A season that starts on December 16
Christmas food in Mexico is spread across more than a week. From December 16 to 24 many communities hold posadas, nightly gatherings that recall Mary and Joseph’s search for lodging. Families, neighbourhoods and workplaces take turns hosting, with a procession, songs, and a piñata to follow. The food served is as much a part of the posada as the singing, and it forms the first half of the season. Christmas Eve, Nochebuena, is the main meal and the second half.
Customs differ widely by region, and the dishes below are common examples rather than a fixed menu.
Posada food: hot, simple and shared
Posadas call for food that can be made in quantity and served warmly. Tamales are very common, along with atole and champurrado for warmth. In some places guests are given a paper bag of treats, often called aguinaldos, which may contain fresh fruit such as tangerines, sugar cane, peanuts in the shell and candy. The contents vary by place and family.
A hot drink often takes centre stage, and the best known is ponche.
Ponche navideno
Ponche is a hot fruit punch that scents a room with cinnamon. The base is water simmered with seasonal fruits and sweetened, typically with piloncillo sugar. Commonly used fruits include tejocotes (a small fruit related to the hawthorn), apples, guavas, sugar cane pieces, prunes, raisins, hibiscus flowers in some versions, and tamarind pods. Cinnamon sticks are standard, and cloves are sometimes added.
Tejocotes are the ingredient most associated with the drink, and many people say it does not taste right without them, though recipes outside Mexico often substitute other fruit. Adults sometimes add a splash of rum or brandy to individual cups; this is entirely optional, and alcohol is for adults only. The base can be served without it, and children can drink the same punch.
Hot punch is made in large pots, so care with scalding liquids is wise when serving a crowd.
Nochebuena: the Christmas Eve table
Nochebuena is the big family meal and, in many households, the main event, often eaten late in the evening and sometimes after midnight Mass. The menu varies a lot by region and by family, but a few dishes come up often.
- Romeritos: a green, tender plant sold in bunches in markets in the weeks before Christmas, cooked in mole with potatoes and often with shrimp patties.
- Bacalao a la vizcaina: salt cod stewed with tomato, olives, capers and chiles, a dish with Spanish roots.
- Turkey or stuffed pork loin: roasted whole, with sauce or filling that may include fruit and nuts.
- Tamales: in many regions, made specifically for the holidays.
- Ensalada de Nochebuena: a sweet-tart salad of beets, jicama, apples, orange segments and peanuts, covered in lettuce and pomegranate in some versions.
Romeritos in more detail
Romeritos are the tender shoots of a leafy plant that resemble rosemary in shape, though they do not taste like it. They are rinsed well, briefly boiled, and added to a mole sauce with small potatoes and, traditionally, patties of dried shrimp bound with egg and sometimes nopales. They are strongly associated with central Mexico, and in particular with Mexico City, the State of Mexico and Puebla.
The mole is usually mole poblano or a similar dark, chile-based sauce, so the dish is rich and slightly bitter-sweet. It is also eaten around Lent in some areas. As with many of these preparations, quantities of ingredients are not fixed, and families guard their preferred version.
Salt cod and other imports
Salt cod, or bacalao, came with Spanish culinary habits and became a Christmas staple in Mexico. The fish is soaked in several changes of water to reduce its salt before it is cooked. Households often prepare it a day ahead, because the soaking is lengthy. Its olives and capers echo the flavours also found in Veracruz fish dishes.
Dessert and sweets
Sweet items can include buñuelos, thin fried dough fritters sprinkled with sugar or dipped in syrup, and fruit-based sweets. Hot chocolate is also common at the end of an evening. Fried foods need careful handling: use deep, stable pots, dry the dough thoroughly, and keep children away from hot oil.
After Christmas
The cycle does not end on December 25. Many families keep eating leftover tamales and stew over the following days, and the season runs on to Three Kings Day on January 6. The sequence of posadas, Nochebuena and Rosca ties the year-end into one long celebration, and then the cycle moves to the next feast on the calendar.
A final note on variation: some families have never eaten romeritos or bacalao and instead serve pozole, birria or regional specialities on Christmas Eve. None of these is the single authentic menu, and the diversity is part of the tradition.