Christmas in Mexico

Mexicans celebrate the holidays heartily. Christmas decorations come up in October. Blow up Santa’s and other wintery displays adorn roof tops all over Mazatlan as well as any store that financial can capitalize on the giving season. Nativity scenes appear ubiquitously throughout the city and in some of the most peculiar places like in center dividers on major thoroughfares. Orphanages are inundated with seasonal givers who lavishly dazzle the children and then unfortunately disappear on the 26th. Christmas Eve is bigger than Christmas day because the gifts are opened. Christmas day is for showing off the new attire at church, for breakfast with extended family, and for playing with the newest gizmos.
Gringos in Mazatlan celebrate Christmas much differently. Many of the snow birds head home for the holidays. Those who stay may have family visit such as we had. Others gather at restaurants that prepare meals especially for the American and Canadian palates. After spending Thanksgiving at Twisted Mama’s (actual name of the restaurant), Sharon and I were delighted to receive an invitation to the orphanage for Christmas Eve.
Earlier in the month Sharon asked Rafaela, who runs the orphanage, what the children needed. They needed pajamas, socks, and shower shoes. We put up signs around our condo complex, and Philip and Shelley, two of our most enjoyable friends here, purchased all of the pajamas. Sharon and I purchased the socks and shoes. Selecting attire for 28 kids, mostly girls proved amusing. Watching the girls, particularly the middle school aged girls, view the selection with dubiously forced smiles so as not to appear disappointed could not suppress our joy of watching the younger ones beam at Cinderella and Batman pajamas.
The weekend before Christmas Sharon, Nicole, and I took Tino, Kevin, and Paloma shopping for their Christmas Eve outfit. Going to a mall with three wild 5 – 7 year olds amongst the zaniness that occurs in all malls during this season presented some issues. Kevin and Tino wanted to purchase Batman tennis shoes. Rafaela asked us to buy them dress pants and long sleeve button down shirts. At one point I had both boys in a dressing room gallantly attempting to dress two extremely reluctant individuals who spoke no English. Paloma dressed next room over. Tino climbed under our door and under her door. As I pursued Tino, Kevin disappeared into the store to play hide and go seek. Paloma walked out with an outfit. We purchased the boy’s outfits on another day without them.

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During the weeks that led up to Christmas Eve we watched the orphans receive gifts and attention galore. The most unusual being the motorcycle club that hired a party vehicle from Senor Frogs, put a professional clown in it for the ride downtown, and drove a ten motorcycle escort to Burger King where they presented each kid with two or three gifts apiece. The highlight for me was Tino eating his first hamburger. He put catch-up on top of the bun, and he ate the burger around and around from the outside on in. Perfecto. But Nicole, Sharon, Jake (yep our son was in town), and I were honored to attend the Christmas Eve dinner.
The kids gathered in the foyer where the Christmas tree resided with stockings with each child’s name taped to the wall. They each received a wrapped toy that they tore through. While they played, the adults put the food to the serving area or played games with the kids. Jake and I played jungle gym. We were the jungle gyms. Jake has more stamina at this than I.
The older girls set the tables, served the food, and cleaned up the mess. Jake sat at the best table. Edgar Gonzales, who almost hit a homerun to break up Jonathon Sanchez’s no hitter last season, has played for the Mazatlan Venados each of the last five winters. His wife attended as she has volunteered each of those winters. She is bilingual and beautiful. We have eaten better food. The children ate it like it was gourmet.
After dessert we returned to the tree where the children received the rest of their gifts. Rafaela called out each name and off they went into the plaza to open a new prize. By evening’s end initial disappointments disappeared as somewhere in each child’s hands was a gift that meant something special to each of them. I love watching kids at Christmas.

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We have always started our Christmas day off with Pillsbury cinnamon rolls in the morning. Tough to buy here. So off I went to a couple of bakeries. The largest in town was open so I searched for anything that resembled a pastry. I suspiciously snagged three pastries that looked like something delicious resided in the middle. When we broke them open, we discovered ham and cheese. Nunez was not impressed. She then cooked cinnamon sugared pancakes that all of us loved. Later she dazzled us with turkey, stuffing, mash potatoes etc. Jake phoned his girl friend’s grandmother for her recipe for her traditional cranberry sauce. Our gifts consisted of the time we spent with each other. What could be better?

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The week after Christmas Sharon and I bought a mongo boom box to replace the broken one that provided the only music for the children. This gift was my brother, Larry’s gift. When he left after visiting the orphanage in November, he gave us the money to give them something. Rafaela told us that it was what they needed.
This is a gift that keeps on giving. Music once again graces the orphanage's interior court yard. And as I have learned, girls like to dance.