25 Mexican Christmas Recipes to Try

Atole is a popular Mexican winter drink from the central Mexican highlands made by boiling water, corn masa, and sweetener.

The result is a veritable meal in a cup that’s as hearty and comforting as can be.

The Champurrado takes things up a notch by adding chocolate, cinnamon, and other spices to plain atole. You’ll find it at every winter fair and Christmas party in Mexico.

Pozole is Mexican soul food at its best.

A traditional soup of hominy, chilies, shredded meat, and broth, Pozole hails from the West Coast state of Guerrero.

It comes with numerous colorful garnishes like radish, cilantro, and chopped red onion.

This recipe infuses chicken broth with poblanos, jalapenos, and herbs with tender shredded chicken and hominy, topped with a zesty tomatillo salsa verde.  

Margaritas aren’t just for taco Tuesdays.

This most famous tequila cocktail is highly versatile, allowing you to substitute or augment ingredients for seasonal twists. 

This fall-inspired cranberry margarita is simpler than its classic counterpart, with only four ingredients.

You get the deliciously sweet citrus from the triple sec, the tartness of fresh cranberry juice, and the spicy bite of tequila.

Check out other tequila drinks with fall or winter flavors.

In the U.S. we have gingerbread men and houses. In Mexico, they have gingerbread pigs!

Well, that’s not the only difference. Mexican gingerbread is more like cake than cookies.

You still get the same sweet, spicy taste of gingerbread, but the texture is more like the typical sweet bread you find in Mexican bakeries.

Mexican Bunuelos are a delightfully crunchy dessert comprised of deep-fried flour dough dusted with cinnamon sugar.

I’d liken it to a sweet version of a Mexican tostada. It’s thin and bubbly, with just the right amount of greasiness to absorb the sugar and cinnamon.

These crunchy cookies taste delicious with coffee, or as garnishes for a bowl of ice cream. 

My personal favorite Mexican dessert, Mexican hot chocolate stands out from your typical Swiss Miss hot chocolate by its infusion of fresh cinnamon sticks.

This recipe is as authentic as they come, using Mexican chocolate tablets to melt in whole milk.

If you can’t find these traditional Mexican chocolate tablets, you can look for Abuelita instant chocolate in the Hispanic food section of your grocery store.

Mexican Ponche is a hot fruit punch, using local Mexican fruits, spices, and aromatics.

This is the tropical version of spiced cider. It contains winter fruit like pears, apples, and oranges cut into chunks and brewed with brown sugar, tamarind, cinnamon, and hibiscus.

This punch is equal parts sweet, tangy, and spicy. 

Traditional bite-sized wedding desserts, Mexican Wedding cookies are also a great option for the Christmas dessert table.

Mexican wedding cookies are dense, sweet, buttery dough balls covered in powdered sugar.

The dough melts in your mouth with a lovely crunch from the chopped pecans strewn throughout. These taste delicious with coffee. 

Check out other Christmas cookies to add to the spread!

Every culinary tradition has a sort of dumpling, and for Mexicans, it’s the tamale.

Tamales are corn masa stuffed with savory or sweet fillings before being wrapped in corn husks and steamed in a large pot.

Red pork tamales stuff corn masa with rich shredded pork simmered in red ancho chile and pork broth.

Nochebuena is the Spanish term for Christmas eve, so this salad is a favorite Christmas eve dinner side dish. This salad is equal parts fruit and vegetables over a bed of romaine lettuce.

The beets, jicama, plantains, and pomegranate tendrils create a perfect Christmas color wheel.

I especially like the crunch from chopped peanuts and the minty citrus vinaigrette. 

Pozole Rojo is a central Mexican variation of this west coast favorite.

It is a pork-based hominy stew in a deep red broth made from a combination of guajillo and ancho chilies.

The savory, fatty chunks of pork shoulder absorb the spicy chilies well. Plus, the garnish list is longer than the soup ingredients! 

Mexican Christmas Fruit Salad may sound like something you’d pass up in favor of cake, pie, and cookies.

However, this decadent and creamy salad is usually the first dessert dish you run out of at a Mexican Christmas dinner.

It consists of both canned fruit and fresh fruit, chopped nuts, dried fruit, and shredded coconut.

The most decadent part about it is the dairy-laden sauce of cream cheese, condensed milk, and cream. 

Empanadas are a popular hand-held snack or appetizer in every Latin American county, each having its own set of fillings and cooking methods.

This recipe is a savory and spicy baked empanada.

It’s a simple recipe that streamlines the filling by calling for store-bought red chili sauce to mix with fried onions and ground beef. 

Sopaipillas are a sweet version of fry bread that was brought to the Americans by the Spanish conquistadors.

The original recipe dates to the Moorish empire in Spain and has evolved into various renditions in South, Central, and North America.

You’ve probably seen them on the dessert menu in a New Mexican or Tex-Mex restaurant.

They’re flatbread soaked in oil and either baked or fried, then dusted with sugar or served with honey. 

Concha means shell in Spanish, and these classic Mexican sweet buns are shaped like giant clam shells, with colored, flavored powder highlighting the baked-in ridges.

Conchas are a staple at every Mexican bakery and kitchen table.

There’s nothing more comforting than a sweet bun dipped in hot chocolate to start your Christmas morning. 

The most beautiful Christmas dish of all, Mexican Chiles en Nogada is an unforgettable main dish.

They consist of roasted poblanos stuffed with a savory, well-spiced picadillo filling, topped with a rich creamy walnut sauce and a sprinkle of pomegranate arils.

If Christmas was a platter, it would be Chiles en Nogada.

For adventurous eaters, Mexican Menudo is delicious if you can get over the shock factor of eating intestine.

Mexican Menudo is beef intestine bits stewed in a rich, spicy beef stock full of fresh herbs and guajillo peppers.

This recipe adds hominy and potatoes to the soup to add a soft texture that will stand up to the chewiness of the tripe. 

Mole is one of Mexico’s most famous dishes, hailing from both Puebla and Oaxaca.

Mole Poblano is the traditional recipe from the Mexican state of Puebla.

Mole has a million ingredients, blending chocolate, spices, chilies, and nuts into a rich paste to combine with broth into a creamy, complex sauce.

Mexican Nino Envuelto is the Mexican version of a Swiss Roll, a buttery sponge cake with marmalade topping rolled into a dessert log.

This recipe uses strawberry marmalade and tops the roll with shredded coconut.

The fluffy, springy sponge cake absorbs the strawberry marmalade, turning the cake a beautiful orange color. 

If you’re not a fan of the traditional salty Christmas ham, try this spicy, moist, smoked Pierna de Puerco Adobada.

This pork leg sits in a flavorful marinade of Mexican spices, vinegar, and orange juice overnight. 

The marinated pork leg gets a generous slather of spicy, smokey adobo sauce before being baked.

Chiles Rellenos mean “stuffed chilies.” In the case of Mexican Chiles Rellenos, chilies are stuffed, breaded, fried, and sauced.

You start with roasted poblano peppers, stuffing them with a soft, melty cheese like asadero or Chihuahua. 

The stuffed chili is dipped in egg wash, breaded, and deep fried, then placed into a bath of tangy Mexican tomato sauce.

If you can’t decide between red and green sauce, you can have them both in this classic Christmas dish.

Red and Green Enchiladas are a Tex-Mex-style Christmas dish, using flour tortillas stuffed with seasoned shredded chicken and cheese.

Before popping the enchiladas in the oven, they get a half-and-half coating of red and green sauce.

You can highlight the color difference by creating a partition with fresh pico de gallo garnish. 

In Mexico, you don’t get presents at Christmas. You get presents for Dia de Reyes or Three Kings Day on January 6th.

Along with gift-giving, the whole family participates in the cutting of the Rosca de Reyes, a giant sweet bread loaf in the shape of an oval donut topped with candied fruit.

Inside the Rosca are strategically placed figurines of Baby Jesus. If you cut a slice with the figurine inside, you must buy tamales for the whole family at a later date!  

Tamales are labor intensive and thus made in large batches to enjoy with family and friends on special occasions like Christmas and New Year's Eve.

This unconventional veggie tamale consists of fresh zucchini and corn kernels in corn masa dumplings.

I thought it clever and healthier to use chicken bouillon cubes dissolved in water to flavor the masa instead of lard. 

Christmas dishes are often elaborate and time-consuming, but this recipe is quick and simple. You don’t have to dirty multiple dishes either!

This one-pan fajita recipe has you toss chicken breasts, onions, and bell peppers in fajita seasoning and vegetable oil before throwing it all on a sheet pan into the oven.