Stuffed cabbage is the most Christmassy dish of Hungarians

Christmas decor in place, gifts purchased and wrapped, tidying up and cleaning, and there’s also the question of who likes to eat what, should we innovate or stick with the tried and tested dishes. So that Christmas is really about intimate togetherness and that no one goes hungry, how early do we start planning the menu? What are the foods that Santa Claus cannot do without, and what do we insist on and what do we let go of at Christmas? – TV Paprika was curious about these.

We don’t leave the Christmas menu to chance

Mostly, security players are responsible for the Christmas menu. There are those who only start tuning in mid-Advent, but every third of them already starts planning – at least in their heads – in the first days of December what they will bake, cook, buy, and assign tasks to. Every tenth person admits that they are a habitual panicker, and only immediately before Christmas do they turn to the question of whether Szeged or Baja fish soup, or Mediterranean fish soup, will be bubbling in the pot on December 24. There are few of them, but there are also those who just go with the flow and decide at the last minute what will be on the table based on what will happen. Appearance is a critical issue for every second respondent. They typically set the table with festive tableware, napkins, decorate, and then toast with sparkling glasses.

Stuffed cabbage with bagels – the perfect combo

What are the flavors we stick to? According to the majority, if it’s a main course, then stuffed cabbage, and if it’s a dessert, then bagels are the ones that can’t be missing from the holiday menu. Six out of ten Hungarians say that the holiday is incomplete without stuffed cabbage. And after cabbage, we travel in fish, because half of the respondents wouldn’t give up fish soup, and 37 percent wouldn’t give up fried fish.

The bagels are slightly less important than stuffed cabbage, but for the majority (56%) they need at least one slice of bagel to fully experience the flavors of Christmas. Six out of ten households make their own bagels, and every second one doesn’t care if the top cracks, as long as the taste is perfect. Bagels are followed by gingerbread, then gingerbread, but according to the data from the TV Paprika survey, it looks like the holiday could go by without both gingerbread and gingerbread, as while 38 percent of respondents insist on gingerbread, only three out of ten insist on gingerbread.

We tend to stick to main courses at Christmas, we’re braver when it comes to desserts

There are just as many people who experiment with new flavors and reimagined dishes as there are those who stick to their traditional, tried-and-tested recipes at Christmas. Every fourth family will definitely have some kind of new dish, and every fourth definitely won’t. They are usually the ones who like to watch unusual menus being prepared on the screen, but they crave traditional flavors on the table.

For some of the others, whether there will be anything new will be decided by whether there will be extra time for experimentation. The rest will stick to their main courses, but in terms of desserts they may try a few new things, perhaps mixing a new bagel flavor or even making jerboa in the form of a cake-pop.

*TV Paprika’s online survey was completed by 466 people in November 2025, all of whom bake and cook for Christmas.