It is one of the oldest continually occupied communities in the United States. Natives lived in what is today called Taos, New Mexico, as long ago as the 13th century. The Spanish didn’t arrive for another nearly 200 years. Still, customs and traditions that date back centuries are still practiced, especially those that fall during the contemporary holiday season.
Taos community event coordinator, Judy Esquibel, spends a good deal of her time this time of year preparing for the town’s annual holiday season, including the Christmas tree lighting at the town plaza. The town’s tree lights up the first week of December. “It’s the heart of our community,” she said. “During the holiday season, it’s just magical and it’s not just for locals but for visitors, too.”
The town of 6,500 goes all out for the seasonal celebration, though truth be told, said Esquibel, the festivities are aimed mostly at the kids. “I have done 25 years with the town and seen kids grow up and later bring their own children.”
The town’s merchants are also a key part of what makes Taos postcard special, Esquibel says. “Coming into Taos, maybe right before dark, bundling up, is a visual treat you can only get in Taos.”
“While you’re walking from shop to shop, you’re looking at al the lights, the farolitos, you’re hearing groups singing Christmas carols with people taking pictures and enjoying something warm to eat. They do such an amazing job,” said the Taos native who also took in the season in Taos as a young girl.
At the town’s library, said Assistant Library Director Nicole Thibodeau, kids are the central focus. “We have weekly story times with themes of season celebrations.” But, because of the acknowledgement that it’s a holiday season and not just Christmas, more and more activities are taking on a more secular theme. “We have a display,” said Thibodeau, “that relates to people of all different faiths and beliefs.”
The lean toward a more secular seasonal celebration is not only happening in Taos but nationwide. Over the last decade, the fastest growing ‘religious’ group in the country is those with no religious affiliation. Taos, as in other cities, took notice. “It came up recently in relation to the displays,” said Thibodeau. “(We) currently have a winter display that’s about snow and all the things you can be grateful about.” Another display in the library is one “that relates to people of all different faiths and beliefs.”
One very unique Taos tradition is the bonfires at Taos Pueblo, said Thibodeau. “On Christmas Eve night there are especially tall bonfires at the Pueblo commemorating a time when the Pueblo was under attack and the only people there were elders and women and children. It (the bonfire) was built as a defense.”
But the holidays, no matter one’s faith, is inextricably linked to food, said Design Consultant and New Mexico native, Greg Gomez. According to Gomez, also a gourmet cook and baker, three of the most common New Mexico holiday offerings are biscochitos, “a shortbread cookie made with lard and anise,” pastelitos, a sweet treat made of rehydrated fruits, including dried apples, pears seasoned with cinnamon, allspice, nutmeg, cloves, vanilla and sugar and empanadas, “a fried turnover with mincemeat filling.”
Each of these morsels may have been on New Mexico tables even before the Pilgrims were breaking bread with the Wampanoag tribe in New England in 1640, the date of the first Thanksgiving. The menu for that meal—wild turkey, regional game, cod and bass and something called ‘flint,’ a native strain of corn used as corn break and porridge—did not include a dessert.
Food is the one item, said Gomez, that seals family and friends together. “When you cook,” he said, “you honor the history of your family. You have all those aromas in the kitchen and it brings back great aunts and uncles into your home.”
Gomez learned the secrets of these offerings as a young boy. “My Dad sent me to his mother’s for two weeks when I was twelve to learn how to make them,” he said. Today he’s his family’s designated cook and pastry chef. “My brother once asked me to give him my recipes,” he recalled. He couldn’t pass along the information because his grandmoth- er did everything from memory and that’s where his recipes are stored, as well. To share the recipes with his brother, he said, he had to actually measure things out individually. When he did turn over the recipes to his brother, he did so with a caveat. “Don’t ever ask me again!”
“It was a pain in the rear to measure things out just right.”
