Right in the city centre, this Christmas fair has been improving year upon year, offering an enchanted experience for all ages. The main attraction is a recent one, illuminated visuals projected onto the façade of the historic Basilica. Look out for them in the evenings, screened every half-an-hour after sunset, from 4:30pm. 2D and 3D short stories both feature and 3D glasses are available from stalls around the market.
The free ice rink is for under-14s only and there’s no charge for skate rental. At weekends, friendly instructors help little ones learn how to slide and glide on ice, also for free.
Vendors and their wares are always specially selected. The assortment includes leather products, jewellery, gloves, toys, Christmassy trinkets and all things merry, but special surprises such as miniature handmade doll’s houses also feature. Stallholders can tell you more about each item – sometimes its producer might be there, too.
The food assortment is really impressive. While it still includes classic Hungarian market food in big cauldrons, this Advent Fair always focuses on higher-quality street food. The Bocaccini stall offers cheese and meat bites with sauces, while Vegan Love awaits those who follow a meat-free diet. Our favourite is a stall offering traditional cornmeal pones from Zalaegerszeg. A decent sour cream, cheese, bacon and onion pone is ready in a few minutes, but is so filling that we recommend it to share.
We tried the mulled wine at three different stalls, and they were all of such decent quality we’d go back for more. A standard cup is 900 forints, so pretty much the same price as you’d find at restaurants and cafés. DiVino has four stands altogether, and as expected from these wine experts, their hot drinks are high-quality.
There is also a Christmas Bar at the beginning of Zrínyi utca, a two-floor hut offering flavoured mulled wine, hot chocolate, rum punch and other tasty treats. Fruity variations come from the addition of cranberries, strawberries, cherries or plums, with no artificial additives or extra sugar.
From the selection at the Unicum Food and Bar, we tried mulled wine infused with Unicum plum. It is super tasty, but have two glasses and you’re pretty mellow already. If you are of the braver kind, try the Unicum Jalapeño – it speaks for itself.
There is also a salmon smoker, so you can order fresh melt-in-the-mouth fish with sides or even atop a lángos flat bread.
Those who prefer finger food or have a sweet tooth can try traditional Hungarian flódni dessert, kürtőskalács (chimney cake) – with extra, filled versions – or visit the Ez Sajt stall for special cheeses. They also come lactose-free and most are award-winning. We also learned that last year, Antonio Banderas spent quite a lot of time here with the vendors, who did not recognise him due to his Picasso disguise.
The Basilica Advent Fair is open every day from noon to 10pm until 1 January.
