Christmas – culturally diverse and sustainable celebrations

Szilvia Newell, Office Manager at Minerva, explores and explains Hungarian and British traditions
5th December 2023

The holiday season is a time of joy, love, and celebration. It is also a time when people around the world come together to celebrate various cultural and religious traditions. While Christmas is traditionally associated with Christian traditions, it has evolved into a multicultural celebration that transcends borders and beliefs.

Diverse cultures celebrate holidays differently across the globe. Regardless of what traditions we follow let`s all be thinking about how we can make more sustainable choices over the festive period, vital to help ensure the health and happiness of our planet as well as all living on it.

Our family is English-Hungarian. Living in the UK we strongly follow our Hungarian traditions as well as our British heritage and raise our children to be proud of their diverse heritage.

Advent – Hungarian Christmas starts with the celebration of Advent (preparation time before Christmas) which starts four Sundays before Christmas. This is the time when families decorate their houses for the festive period and tables with beautiful advent wreaths adorned with four candles. Every Sunday before Christmas they light one additional candle, the last one being lit on Christmas Eve.

In common with most households – including ours –  the children receive an advent calendar to open leading up to Christmas. Why not be adventurous and make your own DIY advent calendar from wood or paper and bake some family-favourite biscuits to delight everyone as each date is revealed?

In my household, I also handmake all my garlands or festive wreaths using the foliage or acorns collected during our winter walks with the children.

St. Mikulás Day (The Hungarian Santa)

On 6th December, our family celebrates the day of St. Nicholas (St. Mikulás), the Hungarian version of Santa Claus. On this Day, St Nicholas visits children at their homes.

My children wait for Mikulás by leaving their polished boots by the front door on the night of 5th December. If they have been good over the year St Nicholas fills their boots with treats, chocolates, mandarins, peanuts, and small gifts such as toys and books. If they have been really naughty, they also receive a switch made of dry twigs (virgács) as a warning sign!

I always make sure to keep and reuse the treat bags for other occasions, thus reducing waste, reusing resources and also saving money – most important at this time of year!

Christmas Tree

Traditionally the Christmas tree is decorated on the Holy night of 24th December but, having my birthday in December, we always decorate our tree around that special day. It is a great way of getting into the festive spirit as well as being a such an enjoyable family activity.

We have chosen a reusable artificial tree, made special by homemade decorations created by the children. Other sustainable tree choices include pot-grown, rooted, or even eco trees. With any of these choices you can re-sell or re-gift your preloved artificial tree or Christmas decorations to reduce these items going to waste and increasing landfill.

Christmas Eve or Christmas Eve Christmas

The Hungarians celebrate Christmas on 24th December, when in the afternoon families get together to finally adorn the Christmas tree, have dinner together, celebrate, and exchange presents. It is the same in our household.

My husband calls it a Christmas Eve Christmas when we cook a traditional Hungarian Christmas dinner of fish soup, fried fish, and potato salad.

The main dishes are followed by our traditional Hungarian desserts including Bejgli (a pastry with nut or poppy seeds filling) and Linzer cookies using homemade jams and ingredients from our garden.

Christmas Day

Our Christmas Day is traditional, similar to many other households here in the UK, with turkey, mince pies, Christmas pudding, and Christmas crackers to follow and celebrate our English roots. Many useful creative ideas can be found online to create your own personalised Christmas crackers, for example, using recyclable materials.

There is no food waste in our household. Leftovers include turkey sandwiches or cold turkey with bubble and squeak. I particularly like Jamie Oliver`s leftover turkey and leek pie.

Love Food Hate Waste is a useful website to be inspired with many new ideas on how to make the most of your food, eat well, and reduce your waste.

Here at Minerva, we welcome and embrace all cultural traditions and are passionate about sustainability not only at Christmas but all year round. However, these celebrations can provide a ‘kick start’ to not only our making resolutions but also our positive actions.

Let’s all join together and start reducing our negative impact on the planet by having a sustainable and thoughtful Merry Christmas.

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