Beginning today, the city’s biggest Christmas market will be welcoming festive crowds with spicy mulled wine, sweet chimney cake and traditional trinkets. Dotted with ornate wooden stalls selling local handicrafts and Hungarian gastronomy, focal Vörösmarty Square turns into a Yuletide bazaar with activities taking place here daily through December 31st. In addition to the holiday-season merchandise, concerts, dance shows and workshops will be providing merry entertainment. As a novelty this year, special light shows will illuminate the historic Gerbeaud café overlooking the square, every day from 5pm.
Frequently cited as one of the world’s most beautiful festive markets, the Budapest Christmas Fair – aka Vörösmarty Square Christmas Fair – attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors from all over the world every Yuletide. This year’s design-enhanced festival will be welcoming guests from November 10th through the end of December. From colorful Christmas baubles to high-quality woodwork, vibrantly glazed ceramics and contemporary jewelry, a wide range of locally made handicrafts is proffered by more than 100 Hungarian artisans for shoppers to browse across the square.
Meanwhile, diners are treated to traditional Hungarian dishes, including goulash soup, paprika-infused stews and grilled sausage. As a fresh initiative this year, guests can taste new gastronomic specialties every week with the inaugural menu including goose leg with braised cabbage, a meal traditionally served around St. Martin's Day, celebrated by locals every November 11th. Culinary delights during these themed weeks range from stuffed cabbage to dishes of fish or game, all served inside the pleasantly warm Hütte facility on the square and alfresco at several gastronomy stalls.
Those with a sweet tooth can enjoy sugar-dusted chimney cake pastries, gingerbread and traditional Jewish flódni cake. Visitors who want to warm their soul while discovering this winter wonderland can sip aromatic mulled wine concocted from fine Magyar libations. The cinnamon-scented apple punch is infused with Hungary's fruit-based pálinka brandy.
Concerts, dance performances and puppet shows will be entertaining visitors during the fair, while children can join holiday-themed workshops at weekends, all centered around a huge Christmas tree adorned with luminous baubles and handcrafted decorations. The soaring tree is not the only holiday-season symbol on the square. A giant wreath is being prepared for the advent season by using pine cuttings, twigs and rose hips. To elevate the festive scenes, Vörösmarty Square's iconic Gerbeaud Confectionery will shine brightly every evening, with colorful animations projected onto the building’s façade after 5pm.
The 2017 Budapest Christmas Fair is complete with a smaller festive market awaiting visitors on Pest's Fővám Square near Liberty Bridge between November 17th and December 24th.
