Bejgli on the Table, Szaloncukor on the Tree: Hungarian Christmas Food and Traditions, Priced in Budapest
On this page
- December, in the order a Hungarian family lives it
- Mikulás on 6 December: boots in the window
- Bejgli: walnut or poppy seed, and what a roll costs
- Szaloncukor: the sweets that hang on the tree
- Fish on the 24th, and where to eat halászlé
- Hungarian Christmas cookies: zserbó and mézeskalács
- Szenteste: why the 24th is the night
- Where to buy it in Budapest in December
Hungarian Christmas runs on three foods and two nights. The foods are bejgli, the walnut or poppy seed roll; szaloncukor, the foil-wrapped sweets hung on the tree; and fish, with halászlé, the paprika fish soup, as the one to try. The nights are 6 December, when the Mikulás fills children’s boots, and the evening of the 24th, which is when Hungarians actually celebrate. A 500 g bejgli costs 5,490 to 5,900 HUF in Budapest, a bag of szaloncukor just under 5,000 HUF, and a pot of carp soup a little over 5,000 HUF.
December has an order to it, and it starts nearly three weeks before Christmas.
December, in the order a Hungarian family lives it
| Date in 2026 | What happens |
|---|---|
| Sat 5 to Sun 6 Dec | Mikulás: cleaned boots in the window overnight, sweets in them by morning |
| Sun 13 Dec | Luca day: the Luca chair is started and wheat is sown to sprout by Christmas |
| Sun 13 and 20 Dec | Third and fourth Sundays of Advent |
| Thu 24 Dec | Szenteste, Christmas Eve: the supper, the tree and the presents |
| Fri 25 and Sat 26 Dec | Christmas Day and the second day of Christmas, both public holidays |
The third and fourth Sundays of Advent were given the names ezüstvasárnap and aranyvasárnap, silver and golden Sunday, under socialism, when the state was working to strip the holiday of its religious meaning.
Calendar customs from hu.wikipedia.org (Mikulás, Luca-napi szokások, Karácsony), read on 3 October 2026.
Mikulás on 6 December: boots in the window
On the night of 5 December the Mikulás visits. Children clean their boots, put them in the window, and wake on the 6th to find them filled. The gift custom spread through Hungarian towns in the 19th century, when the Mikulás left szaloncukor, or a red packet of small sweets and fruit, in cleaned shoes; the boot in the window in its present form is about a century old, by the Hungarian Wikipedia’s dating.
He does not always come alone. The traditional figure is a red-robed bishop with a white beard, the folk form of Saint Nicholas, and the krampusz, a black devil, comes with him to frighten the children who misbehaved and threaten them with the virgács, a bundle of twigs. Hungarians also call him Télapó, Father Winter, a name that spread widely from the 1950s, when the state promoted the Télapó figure in place of the saint and the Jézuska.
In 2026 the 6th is a Sunday, so the boots go out on Saturday night. If you are in Budapest with children, a chocolate Mikulás and a bag of szaloncukor fill a boot.
Bejgli: walnut or poppy seed, and what a roll costs
Bejgli is a rolled yeast pastry with a dark spiral of filling, and the two classic fillings are walnut and poppy seed. Hungarian folk belief, as the Hungarian Wikipedia records it, has a reason for each: walnut keeps curses away, poppy seed brings abundance to the house. Buy one of each and both are covered.
The roll came from Silesia and reached Hungary through Austria in the second half of the 19th century, along with the German way of celebrating Christmas. It gradually took the place of the older Christmas kalács.
If you are not baking, a cukrászda, a pastry shop, is where to buy one, and ordering ahead for the days before the 24th is the safe move. Two of the city’s old confectioners sell bejgli online:
| Where | What | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Gerbeaud, Vörösmarty tér | Walnut or poppy seed bejgli, 500 g, gift box | 5,490 HUF (about $17) |
| Gerbeaud, Vörösmarty tér | Walnut and poppy seed pair, 1000 g, gift box | 10,490 HUF (about $33) |
| Auguszt | Walnut or poppy seed bejgli, 500 g | 5,900 HUF (about $18) |
| Auguszt | Pair, 2 × 500 g | 11,800 HUF (about $37) |
| Auguszt | Pair, 2 × 500 g, Christmas wrapping | 12,400 HUF (about $39) |
Gerbeaud fills its walnut roll with 50% freshly ground walnut, almond marzipan, lemon and orange peel and raisins. Its webshop delivers only inside Budapest and takes orders for the next day at the earliest. Under 10,000 HUF (about $31) there is no delivery, so a single roll means collecting it at the Vörösmarty tér shop; from 10,000 to 39,999 HUF delivery costs 3,600 HUF (about $11). The café on the square opens 9:00 to 20:00 Monday to Thursday and Sunday, and 9:00 to 21:00 on Friday and Saturday.
Auguszt bakes its bejgli all year, in walnut and poppy seed. The webshop takes orders for the downtown shop on Kossuth Lajos utca, Geraldine in the Museum Garden and the Farkasrét pavilion, and sends by courier if you ask for it in the order notes. The downtown shop opens Tuesday to Saturday, 10:00 to 18:00.
Prices are in HUF, which is what the shop charges. Converted at 1 USD = 320 HUF, the ECB rate on 25 September 2026. Rates move, so treat the converted figures as indicative. Bejgli prices and terms from gerbeaudwebshop.hu and auguszt.hu, read on 3 October 2026. Bejgli history and beliefs from hu.wikipedia.org, read on 3 October 2026.
Szaloncukor: the sweets that hang on the tree
Szaloncukor is a fondant sweet wrapped in tissue and shiny foil with fringed ends, made to hang on the Christmas tree. It is in the Hungarikum Collection, the national list of distinctly Hungarian goods, and the Hungarikum Collection entry on hungarikum.hu describes it as a sweet that arrived from abroad and changed so much that it can rightly be called Hungarian, and adds that if you meet szaloncukor anywhere in the world, it was probably made in Hungary.
The fondant reached Hungary in the first third of the 19th century through German confectioners. At the end of that century the first fondant machines in the country worked at the first Hungarian steam-powered chocolate factory, founded by the Hamburg confectioner Frigyes Stühmer, and that factory made the Christmas sweet for Gerbeaud.
The Stühmer name is still on szaloncukor today, sold online by the bag:
| Stühmer szaloncukor | Price |
|---|---|
| Loose, 340 g bag: walnut and plum, marzipan, coffee, egg liqueur, gingerbread and most other flavours | 4,999 HUF (about $16) |
| Loose, 340 g bag: pistachio, or jelly | 5,699 HUF (about $18) |
| Boxed selection, 170 g | 3,499 HUF (about $11) |
Loose means unboxed, by weight. One flavour per bag, so a mixed tree takes two or three.
Szaloncukor prices from stuhmer.hu, read on 3 October 2026. Hungarikum status and description from hungarikum.hu, history from hu.wikipedia.org, both read on 3 October 2026.
Fish on the 24th, and where to eat halászlé
The 24th of December was traditionally a fast day for Catholic families, and nothing was eaten until the evening. The fasting supper was apple, walnut, honey and garlic, then a meatless bean soup, then mákos guba, stale bread rolls soaked in milk and buried in sugared poppy seed. More recently, fish and stuffed cabbage have taken that place.
Halászlé is fish soup, red with paprika. The Hungarikum Collection entry on hungarikum.hu names three families of it, from Lake Balaton, the Danube and the Tisza, and two of them are on the Hungarikum list in their own right: Tiszai halászlé, which starts from a strained stock of white fish and carp heads and tails before the carp goes in, and Bajai halászlé, from the Danube town of Baja.
If no one is cooking for you, a restaurant pot is the answer. Horgásztanya Vendéglő on Fő utca, on the Buda bank under the castle, runs a halászlé section on its menu:
| Horgásztanya halászlé | Small pot | Kettle |
|---|---|---|
| Fish soup with pasta | 3,980 HUF (about $12) | 5,160 HUF (about $16) |
| Carp halászlé | 5,090 HUF (about $16) | 6,280 HUF (about $20) |
| Mixed carp halászlé, fillet and offal | 6,640 HUF (about $21) | |
| Catfish halászlé | 5,680 HUF (about $18) | 7,190 HUF (about $22) |
The kettle is a small bogrács brought to the table, the way the soup is cooked outdoors. Christmas Eve is the evening the city closes early, so book a table for the days either side, and look up the restaurant’s holiday hours before you plan the 24th around it.
Restaurant prices from horgasztanyavendeglo.hu, read on 3 October 2026. Halászlé families and Hungarikum status from hungarikum.hu and hungarikum.hu, the Christmas Eve supper from hu.wikipedia.org, all read on 3 October 2026.
Hungarian Christmas cookies: zserbó and mézeskalács
Two sweets fill the plate next to the bejgli.
Zserbó is a layered slice of short pastry, apricot jam and ground walnut under a chocolate top, and a festive bake for both Easter and Christmas. It carries the name of Emil Gerbeaud, the Swiss confectioner who took over the Kugler pastry shop in Budapest at the end of the 19th century; whether he invented it is disputed, since the old Gerbeaud price lists never mention it. Gerbeaud sells 200 g of zserbó for 6,490 HUF (about $20) and a four-slice mini zserbó cake in a gift box for 7,490 HUF (about $23).
Mézeskalács is honey gingerbread, iced and shaped. Hungarian gingerbread makers formed guilds from the 17th century, and Debrecen’s guild rules date from 1713. The classic shapes are the heart, the hussar, the sword, the doll and the plate, and they are popular fair gifts, still sold at fairs today.
Zserbó prices from gerbeaudwebshop.hu, read on 3 October 2026. Zserbó and mézeskalács history from hu.wikipedia.org (Zserbó, Mézeskalács), read on 3 October 2026.
Szenteste: why the 24th is the night
Hungarians celebrate on the evening of 24 December, not on the 25th as much of western Europe does. The gift-bringer is traditionally the Jézuska, the baby Jesus, which leaves the Mikulás with 6 December to himself. The tree goes up decorated with szaloncukor, the family eats the supper, and the presents come out.
Catholics go to mass at midnight or during the day on the 25th; Reformed families go to a service on the 24th. The 25th is for the big family lunch or dinner, with the wider family gathered.
Two older customs start on Luca day, 13 December. Wheat is sown in a dish by the stove and should be green by Christmas, a forecast of the next harvest. And the Luca chair is carved one step a day from the 13th, finished on Christmas Eve and taken to midnight mass, where whoever stands on it was said to see the witches.
Christmas Eve and Luca day customs from hu.wikipedia.org (Karácsony, Luca-napi szokások), read on 3 October 2026.
Where to buy it in Budapest in December
- Bejgli: order online from Gerbeaud and collect on Vörösmarty tér, or from Auguszt, and order early for the 22nd and 23rd.
- Szaloncukor: Stühmer’s loose bags, online.
- Halászlé: Horgásztanya on Fő utca, in a pot or a kettle.
- Zserbó: Gerbeaud, by the box.
- Ingredients: the Central Market Hall at Vámház körút 1-3, by the Liberty Bridge, opens Monday to Friday 6:00 to 18:00, Saturday 6:00 to 16:00 and Sunday 10:00 to 16:00, and is closed on public holidays. The shopping guide covers what is worth buying there. One of the operator’s English pages still lists Sunday as closed, so check before a Sunday visit.
Central Market Hall hours read on 3 October 2026 on the operator’s Hungarian pages, piaconline.hu/nagycsarnok and piaconline.hu/nyitvatartas, and on its English opening-hours page.
The markets sell their own version of all this. The Christmas markets guide has what the stalls charge, and kürtőskalács, which is not a Christmas food but is on every market, has its own guide. For the month around it, Budapest in December covers the calendar, the weather and the shop hours, and the 24 to 26 December guide covers what stays open over the three days.
Good to know
What do Hungarians eat on Christmas Eve?
The 24th was a fast day for Catholic families, and the evening meal was a fasting supper: apple, walnut, honey and garlic, then a meatless bean soup, then mákos guba, a poppy seed bread pudding. More recently, fish or stuffed cabbage has taken its place on the table, and bejgli comes out for dessert.
How much does bejgli cost in Budapest?
In October 2026 a 500 g roll cost 5,490 HUF (about $17) at Gerbeaud and 5,900 HUF (about $18) at Auguszt, walnut or poppy seed at the same price. A pair runs 10,490 HUF (about $33) at Gerbeaud and 11,800 HUF (about $37) at Auguszt.
What is szaloncukor?
Fondant sweets, each wrapped in paper and shiny foil, that Hungarian families hang on the Christmas tree. It is in the Hungarikum Collection, the national list of distinctly Hungarian goods. A 340 g bag of loose szaloncukor from Stühmer costs 4,999 HUF (about $16).
When does Mikulás come in Hungary?
On the night of 5 December, so children wake to a filled boot on the morning of the 6th. In 2026 that is Saturday night into Sunday. The boots go in the window cleaned, and the Mikulás brings sweets and fruit; the krampusz who traditionally comes with him carries the virgács, a bundle of twigs, for anyone who misbehaved.
Who brings the presents on Christmas Eve in Hungary?
Traditionally the Jézuska, the baby Jesus, rather than the Mikulás, who has already been on 6 December. The family celebration falls on the evening of the 24th, a day earlier than in much of western Europe.
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