Nochebuena con Boricua, sabor de Colombiana!

By Alicia Cruz
Theblackurbantimes

The Christmas season is a very religious time for Hispanics, but come Nochebuena, we celebrate with a party that usually lasts until morning.

Nochebuena (Christmas Eve) typically (for me at least) begins with preparation of the foods and making sure I have all I need for the evening dinner and celebration. I keep my Christmas tree lit, light my red and white candles and leave la alumbrados burning all day and night.

Later, we have dinner with the family then attend midnight Mass. After that, la fiesta begins! And...as we do with everything else, we celebrate Nochebuena with great passion.

THE PARTY

La Dona's savor the evening serving their kings and family and watching everyone enjoy the fruits of their labor. There's always lots of food, good music, drinks and desserts replete with aguinaldos (Christmas songs) or parrandas.

Your family, friends and neighbors come to mingle while snacking on appetizers like plantanos and avocado, pasteles, ajiaco, empanadas, arepas, natilla, tamales, arroz con dulce and buñuelos while they dance to vallenato or cumbia tunes.

Nochebuena always calls for postre de natas (in Bogota) and flan. My cousins prefer arroz con coco (coconut rice pudding). Both are desserts like natilla.

El Dons (the men) must have their beer so we make sure we have plenty of cold micheladas (beer) on hand with salt y lemon for the beers. At midnight we toast to one another with aguardiente or sabajón. Sabajón is a lot like Coquito (Puerto Rico), a kind of eggnog that we drink during Christmas. The children drink ponche fruta.

As for the aguardiente, well, we drink that all year 'round, but during Nochebuena and Christmas, it's stacked high in almost every Colombianos kitchen. Aguardiente is an anise based liquor and it packs a mighty punch.

The Dinner

Then there's La cena de Nochebuena or Cena de Navidad (Christmas/Christmas Eve dinner), which in my home, is usually lechón asado (roasted pig) and all the fixings, but what others serve during La Cena Nochebuena can vary depending on what region of Colombia or other country they are from. Cubanos also serve lechón.

In Puerto Rico our Nochebuena meal consists of (of course) lechón asado, arroz con gandules and plátanos. And we serve our traditional holiday beverage, Coquito.

Click here to read article The Quest for the Best Coquito! ¿Qué es coquito?

¡Feliz Nochebuena a todos from your Blackurbantimes Familia!