Mexican Christmas Decorating Ideas for 2009

Whether you're Mexican or looking to add some culture into your Christmas decorations this year, there are many choices and great ideas for bringing the Mexican culture into your house for the Christmas season.

Here are some top decorating tips to add some Mexican flare to your Christmas:

1. The Mexican culture uses different color themes then the American culture uses. While the American culture uses green and red colors, Mexico often uses earth toned colors. They will often cover their Christmas dinner table in painted pieces of paper with different designs, all in earth toned colors.

2. Plaster and Clay Figurines are traditional pieces of artwork you'll find through the house in the Christmas season. These figurines represent the holy family.

3. Nativity Christmas tree or a nativity scene is commonly found either in front of or in many houses in Mexico during the Christmas holiday. They will still decorate their tree, but will often place the scene in front of the tree.

4. Mexican houses will often set up a village by placing different sized boxes in an area and covering them with a blanket to give the look of hills and mountains covered in snow. They will then get toy houses and scatter those over the boxes. This usually isn't a replacement for the Nativity scene, it's an addition to. Mexican families enjoy having a number of intense directions around the inside of their house.

5. Poinsettias are also a very popular item that you'll find in most Mexican homes. They are Christmas flours, they are called "flor de Noche Buena" which means Flower of the good night.

6. You'll also often times find Angels, animals and Sheppard's scattered through the house as well as a serpent and Lucifer to represent all evil forces. You can find some of these wonderful ornaments at www.directfrommexico.com

Mexican Christmas decorations are all revolved around the religious beliefs; color, lights and garland don't really play a huge part in decorating. Most Mexicans are strong believers in the Catholic religion which is why the stories and the bible take such a deep impact on their Christmas celebration. "The people of Mexico commemorate the Birthday of Jesus Christ in a purely religious way. " (www.facts-about-mexico.com). Children do not get gifts on Christmas, they will actually receive gifts 6 days after New Year's Day on the "Dia de los Santos Reyes Magos." Therefore, Christmas in Mexico last 12 days. Not a bad deal!