One dreams of the past every Christmas. We will become children again a little and longingly and excitedly, we will be able to experience again everything that was the joy of childhood Christmases. It is no different for politicians. The family Christmas of Szilárd Németh, the state secretary responsible for utility reduction, the "tough guy", also recalls the holidays of old.

"For me, Christmas is what I got from home." Christmas and Easter are the two Christian holidays that were and still are today a great family holiday.

We lived simply, almost in poverty, but we prepared for the holiday as a Hungarian family should.

My mother cooked, my father bought the ingredients, he cleaned the fish and our bathroom and kitchen were always painted for Christmas. For me, Christmas is the smell of pine, the smell of oranges, the smell of my mother's cakes, the smell of bagels, honey, gingerbread, mixed with the fresh smell of oil paint, because the plinth was painted with oil. This fragrance mix still smells like Christmas today.

- I was a minister child, during Advent I visited the church much more often, I went to the rosary, so I could better experience the joy of waiting. We never had bronze, silver and golden Sundays, there was only Advent, when we lit another candle on the Advent wreath every Sunday, even when during socialism this was not as common as it is, fortunately, again today. I say more Jesus and less shopping. I also agree with the wise message of the Prime Minister, on the first Sunday of Advent, based on the well-known slogan - which sounded like there is no Christmas without Corvin - he said this in his Facebook post: There is no Christmas without Jesus! It would be good to take this seriously and not forget about the madness of shopping without a necklace. We hear from the news that the Christmas rush has begun. Good God, what kind of Christmas rush?

Christmas is not about the rush, but about quieting down, the joyful calm of waiting.

"And about the family." We didn't have a tape recorder, but you could only get such Christmas songs on cassette anyway, so my mother sang Christmas carols. Fortunately, he is still alive, he also lives in Csepel and we bring him to us every time we light candles, and he still sings today.

- We also keep the Hungarian tradition of the Christmas menu, which means that the table includes fish soup, fried fish, potato salad with the fish, Wiener Schnitzel, stuffed cabbage, bagels, Zerbo, honey cake and

we also keep the tradition of cutting an apple into as many articles as we are together, and leaving one article on the table for Jesus.

– Our children have grown up, but as I know from them, my daughter Virág and my son Bendegúz waited with sincere faith for the coming of Jesus until they were 10 years old. Until then, they didn't even participate in decorating the Christmas tree, but now of course we decorate together, which is a wonderful joint family program. And we all know that we do receive gifts from Jesus, because everything we can achieve is thanks to her. And our children and grandchildren need to know this too.

Author: György Tóth Jr

Photo: Zsuzsa Fincza / zaol.hu