Southwestern Style Christmas
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Feliz Navidad! Okay, so we’re still three months away from Christmas, but I couldn’t help posting this now. It’s too much fun and a crafter’s got to have to time to stitch before Christmas. Celebrating Christmas in the American Southwest is a little different than you’ll see in other parts of the country. I have several ties to the Southwest which helped inspire the Southwestern Chile Peppers Christmas Lights C2C Crochet Afghan.
Growing up as an Army brat, my family lived in many different states, including southern Arizona twice. I now have sisters in New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. In addition, my in-laws reside in Tucson, so whenever we visit them at Christmastime we get a dose of Southwestern Christmas flavor.
If you’d like to celebrate Southwestern style this year, here are a few favorite traditions you may find in Arizona, New Mexico, other southwestern states, and Mexico to get you started.
Foods
Tamales: a traditional Mexican dish made from a meat filling in a corn dough, steamed in corn husks. Tamales are a traditional Christmas entrée and frequently given as gifts to friends and neighbors.
Christmas Enchiladas: Enchiladas served with both red and green chile sauces. Enjoy this anytime of the year, all you have to do is ask.
Biscochitos: New Mexico’s state cookie – a crisp buttery cookie flavored with cinnamon and anise. Allison on Some the Wiser shares her recipe along with drool-worthy photos.
Decorations
Ristras: Forget evergreen swags. You’ll see chile pepper swags adorning doorways and windows instead.
Luminarias: Paper bags filled with sand and glowing candles. Luminarias line streets and driveways at Christmastime to light the way for the Christ child into your home.
Christmas Hats: Okay, so this is nothing new, but look for them on cacti and roadrunners as well as on the jolly fat man with the long white beard.
Christmas Lights: Christmas lights may be found not only on people’s homes but on their cacti as well. And in addition to traditional Christmas lights styles, look for these fun chile pepper lights to add a dash of spice to your holidays.
These bright and spicy lights are the inspiration for the Spicy! Southwestern Chile Peppers Christmas Lights C2C Crochet Afghan.
Order The Exclusive Southwestern Chile Peppers Christmas Lights C2C crochet Afghan Pattern
This festive pattern is only available in my Etsy shop SwishandStitchCrafts. It features 3 different chile peppers Christmas lights panels.
The sample blanket was stitched with Loops and Threads Impeccable Yarn in HEATHER, BLACK, KELLY GREEN, RED HOT, and SUNNY DAY. It measures approximately 55 inches wide X 66 inches long when crocheted at the suggested gauge.
Finish the Southwestern Chile Peppers Christmas Lights Blanket with a fabulous 3-row Rainbow Bean Stitch Border. This fun interlocking stitch, gives great texture to the edge of this blanket. The Bean stitch is one of my favorite stitches. I try hard to find occasions to use it, so you know I’ll be using this edging again.
The pattern includes printable charts and row-by-row instructions, border instructions, and approximate yarn requirements. Yarn usage is given in ounces. I don’t have a way to measure yardage as I crochet so I weigh my yarn before and after to give a best guess as to how much is used.
I hope this awesome afghan gives you many years of holiday joy! Send me a pic! I’d love to see it with your traditional (or non-traditional!) Christmas decorations. Enjoy!
~ Lucinda
