How to Celebrate Posadas Navideñas in Your Home
Make this Christmas extra special in a super festive, colorful, and fascinating way! Celebrate with Mexico’s beloved cultural tradition of the season, Posadas Navideñas. Whether you’d like to honor your Mexican roots or are just intrigued by the customs and practices of another culture, we show how you can recreate the key elements of the Posadas Navideñas in your own home! From multi-colored, elaborate decorations to Christmas dishes, sweets, and drinks that are served throughout Mexico during this season. *This post contains affiliate links.
What is Posadas Navideñas?
From the words “posada” (inn) and “navidad” (nativity), the Posadas Navideñas is the centerpiece of Mexican Christmas traditions. For the nine days leading up to Christmas Day, December 16 to 24, Mexicans mark the Posadas with street processions reenacting how Joseph and Mary went from inn to inn in search of a place to stay for the birth of the Baby Jesus.
It’s also a time for families to enjoy games, music, and revelry and, of course, traditional food, beverages, and desserts. Now, that’s what you can plan your own party around!
Key Elements to Celebrate the Posadas Navideñas
With just these celebration essentials, you can have a Posadas party at home!
Decorations, Food, and Sweets for Posadas Navidenas
In keeping with the story behind the Posadas, have at least these 2 key decorations: a piñata (or 2 or 3!) and farolitos or little lanterns.
The piñatas traditionally used for the Posadas (8) are star-shaped, symbolizing the star of Bethlehem – but made with rainbow-colored ruffles, pointy cones, and fringe tassels. You can make your own following the many DIY tutorials online, or you may buy ready-made ones. Here are three examples that you can get through Amazon:
The other meaningful decoration are the luminaries or farolitos (5), suggesting the search for an inn on that first Christmas night. You can craft delightful ones out of paper bags, decorative punches, stick-on gems, and battery-powered tea lights!
A Must-have Posadas Menu
Now is your chance to have an all-Mexican Christmas menu just in time for Nochebuena. Just follow the recipes given in the links below…and enjoy!
For your main dish, serve Posole, known as the Mexican Christmas dinner (7), a staple at Posadas Navideñas gatherings. It’s a rich soup with a base of hominy and pork, plus red chiles, shredded cabbage, radishes, cilantro, lime, and avocado. A meal in itself!
The must-have beverage for this occasion is the Mexican holiday punch known as Ponche Navideño (2). It’s served hot and features an exotic blend of fruits like tejocotes (available in jars), pears, and apples, plus orange juice, raisins, prunes, tamarind, hibiscus, star anise, cloves, sugar cane, and cinnamon sticks.
For dessert, prepare popular Mexican sweets. One delicious choice would be Bunuelos (tortilla fritters or “elephant ears”) (4) which are flour tortillas fried till puffy and crisp, then dusted with a cinnamon-sugar mix and drizzled with honey. Also offer up Sweet Raisin Tamales (10), a dessert version of this Mexican favorite with a “masa” (filling) of pineapple, coconut, and pecans flavored with cinnamon and steamed in corn husks. The perfect pairing for these? Why, Champurrado or Mexican hot chocolate (3), of course!
Posadas Party Favor Ideas
More traditional sweets would make ideal favors. Think Mexican sugar cookies (1) that you can home-bake in pretty colors, like pink, yellow, and chocolate brown; and Colaciónes, brightly multi-colored Posadas Navideñas sweets (6) sold in bulk at markets or may be found online. Or package your own treat bags, called “aguinaldos” (9), stuffed with candies, cookies, small fruits, and your choice of goodies!
Now, doesn’t that look like a uniquely fun way to celebrate Christmas? Feliz Navidad!
Credits: 1 – Recuerdos dela Familia / 2 – Andrea Lawson Gray (photo from Hispanically Speaking News) / 3 – Diana’s Desserts / 4 – Oh Bite It / 5 – Mommy Maestra / 6 – Circle K / 7 – Simply Recipes / 8 – Melodijo Lola / 9 – Mujer de 10 / 10 – Nibbles and Feasts
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