In Costa Rica, the arrival of December marks not only the start of the Christmas season, but also a dramatic meteorological shift that locals welcome with open arms: the end of the tropical rainy season and the arrival of the sunny, breezy dry summer known as verano. Driven by the cool trade winds called los vientos navideños (“the Christmas winds”) and illuminated by the blooming of wild purple orchids and crimson poinsettia trees, a Costa Rican Christmas combines deep Spanish Catholic devotion with exuberant tropical rodeos, equestrian parades, and days of communal tamale making that embody the national ethos of Pura Vida.
El Portal and Waiting for “El Niño Dios”
At the center of every Costa Rican living room—often occupying an entire corner table or a section of the front porch—sits El Portal (or the Pasito), the family Nativity scene. Unlike minimalistic northern mangers, a Costa Rican Portal is a lush tropical landscape built on a bed of fragrant sawdust dyed bright green and colored wood shavings, bordered by fresh mountain moss (lana), wild bromeliads, and miniature cypress branches, populated not only by the Holy Family, shepherds, and the Three Wise Men, but often by toy cows, horses, dogs, and farm houses.
In traditional Costa Rican culture, although Colacho (the affectionate Tico nickname for Saint Nicholas / Santa Claus) is well known on commercial signs, children are taught that their Christmas presents are actually brought on Christmas Eve at midnight by El Niño Dios (the Infant Jesus himself). Accordingly, the porcelain figurine of the Baby Jesus is kept out of the Portal manger throughout December and placed lovingly into the straw only at midnight on December twenty-fourth, before the family returns in mid-January or on February second (Candlemas) to gather around the Portal one last time for the Rezo del Niño—praying the rosary, singing villancicos, and feasting on coffee and sweet cornbread.
La Tamalada: The Great Family Tamale Assembly Line
If there is one universal aroma that defines December across every province of Costa Rica from San José to Guanacaste, it is woodsmoke and simmering banana leaves during La Tamalada. Making Costa Rican Christmas tamales is so labor-intensive that no single person does it alone; instead, mothers, grandmothers, aunts, and cousins gather for an entire weekend to manufacture a hundred or two hundred tamales at once in a joyful kitchen assembly line:
- Soaking the Plantain Leaves: Broad green banana or plantain leaves are briefly wilted over an open flame or hot stove until they turn flexible and aromatic, then wiped clean to serve as the waterproof wrapping.
- Seasoned Corn Masa: Unlike Mexican tamales made with dry corn husks and fluffy baking-powder masa, Costa Rican tamale dough is cooked from fine cornmeal simmered in rich pork broth, lard, garlic, and cilantro until smooth as velvet.
- The Filling and the “Piña”: Spoonfuls of masa are spread onto two crossed banana leaves and topped with a colorful treasure trove of ingredients: seasoned pork or chicken, yellow rice tinted with achiote (annatto), a slice of carrot, sweet red bell pepper, green peas, garbanzo beans, capers, and green olives. Folded into neat rectangular packets, two tamales are always tied together face-to-face with twine into a bundle called a piña, boiled for hours in a giant cauldron, and gifted to every neighbor and visitor who knocks on the door—paired at night with glasses of homemade Rompope (spiced Costa Rican eggnog spiked with rum) and slices of rum-soaked Christmas fruitcake (Queque Navideño).
Festival de la Luz, El Tope, and “Toros a la Tica”
Because December weather in Costa Rica is warm, dry, and glorious, the entire second half of the month turns into a series of massive outdoor civic festivals in the capital city of San José:
- Festival de la Luz (Mid-December): Over a million spectators line Paseo Colón and Avenida Segunda on the second Saturday of December as dazzling floats covered in hundreds of thousands of LED lights and the country’s finest marching bands—practicing all year for this single night—parade through downtown San José.
- El Tope Nacional (December 26): The day after Christmas is the National Horse Parade (El Tope), when thousands of proud horsemen and horsewomen (caballistas) from ranches across the country dress in wide-brimmed hats and crisp boots to ride prized Costa Rican Paso horses—famous for their high-stepping, rhythmic lateral gait—right down the paved streets of the capital.
- Fiestas de Zapote and Toros a la Tica (December 25 to New Year’s): Beginning on Christmas Afternoon, families flock to the fairgrounds of Zapote or turn on their televisions for Toros a la Tica (“Costa Rican-style bullfights”). Crucially, in peaceful Costa Rica, the bull is never harmed or killed; instead, hundreds of amateur daredevils called improvisados leap voluntarily into the dirt arena and try to touch the bull or dodge its horns before sprinting and diving headfirst over the wooden barrier as the crowd roars with laughter.
