickets 4,900 to 17,900 HUF (about $15 to $56), dynamically priced.
Iveta Apkalna and the State Choir LATVIJA, Müpa, Tuesday 15 December, 19:30. Müpa bills it as its Christmas organ concert, and it is the one for anyone tired of the usual festive Baroque. The Latvian organist, resident at Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, brings a 60-strong Latvian choir for Bach’s Fantasia in G, Poulenc’s Four Christmas Motets, Britten, Pärt, Vasks and two English carols in new arrangements. Same dynamic price band as the Advent concert.
Hungarian Radio Children’s Choir, Liszt Academy, Monday 14 December, 19:30. German Romantic church music this year: Mendelssohn psalms, a Rheinberger Christmas motet and Reger’s rarely played Vom Himmel hoch cantata, with the Academy’s organ joining in, then a set of traditional Hungarian Christmas songs. Tickets 3,900 to 6,900 HUF (about $12 to $22), the best value of the season.
MÁV Symphony Orchestra, Liszt Academy, Tuesday 22 December, 19:00. The carol concert, for anyone who wants the tunes. Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols with the Magnificat girls’ choir, then Adolphe Adam’s Cantique de Noël, Leontovych’s carol better known as Carol of the Bells, Walking in the Air, Nutcracker excerpts and selections from Szokolay’s Hungarian Christmas. Tickets 6,000 to 8,500 HUF (about $19 to $27).
Christmas Concert, Liszt Academy, Sunday 20 December, 19:30. The harpist Andrea Vigh has staged this concert in the Grand Hall in the days before Christmas every year since 1999. This year she is joined by the singer Polina Pasztircsák, the violinist Barnabás Kelemen and the pianist Dénes Várjon. Tickets 5,000 to 25,000 HUF (about $16 to $78).
Source: mupa.hu and zeneakademia.hu programme pages, read 3 October 2026.
Tchaikovsky Week: Three Ways to Hear the Nutcracker
December in Budapest belongs to Tchaikovsky almost as much as to Bach, and you can choose how you take him.
- As a concert, complete. The Danubia Orchestra plays the entire Nutcracker ballet score at the Liszt Academy on Friday 18 December at 19:30, with the Kodály Choir School’s children’s choir and a new retelling of the story by the poet Dániel Varró. Tickets 7,900 to 14,900 HUF (about $25 to $47).
- As a gala. Concerto Budapest and András Keller have made a pre-Christmas Tchaikovsky concert a tradition. On Saturday 19 December, at 15:00 and again at 19:30, the violinist Sergej Krylov plays the Violin Concerto, framed by the Mozartiana suite and excerpts from the Nutcracker and Swan Lake. Tickets 5,500 to 24,000 HUF (about $17 to $75), priced on demand.
- As a ballet. The Hungarian National Ballet’s Nutcracker runs at the Opera House from 20 November 2026, the first ticketed evening at 19:00, to 10 January 2027, with 11:00 matinees on each day from 24 to 27 December and an extra 18:00 show on the 26th. It is a ballet rather than a concert, but for many Budapest families it is the Christmas music.
Source: zeneakademia.hu and opera.hu programme pages, read 3 October 2026.
Gospel Karácsony: Atlanta at MOM Sport
The loudest night of Advent. Gospel Karácsony tours Hungary with a different American choir each year, and in 2026 it is Vincent Bohanan, a Stellar Award-winning choir director, with The Victorious Army from Atlanta: close to 30 singers, a live band and the soloists David Bratton, Bre Holly and Carlton Ellen. The Budapest date is Saturday 5 December at 19:00 at MOM Sport, and tickets are on sale through the tour’s site.
Source: gospelkaracsony.com, read 3 October 2026.
Christmas Concerts for Children and Families
- Wonderful Nativity, Müpa. The Hungarian State Folk Ensemble’s Christmas show counts down to the night of the Nativity through folk customs, dance and the odd dancing snowman, with the Budapest Singing School Choir as guests. Saturday 19 December at 18:00, then 20 to 23 December at 11:00, 75 minutes, for ages 4 and up. Tickets 3,900 to 12,900 HUF (about $12 to $40). If your children see one thing, make it this.
- Hungarian Christmas, Opera House. A children’s Christmas opera by Jenő Ádám, first staged at the Opera at Christmas 1931 and now revived with Miklós Kocsár’s Christmas songs, played almost entirely by the Opera’s children’s chorus. It is sung in Hungarian with Hungarian and English subtitles and runs 70 minutes without an interval: 5, 12, 15, 17, 22 and 28 December at 15:00, plus 4 December at 11:00.
- Christmas Sing-along Baby, Müpa. Saturday 19 December at 9:45 and 11:00, for children up to 3. Adults pay 2,900 HUF (about $9) and the children go free.
- Kazuka Children’s Songs, holiday edition, Müpa. Saturday 12 December at 11:00, for ages 3 to 10, 2,900 HUF.
Source: mupa.hu and opera.hu programme pages, read 3 October 2026.
Between Christmas and New Year
The concert halls go dark over the holiday itself: neither Müpa nor the Liszt Academy has anything between 24 and 27 December. The day the music comes back is the 26th, and it comes back with a surprise.
The Budapest Festival Orchestra’s Secret Concert, Saturday 26 December, 19:45, Budapest Congress Center. Since 1983 the 26th has also been the orchestra’s birthday, and by tradition it is the audience that gets the present. Iván Fischer keeps the programme secret until the evening; past editions have recruited a choir from the audience, held a public vote and wandered from Baroque to klezmer. Plan for about 150 minutes. Tickets go on sale on 13 October at 10:00.
For what else is open on those three days, see the 24 to 26 December guide.
Source: bfz.hu, read 3 October 2026.
Booking: Early Pays at Müpa
- Dynamic pricing means the cheap seats go first. Müpa’s Advent, Apkalna and Nativity shows and the Concerto Budapest matinee are sold on demand-based prices, so the bottom of the range is a September and October price, not a December one.
- Buy from the venue. Müpa guarantees only tickets bought on its own website or at its official ticket offices, and the other venues sell through their own pages linked above.
- Müpa is out of the centre. It stands at Komor Marcell utca 1, near Rákóczi Bridge, and parking in its garage is free with a ticket for a paid performance that day.
- The Liszt Academy’s Grand Hall is the room to hear. Every Liszt Academy concert above is in the Nagyterem, its main hall.
Source: mupa.hu ticket information, read 3 October 2026.
Making an Evening of It
A concert at 19:30 leaves the late afternoon free, which in December is the dark, lit-up part of the day. The Christmas markets at Vörösmarty tér and the Basilica are a short walk from the Liszt Academy and the Opera, and the Christmas lights guide shows the stretches worth walking between them. The Budapest in December guide has the weather, the sunsets and the holiday shutdown, and if you are going to Matthias Church, the Matthias Church guide is worth reading before you climb the hill.
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Good to know
When do the Christmas concerts in Budapest start in 2026?
The first one is Müpa's Advent concert on Sunday 29 November at 19:30, with the baritone Benjamin Appl singing from his Christmas album alongside the Lautitia choirs. From there the season builds through early December and peaks from 14 to 23 December, when the Liszt Academy, Müpa, the Opera and Matthias Church all programme Christmas music at once.
Where can you hear Bach's Christmas Oratorio in Budapest in 2026?
At Müpa on Thursday 17 December at 19:30. The Hungarian National Philharmonic under György Vashegyi plays Cantatas 1 and 2, then Schumann's Nachtlied and Honegger's Une cantate de Noël, with tickets from 6,500 to 14,000 HUF. Earlier in the month, on 6 December, the same conductor leads Bach's Advent cantatas at the Liszt Academy.
Are there Christmas concerts for children in Budapest?
Yes, and the best of them is Müpa's Wonderful Nativity by the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble: 19 December at 18:00 and 20 to 23 December at 11:00, for ages 4 and up, from 3,900 HUF. The Opera's Hungarian Christmas is a children's Christmas opera with English subtitles, and Müpa runs a Christmas sing-along for under-threes on 19 December.
Is there a Christmas gospel concert in Budapest?
Yes. Gospel Karácsony brings Vincent Bohanan and The Victorious Army from Atlanta, a choir of nearly 30 with a live band, to MOM Sport on Saturday 5 December at 19:00.
Are there concerts in Budapest on 24, 25 and 26 December?
Very few. Müpa and the Liszt Academy have nothing on 24 to 27 December. The Opera keeps the Nutcracker running from 24 to 27 December, with 11:00 matinees every day and an 18:00 evening show on the 26th, and the Budapest Festival Orchestra plays its Secret Concert on 26 December at 19:45 at the Budapest Congress Center.