Christmas at the ranch many years ago and now

My personal memories of the Christmas season are probably different from those of southern Mexicans, for we had many Americanized customs in the north. The whole thing came back to me  vividly a couple of years ago when the English-language Mexico City News printed an article on me and shortly received a letter from old family friends,

What happy times those were! Our preparations began months before the holidays when we started fattening a hog with all our food scraps, to be slaughtered a few days before Christmas and turned into all sorts of delicacies: chorizo, chicharrones, carne adobada, revolcado  (braised pork in red chile sauce) — but mainly the traditional Christmas tamales.

Photograph by Jason Williams

Tia Elizabeth and Tio Lynch would arrive a few days before Christmas with their three sons, who were about our age. Mother would deck the halls with seasonal greenery and pretty decorations and lovingly set out our nacimiento, all except for the figure of the Child. We would help her make the same Christmas candies year after year: dates stuffed with a pecan half and rolled in sugar, prunes filled with fondant and topped with a pecan half, divinity with black walnuts gathered from our own trees, and fudge. Tia Elizabeth would arrive bringing her own sweets and my grandmother’s cook, Ramon, would send bizcochos, simple cookies in the shape of miniature pretzels —  made with a very rich short dough and rolled in cinnamon sugar. Fires were lit in all the fireplaces and we would drink hot buttered rum or canela  (Ceylon cinnamon) tea.

The day after the Grattans arrived we would all turn out to cut the Christmas tree, children on horses and the adults in a mule-drawn wagon.  Father had previously combed the mountains for likely candidates and we would vote on our choice. We would sing American Christmas carols all the way and have a picnic in the cold. We also cut plenty of boughs to make wreaths and brought back a tree for each of the cowboys’ families.

The Grattans would leave Christmas Eve to celebrate on their ranch about two hours’ drive from San Pedro, and we would begin on our Christmas tamales from the year’s chosen hog. The task and the tamales were shared with all the cowboys’ families on the ranch. All the wives would come to our house on the morning of Christmas Eve and spend the day making the tamales with shredded pork and red chile sauce, laughing, singing and chattering all the time.  But only one person was allowed to actually handle the masa for the fillings — there is a belief that only one hand should touch the masa or it will sour. Late on Christmas Eve we would take presents to their houses — children’s toys, flannel shirts, underwear, something pretty for the wives. Mother always made a shopping expedition to El Paso or Douglas, Arizona, for these gifts early in December. We loved to wrap them and take them over the icy field under the starlit winter night. They in turn would give us  flaky cinnamon-covered bunuelos (fritters) and a cup of hot atole (a gruel of ground corn and Ceylon cinnamon).

Our Christmas Eve dinner was turkey. And throughout the land people eat turkey for this celebration, as they have for important feasts since Aztec times. After all, it was Mexico that gave turkey to the rest of the world!  Late that evening  our nacimiento would be completed when Mother placed the Baby Jesus in the cradle. We would sing carols accompanied by Father on the organ and Mother on piano — and usually sneak a look at our gifts because we couldn’t wait until morning.  I think we had the best of both worlds, the sacred holiday as it is observed in Mexico and the secular spirit of giving that makes Christmas such an exuberant time in this country.

Now my children are married and have their own traditions for Christmas Eve when I now have friends over but we still get together on Christmas Day.  Everyone contributes something they have  made by hand so their essence imbues the dish following our tradition.  The menu is usually the same with tiny variations.

Gravlax a la mexicana

Pate

Ham or Pork cooked with sauerkraut as my friend Maryjo Schwalbach Gitler taught me years ago

Root Puree made with turnips, parsley root, parsnips, rutabaga

Blood orange, thinly sliced red onion  topped with crumbled Stilton cheese

Brocolli with chorizo – Aaron’s creation.  Recipe is on www.zarela.com

Victoria’s christmas pudding

My Coffee Crunch Cake (see recipe on website)