On Los Angeles’s Olvera Street, a procession with candles stops at a shop door and sings, asking to be let in. From inside, someone sings back: no room here. A few verses later the door swings open, and the night turns into piñatas, pan dulce, and cups of warm champurrado.
Las Posadas is a Mexican Christmas tradition celebrated over nine nights, December 16–24, recalling Mary and Joseph’s search for lodging in Bethlehem. People ask for shelter through song, then gather to celebrate. Here you’ll find how a posada unfolds, the song with its English meaning, why the piñata has seven points, and easy ways to share it all with kids.
Jump to: the meaning · dates · the celebration · the song · the piñata · U.S. communities · origins · home and classroom ideas
What is Las Posadas?
Las Posadas brings the Christmas story into a neighborhood: a group represents travelers seeking shelter, another group answers, and a door finally opens. The Spanish word posada means lodging or an inn; las posadas is plural. Pedir posada means to ask for a place to stay.
The tradition has Catholic roots: Mary and Joseph’s journey is remembered through prayer, procession, and song. It is also a party. Once the door opens, there’s food, a piñata, and neighbors spending the evening together.
These words help a child follow the celebration:
| Spanish word | English meaning | Where it fits |
|---|---|---|
| Posada | Lodging or an inn | The shelter the travelers request |
| Peregrinos | Pilgrims | The people asking for shelter; also figures of Mary and Joseph |
| Afuera / adentro | Outside / inside | The two groups in the song |
| Piñata | A container decorated and filled with treats | A game at the gathering |
| Aguinaldo | A small Christmas gift | At a posada, often a bag of fruit and sweets |
| Ponche | Punch | A warm fruit drink served at some celebrations |
| Nochebuena | Christmas Eve | The final night of the traditional cycle |
If a grandparent would rather read along in Spanish, share our guide to posadas navideñas, explained in Spanish.
When is Las Posadas celebrated, and why are there nine nights?
The traditional dates are December 16 through December 24, ending on Christmas Eve. That makes nine evenings, counted inclusively. The dates stay the same each year.
In Catholic practice, a novena is nine days of prayer. Mexican historian Amparo Rincón Pérez explains the nine nights as a reminder of the nine months Mary carried Jesus.
In practice, many families host just one posada, and schools often hold theirs before winter break. In some neighborhoods, the nine nights rotate from house to house, so each family hosts once. Public processions in U.S. cities pick their own date, sometimes early in December, so check the local announcement before you go.
How is Las Posadas celebrated in Mexico?
A traditional posada moves from a candlelit procession to a sung request for lodging, then to a welcome and a party with a piñata and aguinaldos. Every family and town gives it its own flavor.
1. The pilgrims gather
Participants take the roles of travelers and hosts. Figures of Mary and Joseph may accompany the procession; some celebrations have people portray them. The peregrinos lead the request for shelter.
Before taking your child to a procession, explain who is walking and why. A short introduction gives them something to recognize when the singing begins.
2. The group walks and sings
The procession follows a route toward the place that will receive everyone. Candles may light the walk. Religious celebrations can include the rosary or a litany, a prayer with repeated responses.
For a small gathering with young children, you can use battery-operated lights and a short, clear route. Let your child walk beside you or watch from the place where the guests will arrive.
3. Two groups ask and answer at the door
The people outside sing the travelers’ request. Those inside answer as the hosts, and at first they say no. Tell younger children about the happy ending beforehand: the closed door is part of the play, and everyone gets invited in.
4. The door opens
When the hosts recognize Mary and Joseph, they sing «Entren, santos peregrinos» (“Come in, holy pilgrims”) and open the door. The two groups become one, and the party begins.
5. People share food and gifts
A piñata may be part of the gathering, along with small bags called aguinaldos. These can hold fruit, candy, and colación, the small colorful sweets associated with the season.
The menu varies. In Mexico, warm fruit ponche and crispy buñuelos are classics, and tamales often join them. In one California family, recipes from San Luis Potosí bring pozole rojo and sweet empanadas to the table. Food is a good way into the conversation: ask who makes it and whose recipe it is.
What song do people sing during Las Posadas?
The traditional song for asking for shelter is a dialogue between the pilgrims outside and the people inside. The opening verse gives Joseph the request:
En nombre del cielo,
os pido posada,
pues no puede andar
mi esposa amada.
English meaning:
In the name of heaven,
I ask you for lodging,
for my beloved wife
can walk no farther.
The word os is an old-fashioned “you”; Joseph is speaking to the hosts. For a child, the story is simple: someone has traveled a long way with a tired companion and needs a place to stay.
Read the English meaning together, then try the Spanish one line at a time. The complete Spanish lyrics for asking for posada, with inside and outside parts let a larger group split the turns all the way to the welcome.
Why does the Christmas piñata have seven points?
In the Catholic reading of the seven-point piñata, its points stand for the seven deadly sins: greed, lust, sloth, pride, envy, wrath, and gluttony. Breaking it means defeating evil, the stick stands for the strength of faith, and the candy that rains down is the reward.
For a younger child, keep it simple: the points are temptations, and hitting the piñata is like saying no to them. Let your child count the seven points before the game starts.
While someone swings, everyone else stays back and sings:
Dale, dale, dale,
no pierdas el tino,
porque si lo pierdes,
pierdes el camino.
Hit it, hit it, hit it, don’t lose your aim, because if you lose it, you’ll lose your way.
Choose a paper or cardboard piñata with light treats, and keep the player’s eyes uncovered, as Mexico’s disaster prevention center recommends. When it breaks, an adult takes the stick before the kids dive in. To make your own, see the guide to making a seven-point piñata (in Spanish).
How do communities in the United States celebrate Las Posadas?
Las Posadas is part of December in many U.S. cities, and each community celebrates it its own way. These are real places your child can find on a map.
Los Angeles and Pico Rivera, California
On Olvera Street, the posadas have been held since 1930: nine nights of processions asking for shelter at the shops, with piñatas for the kids, champurrado, and pan dulce. Everyone is welcome to walk along.
In nearby Pico Rivera, processions come with horses and mariachis. Natalie Amador Solis grew up there and tells how her family’s posada tasted of San Luis Potosí.
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio holds La Gran Posada, a big procession that ends at San Fernando Cathedral, and smaller posadas at the historic missions on different evenings.
Santa Fe and Pecos, New Mexico
In Santa Fe, a candlelit procession circles the Plaza, with carols at the bandstand. At Pecos National Historical Park, the parish has walked a route lit by farolitos, singing in Spanish and English, with hot drinks and biscochitos at the end. Northern New Mexico has sung its own posada songs for generations; the Library of Congress keeps old recordings of them.
Where did Las Posadas begin?
Las Posadas grew out of religious celebrations in colonial Mexico. Mexico’s national institute of history traces them to the Augustinian convent at Acolman, near Mexico City, where friars held the misas de aguinaldo, Christmas Masses from December 16 to 24 with readings and scenes of Jesus’s birth. Over time, the celebration moved into neighborhoods and homes.
In December 1840, a Scottish-born writer living in Mexico City, Frances Calderón de la Barca, went to a posada in a grand house and wrote about it in Life in Mexico: a procession through the corridors, one group singing outside a closed door, voices answering from inside, and a nativity scene waiting when it opened. Almost two centuries later, any child would recognize that night.
How can you share Las Posadas with kids at home or in class?
Begin with the people in the story, the song at the door, and a real community’s celebration. Pick one idea for an afternoon, or mix several into a family gathering.
At home: follow the request and the welcome
Explain that the pilgrims are looking for somewhere to stay before Jesus’s birth. Read the verse and its meaning, and let your child decide whether to speak, hold a figure, or listen.
For preschoolers, act it out with two figures and a cardboard doorway on the table. You move the travelers toward it; your child opens the door when the welcome comes. With school-age kids, split the song’s parts and walk a short route through the house.
If your family celebrates Las Posadas, ask a relative about one remembered detail. Who hosted? What went in the aguinaldos? Which line of the song did everyone sing loudest? Write down the answer, and let your child draw the scene beside it.
In class: connect words, places, and actions
Introduce Mexico on a map, then locate Los Angeles, San Antonio, and Santa Fe. Pick one of the celebrations above and describe what happens there. The vocabulary table gives students words to recognize in the song.
A classroom sequence could be:
- Read the opening verse in Spanish and its English meaning.
- Identify the travelers, their request, and the people who answer.
- Draw the closed doorway and the welcome as two scenes.
- Compare the drawing with a community example: where do people gather, and what happens afterward?
In a secular classroom, present the Catholic story and its symbols as part of a living tradition. Students whose families celebrate can share a memory if they want to.
For an activity afterward, the Christmas activity pages give kids something to print and color.
What can you talk about afterward?
Ask one question that follows something your child noticed: Why do the singers take turns? What changes when the door opens? What would help a guest feel welcome in your home?
To write a card for the hosts or a relative, Merry Christmas in Spanish has phrases to use. And the season keeps going: many families follow Las Posadas with Three Kings Day on January 6.
Fuentes
- Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia. “Acolman: cuatro siglos de posadas y tradicionales piñatas”, December 20, 2023.
- Instituto Nacional de los Pueblos Indígenas. “Las Posadas: Armonía y celebración”, December 17, 2022.
- Secretaría de Cultura. “Las fiestas navideñas, expresiones de sincretismo, comunidad e identidad”, December 22, 2017. Interview with Amparo Rincón Pérez.
- OCP. Misal del día 2019, vol. 36, no. 1, published in 2018. “Las Posadas,” traditional, p. 262.
- Centro Nacional de Prevención de Desastres. “Antes de romper la piñata, ¡toma precauciones y evita accidentes!”, December 15, 2017.
- City of Los Angeles. “Inside Las Posadas: A Timeless Holiday Tradition at Olvera Street”, December 26, 2025.
- Solis, Natalie Amador. “Music and Foodways of Las Posadas in Pico Rivera: Pozole Rojo, Ponche Navideño, and Empanadas Dulces”. Smithsonian Center for Folklife and Cultural Heritage, December 14, 2023.
- El Camino de San Antonio Missions. “Las Posadas”, December 2024 program.
- Museum of New Mexico Foundation / New Mexico History Museum. “Las Posadas on the Plaza”, December 7, 2025 event.
- National Park Service. “Old and New Holiday Traditions: Farolito Walk and Las Posadas at Pecos National Historical Park”, November 28, 2018.
- Library of Congress. “About this Collection: Hispano Music and Culture of the Northern Rio Grande, Juan B. Rael Collection”, undated.
- Calderón de la Barca, Frances. Life in Mexico, 1843, Letter the Thirtieth, account of December 1840. Project Gutenberg, ebook 9364.
The verses are traditional; the opening one follows OCP’s Misal del día, and the English versions are ours. Sources checked October 16, 2026.
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