Tex-Mex Christmas Traditions Abound In My Small South Texas Hometown
Also: a shout-out to José Feliciano
If you've never experienced "Tex-Mex" Christmas traditions, allow me to be your guide as I look back (fondly) on those in my small South Texas hometown. Many of them are shared by other communities near the U.S. Southern Border with Mexico - but some of them are unique to where I am taking you.
We're in Kingsville, Texas - a community of just over 25,000 people about 120 miles north of the Rio Grande. The city was founded by the legendary King Ranch whose headquarters are just west of the city limits.
The King Ranch is the largest in the United States - occupying about 825,000 acres surrounding Kingsville and other nearby South Texas towns. As I've written before, the ranch owes much of its success to Los Kineños - Hispanic cowboys originally from the small settlement of Cruillas in the Mexican state of Tamaulipas - whose descendants still live and work on the ranch and in Kingsville.
So many Holiday Traditions in Kingsville recall its ranch roots with a distinctive Mexican accent. Today the holidays are ushered in with a series of events beginning with "Ranch Hand Weekend" in late November which honors Los Kineños and the Anglo cowboys and other ranch employees who work the ranch with them.
What began almost 35 years ago as a breakfast on the ranch to replace the once annual "King Ranch Show & Sale" (an auction of the King Ranch’s prized Santa Gertruidis cattle and thoroughbred “cow ponies”) as THE event on Kingsville's social calendar has since grown into a multi-week affair that attracts people from all over the state.
The Ranch Hand Breakfast (which has since grown into "Ranch Hand Weekend") is heavy with Tex-Mex staples such as Chorizo, refried beans, fresh tortillas, and very strong cups of coffee.
(It's also not lost on locals that this is the only time of the year they can drive their private vehicles onto King Ranch Headquarters without prior permission).
Over the past 30+ years, this event has grown to include a Downtown Kingsville
"wine walk," a country concert, a symphony concert, and a festival, leading to Kingsville's official Christmas Tree Lighting.
But the crowning Holiday Event is La Posada de Kingsville & its illuminated night parade that has replaced a decades-old annual Christmas Parade through Downtown Kingsville with an even BIGGER parade for more than 30 years.
The original parade was what you would expect in a small town: High School & Junior High bands marching down "main street" (Kleberg Avenue - named for the Kleberg family whose heirs currently own the ranch).
Today's event is an over-the-top illuminated event featuring lighted floats by Kingsville organizations and surrounding South Texas communities:
Beyond these community celebrations are some individual holiday observances with Tex-Mex influences I remember from my childhood well into my adult years (many of which are shared with other communities along the Southern Border with Mexico).
First - is the enduring tradition of "Christmas Tamales,." For families making Christmas tamales brings many generations together to shape masa, meat, and corn husks into a traditional holiday treat.
For those of us unlucky enough to not have a tía or abuela in the family (or a close family friend) to accommodate this annual tradition it's enough to have a local "connection" to purchase homemade tamales.
On Reddit, I was amused to read about how to obtain homemade Christmas tamales in much larger Texas cities than Kingsville:
"People in the know have a "tamale lady" who sells them in nondescript packages from the back of an old station wagon in a transaction that looks suspiciously like a drug deal."
"The only way you can get a GOOD tamale is buying it from a tía's trunk. I fully stand by this. I won't eat one unless it comes from a trunk!"
Tamale acquisition methods aside, my go-to method for separating newly arrived South Texans from natives centers around a (now) extremely popular Tex-Mex Christmas anthem:
In 1970 José Feliciano - a very homesick Puerto Rican recording artist - took a break during a long L.A. studio recording session to record a Spanglish Christmas tune called "Feliz Navidad" he quickly wrote that he thought would never be released. It went on to become a holiday standard and one of his most popular songs.
When "Feliz Navidad" hit the South Texas radio airwaves that year it became an instant hit in communities like Kingsville along the US Border with Mexico.
As hard as it is to believe now, "Feliz Navidad" was a "regional song" that did not hit the US national playlists until almost two decades after José Feliciano originally recorded it.
"Feliz Navidad" made the top 10 for the first time in the U.S. (at No. 10), becoming Feliciano's first top 10 hit on the Hot 100 chart in December 2020. Two weeks later, the song climbed to its all-time chart peak in the USA of No. 6 on Billboard's Hot 100.
As for me (and my classmates) in Kingsville, Texas - we've been rocking out to this Spanglish Christmas tune for more than 50 years now.
Do you have some Christmas Traditions you'd like to share?
Share them in the comments on this article!
¡Feliz Navidad, Próspero año y felicidad!
Abrazos,
Jack Beavers
You are welcome! Hope all is well with your family. Cheers, -jack-
Aloha Jack - Merry Christmas to you & yours!
Thanks for sharing your memories and traditions, and dusting off some of mine as well.
I remember marching that Christmas parade - and I'd love to see how it's grown from that little 'romp & stomp' we used to do, playing "Frosty," or "Here Comes Santa Claus."
As transplanted Texans, tamales were not in our skillset either. Our tamale connection was a lady I worked with at the Navy Exchange. Her church sold large gold-colored metal cans FILLED with tamale goodness for $10 or $15 throughout the year...but at Christmas, the cans had holiday motifs. Tamales for DAYS.
The photos of downtown really spoke to me. It's been too long since I've been "home." After most of my life in the Navy, I've only been back once.
We get busy in life, and forget what we miss. Thank you again!