Nov 18, 2010

Hungarian Christmas

There is a twist about Santa Claus In Hungary. Our children (and we, of course) don't wait for him at Christmas but on 6th December, on Nicholas' day. Children clean their shoes thoroughly and place them onto the window, and Santa Claus  put little red bags of sweets into the shoes. Bad children get birches, too. The bag always contains a chocolate Santa Claus.


At christmas the little Jesus brings the gifts under the tree. Nowadays Santa Claus comes also at Christmas, I think this is adopting western customs. But it's a great thing we get gifts two times in December!

There are some essential details of the Hungarian Christmas table. We eat fish in any form, but mostly as chowder. Now I made grilled trouts onto my miniature table.


We always eat roast duck or goose, the whole family love it.


Dessert is the Hungarian speciality, bejgli. It's a rolled cake filled with grinded walnuts and poppy seeds. 


Another hungarian peculiarity is the Christmas fondant candy or szaloncukor originated from the 19th century. This candy is wrapped into metal foil. The wrapper is as important as the candy itself, because we use these sweets as tree decoration. The original szaloncukor was filled with fondant, but now it's made with other flavors as strawberry, caramel, cherry, coconut or jelly.


This last miniature is also connected to the Hungarian Christmas, because in my childhood we can obtain tropical fruits only at this time ( except watermelon). Good communism and shortage economy!

13 comments:

rosanna said...

I love your goodies, they really smell of Christmas. Best wishes, Rosanna

miniacollection said...

I enjoyed learning about Hungarian Christmas with your miniatures. They are all very good.
Geneviève

Flora said...

In fact, the collaboration between the Child Jesus and Santa Claus is very mysterious ... But in the end, what matters is that Christmas is joyful and heartfelt.
Your San Nicola chocolate is fabulous, like everything :-)
Mini hugs, Flora

Nina in Germany said...

I like the poppy cake !
Nina

Catherine / Mooghiscath said...

Très appétissant tout ça !

Patty said...

Everything looks so wonderful Bozse and I really enjoyed reading about Hungarian traditions. I lived in Germany as a child for a few years and we also put our shoes by the door for Saint Nicholas.....there it is Black Peter that would leave a stick and coal in your shoe if you were bad...LOL...great traditions!!

Glenda said...

Thankyou for telling us about the Hungarian Christmas traditions :)
Your miniatures here look so festive and welcoming! They are so very well made - you are a very talented lady indeed!!
I like the walnut cake :)

Alma e Lia said...

The miniature Ungarian Christmas is fabulous! :oD

Norma Bennett said...

I haven't commented here for quite a while because I've been so busy, but I have been making short visits :) Your mini food kitchen has been cooking up some wonderful feasts, and these new additions are so great.

Because my birthday is early in December I'm lucky and get presents twice too :)

Pan said...

The miniatures are great and interesting to hear how you celebrate Christmas in Hungary.

Iris said...

Great to see what belongs to the Hungarian Christmas!

Separate Collection said...

Incredible! You are a fantastic miniaturist!very good. I love love love your work!

Unknown said...

where can i buy szaloncukor online?