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Enjoy these 50+ ideas for the best Mexican Christmas food! This collection includes sides, entrees, and even drinks and desserts!
More Collections: Italian Christmas Dinner, Christmas Side Dishes, Christmas Dinner Ideas, Christmas Desserts
We Love a Mexican Christmas Dinner!
In Mexico, and many Hispanic households, Christmas Eve, or Nochebuena, is when the largest Christmas feast is eaten.
And can we all agree that Mexican food is the best?!
What’s to love:
- Tradition. As far back as I can remember, my Luna family would gather on Christmas Eve and enjoy a spread of our favorite Mexican dishes.
- Variety. So many favorites like enchiladas, tacos, flautas, empandas, rice, pozole, mole sauce, Mexican Hot Chocolate and more!
- Easy. With a few sides, salsas, and main dishes you’re set to enjoy all the best Mexican Christmas food perfect for Christmas day!
Decorating Tips
Decorating for our Noche Buena celebration always includes 2 things:
- A Nativity. Traditionally, on Christmas Eve in Mexico, children lead a procession into the church and place the baby Jesus into the manger. We display a Nativity and act out the Christmas Story from Luke 2.
- Poinsettias. My mother has them everywhere. Poinsettias bloom in southern Mexico during the winter and there is a heartfelt Christmas legend associated with the beautiful plant.
Tips for a Festive Christmas Meal
- Spice level. Be mindful of preferences. Label which dishes are spicy and which ones are milder. Another option is to prepare more mild dishes, and set out hot sauce to add a kick.
- Seasonal fruits. Incorporate seasonal fruit or fruit traditionally used in Mexican food like oranges, guavas, jicama, and pomegranates are great choices.
Top Mexican Dinner Ideas
Because so many people love Mexican food, especially for the holidays, I wanted to share some of our favorite recipes for a traditional Mexican Christmas menu.
Serve your dinner up with a traditional Eggnog or traditional champurrado!
Feliz Navidad!
1 Cheese Enchilada
2 Carne Asada Recipe
3 Beef Empanadas Recipe
4 Chicken Enchilada Recipe
5 Chicken Tacos Recipe
6 Tostadas Recipe
7 Chicken Flautas Recipe
8 Quesadilla Recipe
9 Chimichanga Recipe
10 Mexican Lasagna Recipe
Mexican Christmas Appetizers
We love to have appetizers laid out as people come for holiday gatherings, and any of these recipes would be great for your Mexican Christmas dinner.
Don’t forget the Tortilla Chips. If you don’t have time to make them, our all-time fav is Juanita’s brand chips!
Plan to serve 3-5 appetizer pieces per person. For 5-10 people, serve 1-2 different appetizer dishes. Add another appetizer dish for every 5-8 people in attendance.
11 7 Layer Bean Dip Recipe
12 Salsa Recipe
13 Nacho Cheese Recipe
14 Bean Dip Recipe
15 Tortilla Chip Recipe
16 Queso Blanco Recipe
17 Black Bean Corn Salsa
18 Mexican Wontons Recipe
19 Mexican Pinwheels Recipe
20 Salsa Verde Recipe
Mexican Christmas Side Dishes
Now that you have your appetizers, you need some sides. We like to have at least one or two sides to serve with our Mexican meals. Our go-to’s always include rice – Mexican or Cilantro Lime rice, and Beans!
21 Spanish Rice Recipe
22 Mexican Cornbread Recipe
23 Mexican Street Corn Recipe
24 Sour Cream Rice Recipe
25 Crock Pot Pinto Beans Recipe
26 Flour Tortilla Recipe
27 Canned Refried Beans
28 Esquites
29 Cilantro Lime Rice Recipe
30 How to Make Guacamole
Mexican Main Dishes
We have so many delicious Mexican recipes we love to make. For Christmas, we always do at least 3 recipes, and it’s usually a Taco, Enchiladas, and ALWAYS Empanadas (they’re the family’s favorite)!
But all of the recipes below are winners, so give them a go and let us know what you think.
31 Beef Enchiladas
32 Albondigas Recipe
33 Carnitas Recipe
34 Chicken Enchilada Casserole Recipe
35 Cream Cheese Chicken Enchiladas Recipe
Recipe Video
Get the recipe36 Cilantro Lime Chicken
37 Green Chile Burritos Recipe
38 Carnitas Tacos
39 Baked Chicken Chimichanga Recipe
40 Burrito Recipe
41 Bean Chimichangas Recipe
42 Taco Casserole Recipe
Recipe Video
43 Honey Lime Chicken Enchiladas
44 Creamy Chicken Enchilada Recipe
Recipe Video
Get the recipe45 White Chicken Enchiladas Recipe
Mexican Christmas Desserts and Drinks
We of course include a few desserts in our Christmas Mexican food spread! I’ve gathered some of our favorites – including drinks!
For 8 or fewer guests I’ll only plan for 1 type of dessert. For every 8-10 more people, add another dessert option. No matter how many options there are, you only need to have enough for people to have 2 total servings of dessert.
46 Tres Leches Cake
47 Mexican Wedding Cookies Recipe
48 Sopapilla Recipe
49 Churro Recipe
50 Chocolate Tres Leches Cake
51 Cinnamon Tortilla Chips
52 How to Make Flan Recipe
53 Sopapilla Cheesecake Recipe
54 Mexican Fried Ice Cream Recipe
55 Cheesecake Chimichanga
Christmas Wedding Cookies
What better way to end your Mexican Christmas fiesta than with delicious cookies?
These Christmas wedding cookies have become a family favorite and they’re so simple that even the kids can make them.
After all that Mexican food, these cookies are the perfect treat to end the meal and they’re especially great for Christmas because they look like snowballs!
Here is the recipe:
55 Mexican Christmas Food Ideas
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter
- ½ cup powdered sugar
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1 teaspoon almond extract
- 2 teaspoons water
- 2 cups all purpose flour
- 1 cup almonds, chopped
- ½ cup powdered sugar, to roll cookies in
Instructions
- Cream the butter and powdered sugar together in a medium bowl. Then, mix in the vanilla and almond extract.
- Add the flour and almonds. Mix until just combined.
- Cover the bowl and chill in the fridge for 1-2 hours.
- After the dough has chilled preheat the oven to 325°F
- Shape the dough into balls and roll in powdered sugar and place on a cookie sheet. (Do not spray the cookie sheet). Bake for 16-18 minutes.
- Once cool roll them in powdered sugar.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
A Christmas Fiesta!
Pick and choose a handful of recipes from each of these categories for the perfect Mexican Christmas dinner.
There are so many delicious dishes to choose from, you really can’t go wrong with any of them!
Be sure to check out all of our Christmas Recipes.
More Collections: Mexican Soup Recipes, Mexican Appetizers, Mexican Chicken Recipes
I used your flautas recipe to make a few chicken and beef flautas for our Christmas Eve dinner. The added salsa to the meat as the perfect bit of flavor.
Mexican food is our Christmas Eve tradition! We make your enchiladas, rice, & empanadas!! It’s all so yummy!
Our most favorite food on the planet! You cant go wrong with any of these dishes. All family approved. You will enjoy these dishes all year round.
I am so looking forward to trying these recipes. Mexican is my favorite food!!
I look forward to you trying them 🙂 Hope you like them!
All of your Mexican dishes our family favoritesnof ours .
Yay! Glad it is! Thank you for letting me know!