No Santa in Hungary? How I Swapped Santa for Mikulás
No Santa in Hungary? That line still makes people blink when they visit in December. Technically it is true for Christmas Eve, but the story is much better than that. Growing up in Canada, I managed to get both Mikulás on December 6 and Santa on the 25th, which meant...
Budapest Christmas Markets 2025: All That Glitters
It’s only mid-November, but Budapest has already given in to Christmas – and so have we. The air is sharp, barely six degrees today, and the lights are strung across Andrássy Avenue like a promise. The Budapest Christmas Markets 2025 open tomorrow, and Andrew...
All Saints’ Day in Hungary: Every Grave Glows in Candlelight
It’s November 1, and instead of carving pumpkins or answering the doorbell to small vampires, Andrew and I are in Sümeg, where the hills are turning gold and the air smells faintly of woodsmoke. This weekend we’ve swapped Halloween chaos for candlelight calm....
Halloween in Hungary 2025: From Barely There to Big Deal
When Pumpkins Arrived in Budapest When Andrew and I first moved to Hungary eight years ago, Halloween barely registered on the cultural calendar. You might find a small display of plastic bats in a supermarket or a lonely pumpkin or two at the market, but that was...
I’m Anikó Woods, a Canadian-Hungarian who’s been knee-deep in life here since 2017 - bureaucracy, culture, and everything in between.