In 1991, A. Máté precisely calculated the first-order asymptotic behavior of the sequence of Christoffel functions associated with Szego measures on the unit circle. Our principal goal is the abstraction of his result in two directions: We compute the translated asymptotics, limn λn(µ, x + a/n), and obtain, as a corollary, a universality limit for the fairly broad class of Szego weights. Finally, we prove Máté’s result for measures supported on smooth curves in the plane. Our proof of the latter derives, in part, from a precise estimate of certain weighted means of the Faber polynomials associated with the support of the measure. Finally, we investigate a variety of applications, including two novel applications to ill-posed problems in Hilbert space and the mean ergodic theorem.