Christmas food in Mexico is the product of cultural fusion and diversity. The celebration is different in each family and region. There’s no one Christmas meal! And although we see snowy trees, reindeer figures, snowmen and Santas everywhere, Mexican food traditions are still preserved.
There are of course still classic Christmas meals, those that are eaten over and over again, reheated, and then are served again on New Year’s Eve.
Here, we bring you some of the most common dishes and some of the more special ones eaten In Mexico over the Christmas holiday period. Food that’s a mix of Catholic and indigenous cultures, but also interculturality and flavours from all around the world.
Turkey
In Mexico, it’s called guajolote and is the star dish at birthdays, weddings and patron saints’ day festivities. Did you know that the turkey was first domesticated by the Mayans and only reached other continents with the colonisation? It’s also eaten in the U.S. on Thanksgiving and Christmas day, and also in Europe where it’s stuffed and then roasted.
It’s also called huexólotl, totol or chumpipe in Mexico, where this bird has been raised and eaten since pre-Hispanic times. Today, it is still given as a gift between buyers and sellers and stewardship in the indigenous rural villages, where it’s eaten with mole sauce.
Ponche
A type of punch that’s typically served at parties during the Christmas holiday period. It’s made with fruits like guava, plum, pineapple, and hawthorn, which are boiled and mixed with sugar and cinnamon.
Due to the low temperatures and cold weather in some parts of the country, a dash of tequila, rum or mezcal is traditionally added to the ponche to warm up your body. Grandmothers and older people who make it say the more you boil it, the sweeter and more flavoursome it becomes, but you need to be careful not to cook it too much as the fruit could turn into mush.
Romeritos
These are ‘quelites’ (Mexican herbs in general, in this case, one that resembles rosemary) prepared in a mole sauce and traditionally accompanied by dried shrimp tortas, or small cakes, and prickly pears. The original Mexico City recipe used cakes made of ‘ahuautli’, which are the eggs of an aquatic insect that once inhabited the islands in Lake Texcoco, but this ingredient is difficult to come by today.
This is also a typical dish during Lent and is eaten on Christmas Eve because this day was previously a holy day. San Andrés Mixquic in Mexico City is one of the main communities that produce this ingredient.
Cod
This fish is cured in salt and owes its origin to the need of the Vikings to preserve the fish before the days of refrigerators. However, its use in Mexican dishes is due to the influence of the Basques who prepared the cod stewed with potatoes, olive oil and other ingredients, and other common recipes like ajoarriero (cod, olive oil, garlic and peppers) and Pil-Pil (cod and a garlic and pepper sauce).
In Mexico the most traditional cod dish is the Vizcaína, which has nothing to do with the Basque version with the same name, as this one contains olives, güero chiles, capers, pepper, tomato and oregano.
What do Mexicans eat during Las Posadas?
Las Posadas are a traditional religious celebration, which refers to the journeys of the Virgin Mary and Saint Josep to reach Bethlehem. They start nine days before December 25, and each element has great significance.
Las Posadas are unthinkable without fruit, typically people eat the same fruits that are used to make the ponche. The piñata is another essential part; traditionally it had seven points, each representing one of the seven deadly sins: pride, greed, lust, envy, gluttony, wrath and sloth. For Catholics, the rosary, Christmas carols, litanies and pilgrims are all important elements.
The stick used to hit the piñata represents the gospel, which destroys sin. The fruit symbolises the grace of God, which overflows when sin is overcome. Christmas gifts (aguinaldos) are also exchanged, which often include small bags of peanuts, sugar cane, oranges, sweets, and sometimes even cash, which is a sign of communion.
It’s all about bonding
Mexican households eat different dishes, some are traditional, and others have undergone some changes and international adaptations.
However, something that you’ll always feel when you sit down at a Mexican table where these holidays are celebrated, is the joy and communion of celebrating the end of the year in family and with loved ones, and the good hopes of starting another one.
