During the Christmas season in many families in Hungary, the Bethlehem players visit the homes of relatives and friends, bringing to them the story of Christmas. Each boy and girl has a special part in re-creating the Bethlehem scene.

Tasting Hungarian food, hearing the Hungarian language, learning about Hungarian history or seeing Hungarian folkart patterns can spark curiosity and questions about heritage. You don’t have to know any of these things perfectly yourself to encourage others! When you share something that interests you, your excitement might draw others in. And from there you might find that it leads to an interest and from there you might find that someone becomes enthusiastic about discovering more.

Episode 80 This is part 7 of the icipici series of Celebrating Christmas with Hungarian Style on the Hungarian Living Podcast. Food traditions are always important around the holidays. This episode has an observation and a little bit of encouragement to continue cooking Hungarian food and teaching others how to do it, too! Have you […]

I encourage you to bake some of these cookies and invite some friends or cousins over for an adult mézeskalács decorating party. Of course, the kids can be a part of this too, but, sometimes its nice to have some mulled wine and have a creative party with some adults you enjoy spending time with!

You might want to start a tradition of having palacsinta on Christmas morning or the day after Christmas or whenever you have special guests visiting from out of town. As far as I am concerned, palacsinta is good for any time!

I grew up hearing lovely Christmas carols in Hungarian. I am sure hearing the sounds of Hungarian — and repeating them — has helped me in my pronunciation as I have been more intentional about learning Hungarian in the last several years. I am thankful my mom played these songs during the Christmas season every year. Hearing the songs brings back some nice memories.

Take some time to think about your favorite traditions and what and how your house plans to celebrate. Write down the ones that were most meaningful to you as a child. If you get together with family and friends, it might be an interesting discussion!

Szaloncukor is a Hungarian candy that is wrapped in foil and can be hung on the Christmas tree. It is customary in Hungarian homes to hang these beautifully wrapped candies on the Christmas tree as a decoration. Traditionally,

December 6th is the name day of Miklós, and children especially love this day because for them it is Mikulás Nap. The Hungarian Santa, called Mikulás, visits children on December 6th, St. Nicholas Day.

Find other ways to minimize your daily routine. Do not bring along strongly scented perfumes or lotions. If you are traveling with a group of people, the chances are very high that someone will have a perfume allergy. But, even if they don’t, just remember YOUR favorite scent may not be someone else’s. And if everyone wears their favorite scent – oh boy. It just gets to be too much!