Budapest at Christmas (Hungary)

Christmas is my favorite holiday. It means spending time with family and friends. I feel very lucky because so far I could spend every Christmas with my family at home in Budapest. I would like to share some ideas what you can do around this time in Budapest, Hungary.

Visit the Christmas Market at Vörösmarty place

Christmas markets are very famous in Europe. I visited some in Lübeck (Germany), in Vienna (Austria) and of course in Budapest. I really like them. You can find at the Vörösmarty tér rows of wooden stalls with small, handmade Christmas presents such as soaps, levander fields hearts, animals, gingerbread, hats, music instruments from wood.

 You can also try some nice Hungarian food such as stuffed cabbage, sausage, rosted chestnuts, chimney cake and hot drinks as tea or hot wine (forralt bor).

  Going to the Opera House and watching the Nutcracker (ballet with music of Tshaikovsky) 

Ballet lovers should definitely watch the Nutcracker at Christmas at least once. I was so happy this year when my mom gave me two tickets for the event on December 25th. This meant a lot to me. I could go to the Opera with my older daughter and spend a wonderful morning just with her. When I was a kid for I many years we had a pass to the Opera to watch operas and ballet. These old memories just came back for a day and made me very happy.

The fantastic Opera in Budapest

The beautiful ceiling

 

 Iceskating at the Városligeti Műjégpálya

 Városligeti Műjégpálya (doesn't have an English name) is a public ice rink. My father taught me how to ice skate there. The day we wanted to visit the ice rink it was closed because this December was so warm that the ice started to melt. Fortunately we found a nice ice rink in Szentedre (city not far from Budapest) where my kids tried ice skating. My older daughter, Sophie loved it! :)

 

Going to a kids concert at the Palace of Arts in Budapest (Művészetek Palotája)

In the Palace of Arts there are multiple concert halls, a museum, a book shop and lots of events for everybody. This year I visited an "Istru-mentor concert" with my 5 year old, where we watched and heard several different music instruments.

 

 I would like to show my kids more and more things in my home town and I think this winter was a good start.