An American Writer Looks at Christmas in Mexico

Published December 17, 2023

by Philip Gambone

This year will be my first Christmas in Mexico. I am especially looking forward to the posadas, the nine-day festival that enacts Mary and Joseph’s search for an inn (posada) on their way toward Bethlehem. Many years ago, when I studied Spanish in high school in the old El Camino Real series (does anyone else remember those textbooks?), we learned that a posada was a Christmas party. “Nine families take turns giving the successive parties,” the book explained, “and everyone goes to them all.” Well, a posada, I have subsequently learned, is a bit more than that, but the book caught the gist of it.

Posada celebrations begin on el diez y seis de diciembre and feature songs, dances, house-to-house processions, and the breaking of candy-filled piñatas. When, a few years ago, I saw Leonard Brooks’ mysterious and wonderfully atmospheric painting “Posada” at an exhibition of his work at Casa Europa, I became intrigued and ever since have wanted to learn more about this beautiful Yuletide ritual.

And what better way to understand these Christmas festivals than through the eyes of a child? Or through the eyes and artistry of a children’s book illustrator? One of the most beloved American children’s Christmas books turns out to be Marie Hall Ets’ Nine Days to Christmas, the story of a little Mexican girl about to experience her first posada. Ets, who wrote and illustrated 21 children’s books, won the prestigious Caldecott Medal in 1959 for her Christmas book. “Few children’s books can boast a more beautiful title page and a more complete unity of design, illustration and format,” wrote Elizabeth H. Gross, a children’s book librarian and professor of Library Science.

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