From Aunt Elizabeth ~
Charming Tales of yesteryear from an old-fashioned European farmgirl's childhood

I know, here in America, that Christmas is both a religious holiday, and a children's festival (which includes, of course, the "child at heart" adult) incorporating gift giving, Christmas trees, and Santa Claus.

In Hungary, these two different aspects are actually seperated into TWO celebrations in December. St. Mikolas Day is on December 6th, while December 25th is a very religious commemoration of Jesus's birth.

The idea of St. Mikulas Day is not so different from Santa Claus, or St. Nicolas. All year, you must be good, as to receive presents on December 6th. However, instead of receiving presents under the tree, you received tiny gifts, and candy, in your SHOES. Yes, that's right--just as with the Dutch in Holland receiving gifts in their wooden clogs, Hungary also has the tradition of receiving gifts in shoes, although in our case, your everyday shoes were fine for gift-bearing duty. This was strictly a children's activity, and one we took seriously....

This was because Mikulas wouldn't put his trinkets in just ANY shoes...you had to make the shoes VERY presentable. So, you could imagine myself, as well as many other children, spending the day before, furiously cleaning, scrubbing and shining their shoes so they would look pristine! I am sure this probably seems hilarious to most of you, but in our minds, only the prettiest shoes were worth gifts from Santa Claus.

I can remember Juliska Mama (my mother, Julianna) asking me on the day that St. Mikulas was supposed to come, "ok, so are you going to get your shoes ready, or what?." And then the excitement would take me, I would get out towels and shoe polish and get to work making the shoes as shiny as could be. I would get so carried away and so determined with this, that if I couldn't get the shoes completely sparkling, I would even spit on the shoes! Because, as most children know, spit is the ultimate shining solvent, right?

Once the shoes were impeccable, we would then place them onto our windowsills (so that Mikolas could see them, of course, and realize there were children in the house). Then I would go to bed and try to contain my excitement enough to ACTUALLY fall asleep, which was no easy task. Sometimes it took up to an hour for me to actually sleep instead of fidget with excitement.

If you had been a good boy or girl, you would recieve candies and tiny toys in the morning. I should tell you that, if you were bad, you were given virgacs (wooden switches) in the shoes! And yes, there was an occasion or two when I had the virgacs! I can look back on it with humor, as the switches were sometimes ornately painted gold or wrapped in little ribbons. Even if you were bad, you had something lovely in your shoes! Usually, if I got the virgacs, they were small ones along with candies.

Much of the St. Mikolas Day is devoted to children, with homemade candies, time to play and many more fun things to do....

CHRISTMAS AND CHRISTMAS EVE
Chistmas proper was an altogether different sort of celebration. It was very family oriented, and very religious. The holiday usually began December 24th. It was then that my father would go to the forest to saw down a tree that would become our Christmas tree. This was the custom in Hungary, to bring the tree in on Christmas Eve; very rarely were trees brought before this day, though I am not sure if this custom has changed since then.

We would then decorate the tree using hand created ornaments, since mass produced ornaments weren't available, yet. Frankly, I still think the homemade ornaments are still much more special, and certainly unique. We cut paper into intricate shapes, made cloth ornaments with fancy embroidery on them, glittered pinecones, and made other such lovely decorations. Often, these decorations were passed down through the generations, so there were beautiful heirloom items, also.

Of particular note was the making of candies to hang on the trees. In America, the best known example of this is the candy cane. In Hungary, Szalon Cukor (literally "salon sugar') was usually made to hang on our trees. These were usually handemade in the home...and every recipe was a little different, but they were VERY sweet candies that were then wrapped in beautiful foil paper, strung with colorful ribbons, and hung from the tree. Sweet-tooths of all ages were encouraged to take them from the tree as they wished. I've provided my mother's recipe, below, for you to try...

Meanwhile my mother would make the Christmas Eve dinner. This usually involved some sort of fish dish, as this is traditionally eaten on Christmas Eve in Hungary, and most of Europe, I believe. Another traditional Christmas staple included boiled chestnuts, caledl gesztenye, which were then pureed, doused with powdered sugar to taste, and topped with homemade whipped cream.

After we feasted, we usually then put on our finest wear, and kerchiefs, and went to church for Midnight Mass. This was a very solomn occasion and we would listen to our priest deliver messages on the story of Jesus, we would pray for friends, loved ones, and the less fortunate. The mass usually lasted an hour or so.

We then went home to sleep. Usually, we also received a present the next day, placed under the tree. Here, there is also a stark difference in tradition when compared to the Western idea of Christmas. First, we received these presents unwrapped; they were simply placed under the tree. I suppose this was because the idea is that the present itself is a surprise, that no fancy paper was necessary. Second, we only received one present. If one had a rich family, the gift count MIGHT be two, but the extravagant show that Americans have in present giving is UNHEARD of. To be gifted was considered a great privilege, and a happy and humble thing by many people in other countries, and it is considered something to be deeply thankful for. The extreme display of wealth as seen by the countless presents is unthinkable and sometimes surprising to people unused to Western Traditions.

Moreover, I have to say, it is this sort of excess, and the attitudes that come with the holiday season, that is sometimes saddening. I watch the stress that this holiday brings, here, and think: shouldn't Christmas be about family, love, tradition, and doing things close to the heart? Why is everyone running around to find dozens of presents, cook the most presentable dinner, and so forth? Why are children complaining they didn't get the "perfect" toy, or enough toys? When did everyone become so spoiled? This holiday, I think, is really about us, and togetherness. We are really here for each other. We are the best gifts ever created, and we are gifts for each other. That is the wonderful part of the holiday.

Juliska Mama's Szaloncukor

You will need:

*1/2 kg (500 gram) of powder sugar
*300 mL of water ( a little more than 1 cup)
*1 Tbspn of potato flour

You should also use ONE of the following ingredients to flavor the candy, or make seperate batches of different flavors:
* Few teaspoons of Vanilla Extract, or vanilla flavoring, to taste
* Few teaspoons of chocolate powder/ cocoa powder, for taste and color
* Few teaspoons of fresh orange juice, or orange extract, for taste
* Few teaspoons of rum

*8" x 8" porcelain or pyrex pan. You can use a pan that is slightly smaller, but the candy will be thicker.

Mix sugar, water, and potato flour, and put in sauce pan and cook until it begins thickening into a paste. BEFORE it becomes completely thick, remove from stove, sprinkle with a little cold water, and let stand about 5 minutes. After 5minutes, take a wooden spoon, stir until paste turns a white color. At this time you can add flavoring (rum, vanilla, chocolate powder, etc) then let stand for about another 10 minutes, or until ALMOST cool (not completely cool). The paste become sort of like a nougat....

Next, get your "form" (pan). You can try a porcelain baking pan or maybe a pyrex pan, which is square shaped. Slightly dampen the bottom of pan, to keep the paste from sticking. The pan SHOULD NOT be wet, just slightly dampened with water. Pour paste into the pan. Before the dough is completely cool, take a knife, wet it, and cut into rectangles, or squares. Make sure you wet the knife in between cutting--this will keep the knife from sticking to the material.

Once the candy is entirely cooled, you can then wrap the individual pieces in pretty foil, or wax paper, which can be purchased from culinary shops or gift/paper stores. Once you've covered the candy in foil, you can twist or tie the ends. You can also tie the ends with colorful ribbon, and hang from the Christmas tree!

Or, you can just enjoy eating it!

Merry Christmas!