Christmas Concerts in Budapest and The Nutcracker

The Nutcracker at the Hungarian State Opera is the Christmas performance worth planning a Budapest trip around, with 43 performances from 20 November 2026 to 10 January 2027, sold only by the Opera itself. Around it, the city’s concert halls pack their Advent and Christmas concerts into the weeks before the 24th, and the churches and the river fill the evenings in between.

Between them the partners we work with sell church concerts and music on the river. The halls sell their own tickets, so for the Opera, Müpa and the Liszt Academy you book on the venue’s website, and we link to each one.

Christmas concerts in Budapest at a glance

Most of the venues are in central Pest, within a short walk or a metro stop of each other. The Opera and the Liszt Academy are both just off Andrássy út, and St Michael’s is on Váci utca. Two are further out. Müpa sits by Rákóczi Bridge, south of the centre, and Matthias Church is up on Castle Hill in Buda, so allow travelling time for both.

The Nutcracker at the Budapest Opera House

The Hungarian National Ballet dances Tchaikovsky’s ballet every winter on the main stage of the Opera House on Andrássy út. The production is Wayne Eagling and Tamás Solymosi’s, first staged for Christmas 2015 to replace one that had been in the repertoire for more than half a century, and the Opera says it was the first time an artist of Eagling’s standing had made a choreography especially for the company.

It follows the story you expect. Act I is Christmas Eve at the Stahlbaum house, with Drosselmeier’s gift of a nutcracker to Marie, the battle with the Mouse King and the Waltz of the Snowflakes. The opening scene, in the street outside the house, has an ice rink and a chestnut seller. Act II travels to the Snow Crystal Palace for the Spanish, Oriental, Chinese and Russian dances, the Waltz of the Flowers and the grand pas de deux, before Marie wakes on Christmas morning.

It lasts two and a half hours, two acts of 50 minutes with a 30-minute interval between them. It is a ballet, so nothing is sung and there is nothing to translate.

The Nutcracker dates and times, 2026 to 2027

These are all 43 public performances. Two more dates, 30 November and 20 December, are not on public sale.

A show ends two and a half hours after it starts: 1.30pm for an 11am matinee, 8.30pm for a 6pm show and 9.30pm for a 7pm one.

The Nutcracker on Christmas Eve, Christmas Day and New Year’s Eve

On 24 and 25 December there is only the 11am matinee, which ends at 1.30pm. That suits Christmas Eve well, because the city winds down in the afternoon and you are out in good time. On the 26th there are two shows, at 11am and 6pm. The rest of the night, from the cruises to where to be at midnight, is in our New Year’s Eve guide.

New Year’s Eve has a 1pm show and a 9pm one. The late show ends at 11.30pm, which leaves half an hour to get from Andrássy út to wherever you want to be at midnight, and makes the ballet the start of the night rather than the alternative to it. New Year’s Day has one show, at 2pm. For what else is open on each of these days, see what’s open over Christmas and New Year.

How to buy Nutcracker tickets

Only from the Opera. It stands behind tickets bought on its own website, at opera.jegy.hu, its ticket shop, and at its box offices. No other seller we link to has The Nutcracker. The Opera’s Nutcracker page lists every date with a link to buy.

• Book early. Prices move with demand, and December performances fill up. If a date looks full, try the January performances.
• No discounts. The Opera’s student and family discounts do not apply to The Nutcracker.
• Every child needs a ticket, whatever their age.
• Standing places go on sale at the box office and online two hours before an evening performance and an hour before a matinee. There are only a few, and the view from them is limited, but they are the way in on a day that looks sold.
• Boxes are sold whole, not seat by seat.
• Tickets cannot be refunded. If you cannot go, the Opera points you to Ticketswap, its official resale route.
• Paying: online by card only. The box offices take forints only.

The box office is in the Opera House at Andrássy út 22, open every day from 10am to 7pm, and on a performance day until the end of the first interval. For the half hour before a performance it serves only people coming to that day’s show.

Which seats to book at the Opera House

The cheapest seats are cheap for a reason. The Opera itself warns that the view is limited from the side seats on the third floor, from the second row of the boxes and from the standing places, and some of those see only a part of the stage.

My first Nutcracker here was from a side seat on the third tier, and I saw a small part of the stage and none of the building. The third tier is reached by its own back staircase, so from up there you never walk up the grand staircase or into the main foyer at the interval. If the house matters to you as much as the ballet, book the stalls or the front of a box. If you do go up, the front row of the third tier near the centre is the best value in the house.

The auditorium is smaller and more intimate than most people expect. Seats in the upper tiers are narrow, with little legroom.

On the night at the Opera

• What to wear: there is no dress code. Most people dress smartly, and plenty dress up for it, but business casual is fine and nobody is turned away.
• Cloakroom: coats, jackets, rucksacks, umbrellas and bulky bags must be left in the free cloakroom. Box holders hang their coats in the box.
• Arrive on time. Latecomers wait until the interval, or are shown to a different seat at a suitable break, and the first act is 50 minutes.
• Step-free access: the lift on the left of the building goes to the stalls, the accessible box and the accessible toilets, and lifts on both sides reach the third floor. Accessible seats are limited, so ask at ticket@opera.hu or the box office before you book.
• Getting there: the Opera stop on metro M1 is a two-minute walk away. Arany János utca on M3 is a little further, and buses 105 and 210 and trolleybuses 70 and 78 stop at Opera too. Parking nearby is limited.

The building and its daytime tours are in our Opera House guide. A tour is a separate ticket and does not include a performance.

Other Christmas performances at the Opera

Two shorter Christmas works share the stage in December, and both suit an afternoon or an evening when the ballet is full.

• Hungarian Christmas, Jenő Ádám’s work with Miklós Kocsár’s carol collection “Oh, Beautiful, Mysterious Night”, sung by the Opera’s Children’s Chorus. It was first performed at the Opera at Christmas 1931, conducted by the composer, and was the first work there to put pure Hungarian folk song on the stage. It lasts 70 minutes with no interval, is sung in Hungarian with English surtitles and is not recommended for under-sixes. On 4 December at 11am, and on 5, 12, 15, 17, 22 and 28 December at 3pm.
• Magnificat and Messiah, Bach’s Magnificat in its original E-flat version and the best-known parts of Handel’s Messiah in Mozart’s arrangement, with projections. The Opera’s orchestra and chorus, on 20 and 23 December at 7pm, with English surtitles. Not recommended for under-12s.

Other ways to hear The Nutcracker in Budapest

Tchaikovsky’s music turns up on several concert programmes in the week before Christmas. These are the answer if the ballet is full, if you want the music without the dancing, or if your children are too young for a two-and-a-half-hour ballet.

• The complete ballet music in concert, 18 December at 7.30pm in the Liszt Academy’s Grand Hall: the Danubia Orchestra with the children’s choir of the Zoltán Kodály Hungarian Choir School, conducted by Vanessa Benelli Mosell.
• Krylov and Concerto Budapest, 19 December at 3pm and 7.30pm, also in the Liszt Academy’s Grand Hall: Tchaikovsky’s Mozartiana suite and Violin Concerto with Sergej Krylov, then music from The Nutcracker and Swan Lake, conducted by András Keller.
• The Nutcracker for children, 21 December at 3pm and 6pm, Liszt Academy: excerpts with the Danubia Orchestra and a story by Dani Varró, presented by the actor Zoltán Schneider. Recommended from age five, and two hours long.
• The MÁV Symphony Orchestra’s Christmas concert, 22 December at 7pm, Liszt Academy: Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols and Rutter in the first half, then excerpts from the Nutcracker Suite, Walking in the Air and the Carol of the Bells after the interval.
• The Royal Ballet’s Nutcracker on screen, Christmas Day at 3pm at the Uránia National Film Theatre on Rákóczi út: Peter Wright’s production, filmed at the Royal Opera House in London in December 2025 and shown in the Uránia’s ceremonial hall. It is in English, and on a day when almost nothing else is on it is a good Christmas afternoon. Latecomers are seated at the interval.

Christmas concerts at Müpa and the Liszt Academy

The two concert halls carry the city’s big Christmas concerts. Most are given only once, so pick by date, and see our December guide for everything else on in the month, day by day.

Christmas concerts at Müpa

Müpa is the modern arts centre by Rákóczi Bridge, and its concerts are in the Béla Bartók National Concert Hall. Its Christmas concerts this December:

• Advent Concert, Sunday 29 November at 7.30pm: the baritone Benjamin Appl sings songs from his Christmas album with the Lautitia children’s and youth choirs and the Anima Musicae Chamber Orchestra.
• Handel’s Messiah, 12 December at 7.30pm: the RIAS Kammerchor and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin, conducted by Justin Doyle, sung in English.
• A Christmas organ concert, 15 December at 7.30pm: Iveta Apkalna on the hall’s organ with the State Choir LATVIJA.
• The Hungarian National Philharmonic’s Christmas concert, 17 December at 7.30pm: the first two cantatas of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio and Honegger’s Une cantate de Noël, conducted by György Vashegyi.
• Wonderful Nativity, the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble’s Christmas show, on 19 December at 6pm and 20 to 23 December at 11am. It is for ages four and up, and the best family choice in Müpa’s December.

Müpa sells its tickets on its own website, at its box offices and through Interticket, and only those are guaranteed. Prices for most of these concerts move with demand. Tram 2 runs to Müpa along the Pest riverside from the centre, and the HÉV H7 and trams 1 and 24 stop nearby too. Ticket holders park free.

Christmas concerts at the Liszt Academy

The Grand Hall of the Liszt Academy, all gilding, chandeliers and stained glass, is worth a ticket for the room alone. Its Christmas programme, besides the Nutcracker concerts above:

• Ábrahám Consort’s Advent concert, 5 December at 7.30pm: Corelli’s Christmas Concerto, written “for the night of Christmas”, Vivaldi’s Winter and two arias from Bach’s Christmas Oratorio.
• Advent with Bach, 6 December at 7.30pm: five Bach cantatas with the Purcell Choir and the Orfeo Orchestra, conducted by György Vashegyi.
• The Hungarian Radio Children’s Choir’s Christmas concert, 14 December at 7pm, with Reger’s cantata “Vom Himmel hoch” on the Academy’s organ and a children’s nativity play.
• The Christmas Concert, 20 December at 7.30pm: held in the Grand Hall every year since 1999 in the days before Christmas, with the soprano Polina Pasztircsák, the violinist Barnabás Kelemen and the pianist Dénes Várjon.

Tickets are on the Liszt Academy’s concert website. The Academy is on Liszt Ferenc tér, a short walk from Oktogon on metro M1 or from the Király utca stop of trams 4 and 6.

Other big Christmas concerts in Budapest

• The Budapest Festival Orchestra’s Surprise Concert, 26 December at 7.45pm at the Budapest Congress Center in Buda. 26 December has been the orchestra’s birthday since 1983, Iván Fischer keeps the programme a surprise, and it is the one big concert of the Christmas holidays.
• José Carreras and Katherine Jenkins, 20 December at the MVM Dome.
• Budapest Bár’s Christmas concert, 20 December on the A38 concert boat, for Hungarian songs and swing rather than the classics.

Christmas concerts in Budapest’s churches

Concerts in the churches are the easiest to fit into a trip: about an hour long, in the evening, in a building you would want to see anyway, and bookable ahead with free cancellation. They are popular programmes for visitors rather than the season’s big concerts, which are in the halls.

Christmas concerts in St Stephen’s Basilica

The Basilica holds concerts nearly all year, but in Advent they thin out. In December 2026 the evening concerts are on some Tuesdays and Sundays at 8pm, on 6, 8, 13, 20, 22, 27 and 29 December, and again on New Year’s Day. There is no concert on 24, 25 or 31 December.

There are three programmes, so check which one your date has: Mozart’s Requiem; an organ concert with Bach, “Rejoice” from Handel’s Messiah, Widor’s Toccata and the Ave Marias of Gounod and Schubert; and a third built round Ave Maria. Seats within each class are not numbered, so the earlier you are in, the better your seat. On a December Sunday I found the queue at the main entrance already long an hour before the start, so come early if you want to sit near the front. Your phone ticket is swapped for a paper one at the door. The 5.30pm light show on the front of the church makes a good start to the evening; see our Advent Bazilika guide.

For organ lovers, the Basilica’s Wednesday morning programme is a 20-minute recital on the organ gallery, where the organist shows a small group what each part of the instrument does, with entry to the church. It is in English at 10am, and in December it runs on 2, 9 and 16 December.

On Christmas Eve the Basilica has its own Christmas music, separate from the ticketed concerts. In 2024 there was a Christmas organ concert at 3pm, a children’s nativity play at 4pm, and choral and organ music from 11.20pm before the midnight Mass. The 2026 times are posted in December. Mass is in Hungarian, visitors are welcome, and you should not take photos during it. More about the church is in our St Stephen’s Basilica guide.

Christmas concerts in Matthias Church

The painted church on Castle Hill has string concerts through Advent, with the Duna String Orchestra and the violinist Gyula Gabora playing Pachelbel’s Canon, a Bach violin concerto and Winter from Vivaldi’s Four Seasons. In December they are on 4, 7, 11, 14, 18 and 28 December, and on 2 January, about 70 minutes each.

The church’s own Christmas concert is on Saturday 19 December at 8pm: Hungarian Radio’s ensembles in Bach’s cantata “Wie schön leuchtet der Morgenstern” and Charpentier’s Midnight Mass for Christmas, a Latin Mass built on French carols, conducted by Máté Szabó Sipos. Tickets are sold by Hungarian Radio’s ticket shop, linked from the church’s website.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are out here. Matthias Church is closed to visitors all day on 24 and 25 December, and its string concerts take a break between 18 and 28 December.

Concerts in St Michael’s Church on Váci utca

St Michael’s is a small baroque church on the southern half of Váci utca, the shopping street, and the handiest concert after an afternoon at the Vörösmarty tér market. There are concerts of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons there on 2, 5, 9, 12, 16 and 19 December, and there are organ concerts of Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart and Franck on 4, 11, 22 and 29 December. Both last 70 minutes.

Free Christmas music in Budapest

The free music is at the markets, and it is a bonus to a market evening rather than a concert to cross town for.

• Advent Bazilika, in front of St Stephen’s Basilica: live music on some evenings from 5pm, before the 5.30pm light show, from 13 November 2026 to 1 January 2027. In 2024 the stage round the tree had gospel, folk, jazz and funk. No programme is published, so take it as it comes.
• Advent in Óbuda, on Fő tér: concerts at weekends, from 27 November to 23 December 2026. It is the market locals go to.
• Városháza Park, behind the City Hall: last year the city lit an Advent candle with live music on each of the four Advent weekends. This year’s fair has not been announced yet.

In 2024 the Basilica also held a free Advent concert by the band of the Hungarian customs guard, with a registration ticket. The markets themselves are compared in our Christmas markets guide.

Christmas music on the Danube

The music cruise sold on almost every evening of the season is a dinner cruise with a Hungarian folk band. It leaves at 7pm from the Akadémia pontoon, on the Pest bank between the Chain Bridge and the Parliament, on the Gróf Széchenyi, one of the largest of the old ships on the Danube, with indoor seating and open views. Four musicians from the Rajkó Folk Orchestra play Hungarian and international songs and take requests alongside a folk dance show. The welcome drink is included and further drinks are extra.

It is sold every evening of the season except 24, 25 and 31 December and 1 January.

On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day the music cruise is a different one: a three-hour Christmas dinner cruise with live piano music, which sails only on those two nights, from Dock 11 by Elizabeth Bridge. Dress is smart casual, the minimum drinking age is 18, and non-folding and electric wheelchairs are not allowed.

Silverline’s dinner cruise with a folklore and operetta show also sails from Dock 11 on many December evenings, though not from 24 to 26 or on 31 December, and its tickets are non-refundable. New Year’s Eve has cruises of its own. For a cruise to see the lights rather than hear music, see our Christmas lights guide.

New Year’s Day concerts in Budapest

New Year’s Day is the one day of the holiday with a full evening of concerts, three of them within two hours of each other.

• The Liszt Academy’s New Year concert, 1 January at 6pm: the Hungarian Radio Symphony Orchestra in Beethoven, with jazz improvisations by the Academy’s students. It goes out live on Hungarian television and radio.
• Haydn’s The Creation at Müpa, 1 January at 7pm, Müpa’s New Year concert: Ádám Fischer with the Austro-Hungarian Haydn Philharmonic and the Hungarian Radio Choir. Ticket holders get a glass of sparkling wine.
• New Year’s at the Opera: Beethoven 9, 1 January at 8pm and 3 January at 8pm: the Ninth Symphony, at the heart of the Opera’s New Year for the 14th time, after Beethoven’s Coriolan Overture and Haydn’s first cello concerto. The symphony is sung in German, with English surtitles. Not recommended for under-12s.

The Nutcracker plays on 1 January at 2pm and on 2 and 3 January, the Basilica has its evening concert on New Year’s Day and Matthias Church has its strings on 2 January.

Before you book a Christmas concert in Budapest

• Book the halls early. The Opera and Müpa price by demand, so prices can rise as a date fills.
• Allow time to get to Müpa. It is out of the centre. Tram 2 along the river is the pleasant way there.
• Christmas Eve winds down by mid-afternoon. The 11am Nutcracker and the Basilica’s own music are the music of the day.
• Read the age advice. The Opera does not recommend The Nutcracker for under-sixes, and Magnificat and Messiah and Beethoven 9 for under-12s.

Which Christmas concert to book in Budapest

If you book one thing, make it The Nutcracker at the Opera, in the stalls or a box, on a date before Christmas. The ballet and the restored house together are the best night out of a Budapest December. If the ballet is full or the children are small, the Liszt Academy’s Nutcracker concerts give you the same music in its gilded Grand Hall. And if you just want an hour of music on an evening between markets, book a concert in St Stephen’s Basilica and see the light show outside first.

For the rest of the season, see our Christmas in Budapest guide and the best things to do at Christmas.