Like everywhere in the world people celebrate christmas in their own special ways and here it is no different.
Parties are abound and in full swing. The youngsters give their school performances in the main square with the proud parents watching on . Each school builds it own nativity scene in front of the palacio . The chairs are set out to accommodate the crowd that will be forming .
The children from each school are showing off their great costumes . I often wonder how do they come up with such imaginative designs for some of the costumes that are worn, They are absolutely amazingly gifted , the designers,the tailors ,the mums and teachers.
Swirling Christmas trees
The music starts up with some of the traditional songs that we know but here they are in Spanish and a little jazzed up!
The son of a staff member
They look so cute and give their best to the performance even though its just for few minutes . I also wonder what do they do with the costumes after?
Here is a little tidbit of news if you may not know…. Santa Clause used to wear a long green garment but in came Coca Cola and changed his suit to red to correspond with the red on the bottles. And it has been red ever since.
Waiting my turn!
Christmas eve the children from the prepatoria elect someone to dress up as Santa Claus and he usually drives around in the back of a pickup filled with wrapped gifts that the parents have bought, to be delivered personally at the door by Santa Clause. You can imagine the excitement of the children upon seeing him.
Mary and Joseph Maya style
Then it,s everyone down to the Palacio to watch the firework display before heading home again to eat their christmas meal at midnight or later.
The really traditional food here is Pavo en Escabeche . This is turkey cooked in a broth like dish with lots of onions and special herbs and spices…. This is one of my favourite Yucatan dish… Why boiled turkey? Well most people do not have an oven to roast a turkey and if they did have one the oven is usually used to store pots and pans and only the top burners are used.
My boys (my staff ,whom I call my boys) came in a bit late the day of christmas as they had only a couple of hours sleep after their festivities! Even I was quite tired after cooking all day what I know as the traditional christmas dinner .
We served over 20 people that night and the restuarant looked quite festive with the table pointsettias and the lovely napkins folded to look like candles .
So another christmas gone and another anniversary of the opening of the restuarant Wow how time flies these last years now going into my 6th year of operation and I could not be happier as how this place has grown.
I hope your own growth bears fruit for this special time of the year and the New Era
It is nice to see that some places still can display the Nativity scene in public areas. Here in the US, sad to say, Christmas has become “Holiday” and the “Christ” has been left out of Christmas.
Even the Christmas tree is not allowed in many places but Holiday decorations of winter scenes are allowed.
Yes I know and I think its sad that this is happening ….. I would not think that here in Mexico one could take out christ from Christmas there religious roots run deep Have a wonderful new year Donna hugs Valerie
On 12/28/12, Thepickledonionyucatan's Blog
very nice page about the town of Santa Elena and I would like to work for you
Thank you Salvador … Where do you come from? Ticul, Muna???