Mexican Christmas Mini-Piñatas (DIY) — Is there a better international icon of Mexican culture than the colourful and diverse piñata? If you know about the Latin culture and the Spanish language, you know the piñata! If not: the piñata is “one of the most typical elements of celebrations in Mexico”. It cannot be missed at important Mexican events like birthday parties and the typical Mexican Christmas posadas. Want to know more? Read along! Would you love to have your own pinata? Since everything is different in 2020, maybe you have a bit of extra time at home this year. Why not make a mini-piñata yourself as part of your Christmas decoration?
CHRISTMAS IN MEXICO
Mexico is a country full of cultural traditions and the Christmas season is no exception. Christmas in Mexico is celebrated during the whole month of December and starts days in advance of the holiday itself. It all ends with a great Christmas dinner together with the entire family, as in other Latin American countries.
Most Mexican families will have the nativity scene in their houses. Nativity scenes or ‘Beléns’ are made of all kinds of materials, from fabric to porcelain over ceramic. And, of course, everyone in Mexico decorates their Christmas tree.
Read more about Mexico and Christmas in Latin America and Spain here.
MEXICAN CHRISTMAS TREE
Christmas trees in Mexico come in all sizes and colours and are decorated in the most varied ways.
The tradition started in Mexico in the 19th century, and with some relapses, it was quickly replicated in various parts of Mexico; first in urban areas and then, over time, everywhere in the country.
Families, shops, public squares, shopping centres, government buildings, etc.: will all put up a bright, decorated Christmas tree. The Christmas tree is a decorative element of great symbolism for the celebration of Christmas in Mexico. The Mexican Christmas tree is decorated with a star, coloured balls, lights, sparkles, garlands and bows. However, you can find more and more traditional decorations for the tree, with a great connection to the Mexican culture.
Neomexicanismos, a platform to help grow Mexican diversity, show us some beautiful traditional Christmas trees on Facebook and other social media pages.
MEXICAN PIÑATAS
An essential element of any event or decoration in Mexico are piñatas. Piñatas are colourful decorations initially made of clay. They are filled with seasonal fruits such as tejocote, jicama, lime, sugar cane, mandarin, orange as well as peanuts and various varieties of sweets.
Piñatas are, according to the Mexican government, an “internationally recognized symbol of Mexican culture.” There is even a typical Festival de la Piñata in Mexico in the city of Acolman (Estado de México).
The piñata came to Mexico in 1586, together with the tradition of the Christmas posadas. The original piñata was a clay pot. Colored china paper was added to make it more colorful and represented “superfluous pleasures”. The seven peaks symbolized the deadly sins and were to be destroyed blindfolded with the help of a stick. Later on, it turned into a fun game for kids: hitting and destroying the piñata, so the sweets fall out!
Do you also feel inspired to decorate your Christmas tree in the purest Mexican style? We are happy to help you out with DIY Mexican Mini-Piñata Christmas Decorations
Mexican Christmas Mini-Piñatas
Christmas piñatas an excellent DIY project for the Christmas days for both adults and kids.
Check out these mini-piñatas, made by LulaFlora on Etsy. You can buy them, but you can also make them yourself!
Do you want more inspiration on how to make mini-piñatas, such as Mexican Christmas stars? Check out these YouTube Channels.
Otherwise, please scroll down to see our own adaptation of a video published on Youtube y Citlaly Salas, a 29 years old girl from Mexico and start making your own Christmas piñata.
Video channels on Youtube DIY Mexican art
– Crafty DIY Reciclaje
A Peruvian girl shows us how to make several mini piñatas for Christmas: Santa Claus, a snowman, a star and a reindeer. And they are all equally fun!
– Paperpop
This channel of crafts and creative things is made by Anie from Mexico. Anie explains in detail how to make a mini piñata, and also has a trick to make it easier to glue the piece of cardboard between the two figures (we have used her trick while making our mini-donkey-piñata!).
– Taller de Savinarte
This girl wants to promote the cultural and artistic events of Mexico and Germany, as well as the corresponding connections that exist between these two cultures. She shows how to make mini-piñatas in the typical piñata-form of a five-pointed star.
– Tawa Maki
Here you can see an example of how to make a mini piñata of a gingerbread man cookie; it is for sure the cutest piñata ever! This person also uses the same trick as “Paperpop” to glue her figure together.
Ready for your own Mexican Christmas Mini-Piñatas?
What are you waiting for? Let’s get started with our own Mini-pinata. Here are the instructions! We have based ourselves on a video published on Youtube y Citlaly Salas
Watching it, Spanish will be an excellent practise for your Spanish Skills.
Otherwise, below we have included the instructions in English.
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CHRISTMAS MINI-PIÑATAS: the materials
- Cardboard or carton, for example, a cereal box
- Paper, stickers, etc. for decoration
- Coloured crepe paper
- Thick thread
- Liquid glue or silicone
- Scissors
- Ruler
Mexican Christmas Mini-Piñatas: the instructions
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Start by tracing the pattern of your mini-piñata. We will use the example of a mini-Christmas tree. You only need the shape of a triangle (for the tree itself) and a circle (for the trunk), so absolutely not complicated at all! Although you can also use the shape of the mini-donkey, you can find next to the materials above. You have to trace and cut the form two times.
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To make it a 3D project, you must cut a cardboard strop of around 2 cm wide. How wide you make the cardboard strip will depend on how big your mini-piñata figures are. You can fold the cardboard strips to make it more flexible.
- Cut a piece of thread and glue it to one of the figures of the piñata.
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Glue the cardboard strip carefully around the contour of whole the figure. Leave a space without glueing to be able to put the sweets in the piñata later. If you don’t want to put sweets, you can glue the whole figure.
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We close our piñata by glueing the other figure too. If your piñata has another part, repeat the process for the other part (for example the trunk for the Christmas tree).
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Cut a strip of (green for the tree and brown for the trunk) crepe paper of about 1.5 centimetres. Again, that will depend on how big your mini-piñata figures are. Make small cuts at one end without reaching the other end of the paper.
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Unfold and glue the strips of crepe paper until the figure is completely covered with crepe paper. Don’t forget the sides, the back and the bottom!
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If your mini-piñata has different parts (for example the tree part and the trunk part of the Christmas tree), glue them together. If your mini-piñata only has one part (for example the donkey), you can skip this step.
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Now you can decorate your piñata entirely in your own way with paper, stickers, thread, etc. For example, you can decorate the donkey piñata with eyes or the Christmas tree piñata with Christmas ornaments. Just use your imagination!
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Fill the mini-piñata with the sweets before hanging it in your Christmas tree! It will be great to see the result of your own hard work hanging in your Mexican themed Christmas tree… and it will be even greater to be able to eat the sweets on Christmas!
TRY OUT:
Here at Spanish Online (AMAUTA Language school), we’ve made our own mini-donkey-piñata! Although the result is not as perfect as in the YouTube examples, we still think it went pretty nice knowing it was our very first time we made a mini-piñata. And we had a great time!
See here a little photoshoot:
Let us know what your mini piñata(s) look like! Or do you have more Latin American DIY Christmas ideas? We are curious to see the results!
| Interested in the Latinamerican culture and the Spanish language? Take Spanish Classes Online to improve your |
