Navidad en Mexico -- Christmas in Mexico

My husband and I will be leaving on the 19th for Mexico so we’ll be spending Christmas on our own in Mazathlan – a first for on our own and a first for Matzatlan. The children are adults with children of their own so they want to build their own family traditions. I’m all for this! I absolutely believe that they should be creating their own customs and they have my full support. We had a family get together today, which was chaos but a fun, lovely chaos.

I’ve been so very lucky to have spent Christmas, or some time in the month of Christmas in different countries so have sampled some fabulous traditions. Fo many years, I had Christmas in the UK with Christmas pudding and mince pies (niether are to my liking but my husband adores both!), crackers (filled with little silly jokes, toys and hats) and boxing day celebrations. Every year we would visit an outdoor market in Bath where the aroma of mulled wine mixed with cedar, woodburning fires and other holiday smells filled me with a true welcoming sense that Christmas was almost here. These little stalls filled with fasinating handicraft and traditional items were set against the beautiful backdrop of the Bath Abbey. Often there were choral groups performing a whole medley of Christmas songs. It’s an experience that’s hard to beat.

I’ve also been in Copenhagen and visited the open air handicraft stalls in Tivoli Gardens with twinkling lights filling the park and making it a fantasy land. We also watched the changing of the guard at Amalienborg Castle, the Royal Residence, during a light snow fall and then warmed up in a local pub with grog (warmed, spiced wine) and pepper nuts (the worlds best small spiced cookies). There was also a business trip to Stuttgart where I spent an afternoon wandering through outdoor handicraft stalls and again, the smells filling the air just gave me a sense of what an old fashioned Christmas must have been like before the days of Black Friday at the malls and shopping on-line.

One year, my husband and I were traveling through Paris at Christmas time when our flight was cancelled. We didn’t consider this a hardship at all because Paris during the Christmas season is a fantasy of lights and I think it’s actually known as the “City of Lights”, although they do celebrate Bonne année (happy new year) more than Christmas. We took the train into the heart of Paris for dinner and we were lucky in that there was snow and ice so The Avenue des Champs-Élysées had been transformed into a Winter Wonderland. The trees that lined this beautiful street were covered in strings of lights making it incredibly romantic.

I do really miss the outdoor markets found in Europe because they are all so special but my husband and I are forming new traditions now that we are living in the US. Visiting the beautiful Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania is definitely one that we’ll keep. I guess that it was all of the poinsettias there this past week that really got me into the Navidad en Mexico spirit. And now, I’m looking forward to Christmas in Mexico. It’s a land of fiestas (festivals) and Posadas (processions) leading up to Christmas and I’m excited to see and learn about new customs and traditions.

There are probably as many Christmas traditions as there are families. Whatever your traditions are, I hope that you fulfill them and have a happy and wonderful holiday.

Please send me some of your own traditions – I’m interested to learn how you celebrate the holidays.

Whatever you do to celebrate – have a very wonderful holiday and enjoy the time with family.