Things to do in Budapest in December
December 2026
The best Christmas markets, concerts, exhibitions and all-round great things to do in Budapest in December 2026.
December weather
Cold all day, hat and gloves weather
Below freezing overnight
Days with 1 mm of rain or more
Averages for 1991 to 2020 from HungaroMet, the Hungarian Meteorological Service.
Always good in December
What’s on in December 2026
Photo: Hungarian State Opera 1. The Nutcracker at the Opera House
1 to 31 December, 19:00 on 1, 3, 8, 10, 14 and 15 December, 11:00 and 18:00 on 5, 6, 12, 21, 22, 26 and 29 December, 11:00 on 19, 20, 24, 25 and 27 December, 18:00 on 17 and 28 December, and 13:00 and 21:00 on 31 December
Hungarian State Opera, District VI
Tchaikovsky's Christmas ballet is on at the Opera House on 21 days in December, in the staging Wayne Eagling and Tamás Solymosi made for the Hungarian National Ballet. Nothing is sung, so there is nothing to translate.
Photo: Deák17 Galéria 2. LAK|HATÁS, housing seen by young artists
25 September to 8 January
Városháza Park, District V
An open-air show in the park behind City Hall, on what home means to people starting out. The Deák17 gallery picked the work from an open call and hung it outdoors, so you can take it in on the way past.
3. Walk This Way: the art of walking
9 October to 31 January, Tuesday to Sunday from 10:00, closed Monday; English guided tours at 17:00 on 13 and 27 December
Ludwig Museum, in the Müpa building, District IX
An international group show that takes walking seriously as an art form, tracing it from the Dada excursion of 1921 to land art, performance and activism. Two of the December guided tours are in English.
Photo: Hungarian National Gallery 4. Dedicated Ones: Hungarian women artists
21 October to 14 February, Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 18:00, last entry 17:00, closed Monday
Hungarian National Gallery, Buda Castle, District I
More than 130 works by sixty Hungarian women artists working in the first half of the twentieth century. No Hungarian museum has given them a show on this scale before.
5. Bonjour Monsieur Gauguin at the Museum of Fine Arts
30 October to 28 February, Tuesday to Sunday 10:00 to 18:00, last admission 17:00, closed Monday; one Friday a month it opens 12:00 to 20:00 instead
Museum of Fine Arts, Heroes' Square, District XIV
Hungary's first large-scale Gauguin exhibition, assembled from loans by nearly forty public and private collections. It follows him from Paris and Brittany to Martinique, Tahiti and the Marquesas.
Photo: Hungarian State Opera 6. Hungarian Christmas at the Opera House
4 to 28 December, 4 December from 11:00, the other six dates from 15:00
Hungarian State Opera, District VI
Jenő Ádám's Christmas one-act was the first work to put plain Hungarian folk song on the Opera House stage alongside the classical repertoire, and it premiered there at Christmas 1931 with the composer conducting. Sung in Hungarian, with surtitles in both Hungarian and English, and no interval.
Photo: Liszt Academy 7. Advent with Bach at the Liszt Academy
Sunday 6 December, from 19:00
Grand Hall, Liszt Academy, District VI
Five Bach cantatas in one evening, sung by the Purcell Choir and played by the Orfeo Orchestra on period instruments, with György Vashegyi conducting.
Photo: Budapest Sportiroda (BSI) 8. Penny Santa Run in central Budapest
Sunday 6 December, family race from 12:00, 2.3 km from 12:30, 5 km from 13:30 and 14:15
Start on Sóház utca, District IX
Thousands of runners in red suits and white beards take over the streets of central Budapest for an afternoon. The suit and the beard come with your entry, and there are three distances to pick from.
Photo: Müpa Budapest 9. Anna Netrebko sings Judith in Bluebeard's Castle
Monday 7 December, 19:30 to 22:00
Béla Bartók National Concert Hall, Müpa Budapest, District IX
The Russian soprano takes on Judith for the first time, in a concert performance of Bartók's Bluebeard's Castle. Liszt fills the first half, with Misi Boros at the piano.
Photo: Müpa Budapest 10. Recirquel: Paradisum
10 to 31 December, 19:00 on 10, 11, 12, 28, 29, 30 and 31 December, and 17:00 on 13 and 27 December
Festival Theatre, Müpa Budapest, District IX
Bence Vági's company works in cirque danse, contemporary dance crossed with aerial and ground circus. Paradisum is told entirely in movement and runs an hour straight through, and it plays over New Year's Eve.
Photo: Hungarian State Opera 11. La bohème at the Opera House
11 to 30 December, 18:00 on 11 December, 18:30 on 13, 16, 19, 25, 27 and 30 December, and 11:00 on 23 December
Hungarian State Opera, District VI
Puccini's garret opera, in the Kálmán Nádasdy production the Opera has kept in its repertoire since 1937. The singing is in Italian and the surtitles run in English.
Photo: Müpa Budapest 12. Handel's Messiah by the RIAS Kammerchor
Saturday 12 December, 19:30 to 22:25
Béla Bartók National Concert Hall, Müpa Budapest, District IX
Müpa's Christmas concert is Handel's Messiah, sung in English by the RIAS Kammerchor with Berlin's Akademie für Alte Musik. A British conductor and four British soloists take it on.
Photo: Müpa Budapest 13. Iveta Apkalna and the State Choir LATVIJA
Tuesday 15 December, 19:30 to 22:00
Béla Bartók National Concert Hall, Müpa Budapest, District IX
The Latvian organist Iveta Apkalna plays Müpa's Christmas organ concert, and brings a sixty-strong choir over from home. Carols, Bach and Poulenc sit alongside newer Baltic choral writing.
Photo: MVM Dome 14. Bryan Adams at the MVM Dome
Wednesday 16 December, 20:00
MVM Dome, Üllői út, District IX
The Canadian rocker is back in Budapest on the Roll With The Punches tour. New album songs, and the ones everyone in the room will know.
Photo: Müpa Budapest 15. The Hungarian National Philharmonic's Christmas concert
Thursday 17 December, from 19:30
Béla Bartók National Concert Hall, Müpa Budapest, District IX
No single large work this year. György Vashegyi conducts the first two cantatas of Bach's Christmas Oratorio, then Schumann and a late Honegger cantata, three composers and three very different ideas of what Christmas music is for.
Photo: Müpa Budapest 16. Wonderful Nativity by the Hungarian State Folk Ensemble
19 to 23 December, 19 December from 18:00, then 20 to 23 December from 11:00
Béla Bartók National Concert Hall, Müpa Budapest, District IX
The State Folk Ensemble's dancers count down to the night of the Nativity in a staged piece built from folk custom, with a snowman, a snow fairy and a táltos horse among the dancing. Müpa puts it at age four and up, and there are five performances.
Photo: A38 Hajó 17. Budapest Bár's Christmas concert on the A38
Sunday 20 December, doors 19:00, music from 20:00
A38, by Petőfi Bridge, District XI
The band that reworks the coffeehouse gypsy music of 1920s and 1930s Budapest, with singers drawn from the Hungarian rock scene, playing the boat three days before Christmas. They promise there will be no Last Christmas.
Photo: MVM Dome 18. A Christmas concert with José Carreras and Katherine Jenkins
Sunday 20 December, 19:00
MVM Dome, Üllői út, District IX
One of the Three Tenors brings a Christmas programme to the Dome, with the Welsh mezzo-soprano Katherine Jenkins singing in Hungary for the first time.
Photo: Liszt Academy 19. Christmas Concert in the Liszt Academy's Grand Hall
Sunday 20 December, from 19:30
Grand Hall, Liszt Academy, District VI
A fixture of the last days before Christmas since 1999, put on by the harpist Andrea Vigh. She plays alongside the violinist Barnabás Kelemen, the pianist Dénes Várjon and the singer Polina Pasztircsák.
Photo: Hungarian State Opera 20. Magnificat and Messiah at the Opera House
20 to 23 December, 19:00 on both nights
Hungarian State Opera, District VI
The Opera's own orchestra and chorus pair Bach's Magnificat with Handel's Messiah in Mozart's arrangement. Benjamin Bayl conducts, and the second half is played with projections.
Photo: Uránia Nemzeti Filmszínház 21. The Royal Ballet's The Nutcracker at the Uránia
Friday 25 December, 15:00
Uránia National Film Theatre, District VIII
Peter Wright's Covent Garden production of The Nutcracker, recorded in December 2025 and screened in the Uránia's grand hall on Christmas Day. It is shown in English.
Photo: Budapest Festival Orchestra 22. The Budapest Festival Orchestra's Surprise Concert
Saturday 26 December, from 19:45
Budapest Congress Center, District XII
Iván Fischer conducts a programme nobody in the hall has been told in advance. Boxing Day has been the orchestra's birthday since 1983, and the Surprise Concert is the present it hands the audience instead of the other way round.