Expat Explainer: Szaloncukor – Hungarian Xmas Candy
22 Dec 2020 12:01 PM At the end of November and the beginning of December the Hungarian postal services sends innumerable packages abroad, as Hungarian families all over the world love to receive and decorate the Christmas tree with szaloncukor - a traditional Hungarian candy.
Practically every Hungarian family puts up a Christmas tree these days. This custom was adopted from Hungarians of German descent at the beginning of the 19th century.
In the early days it was only the aristocrats who could afford a Christmas tree – one of the oldest records describes the richly decorated fir tree belonging to the Duchess Therese Brunswick (1775 1861), allegedly Beethoven’s “immortal beloved.”