Growing up in a Mexican home, I was surrounded by the holiday traditions that have been a part of my culture for longer than I’ve been alive, and I became so used to this that I never realized that my own customs might be different from my American friends’ that lived even in my own neighborhood. As I’ve grown up, I’ve come to realize how different Christmas is in my house in comparison with the less loud and boisterous American holiday. Some of the most puzzling differences in the two holiday traditions are:

Christmas Parties
In my family, Christmas isn’t Christmas without a posada. A posada is half religious, half celebratory and all fun. The first part consists of a recreation of Mary and Joseph’s pilgrimage to Bethlehem; it’s kind of the Mexican version of a Christmas Pageant. The party half of it is complete with piñatas, Mexican hot chocolate (the best kind, in my opinion), tamales and Mexican punch that is often spiked with whiskey.

American Christmas parties, from what I’ve noticed, have a lot fewer people (granted Mexican families are usually no smaller than 15 or 20 people), a lot more finger foods, and a lot less dancing.

Decorations
A Mexican household isn’t decorated properly if it doesn’t have a nativity scene, and the more elaborate and creative the better. If you have more than one, you’re definitely doing it right.

American houses are always beautifully decorated, but theirs are a lot more often “Winter Wonderland” or “Santa’s Workshop” themed than ours.

Christmas Dinner
Christmas dinner is when the whole family gets together to exchange gifts and eat like it’s our first meal in seven years. A general rule of thumb is to not come too hungry, though, because if there’s anything Mexicans are exceptionally good at is unpunctuality, and you can be almost certain that if we say dinner will start at 6:30, we probably mean 8.

I’ve noticed that American Christmas dinners start pretty early and end in a matter of hours or as soon as everyone is done eating, as opposed to ours that starts at about 6 at night and goes on until about 3 or 4 in the morning.

Christmas Cards
Unless your Mexican family grew up in the US and has little contact with Mexican family, don’t expect to get holiday greeting cards with the whole family dressed in matching Christmas sweaters.

American families: cards on cards on cards on cards.