Midnight Tamales

Food has a unique way of bringing people together, and that’s true all over the globe. As we prepare to gather with family and friends for Thanksgiving and Christmas, we asked a few of our international team members to share their Christmas traditions and a favorite recipe. We’ll be sharing these with you over the next few weeks. We invite you to download these free recipes and add some new flavors and stories from around the world to your holiday table.

It’s midnight on Christmas Eve in Guatemala when the fireworks start going off.

“For us, the 24th is the special day, waiting for Jesus to be born,” said Yolanda Chacaj, our Guatemala Program Director.

And when midnight hits, fireworks fill the sky, music spills out in the streets, and tamales and other delicious foods are shared with family and friends. “It’s the most special time of the year,” Yoli said.

For their midnight dinner, Yoli’s mother and grandmother cook 100 tamales! “Such a large quantity is made because we share the tamales with our family who live around our house and some neighbors,” Yoli explained. “We believe that Christmas and the holidays are good opportunities to share tamales with people who do not have the opportunity to make them, so then they will have a plate of food.”

The preparations for the tamales begin at least a week before. Ingredients are purchased at the local market. Corn is cooked, and then it’s taken to the mill to be turned into flour.

The day before Christmas Eve, Yoli’s mother and grandmother start preparing the dough for tamales. Then on Christmas Eve they’re up cooking by 7 a.m. While the matriarchs make the tamales, Yoli and her brother purchase bread, grapes, and apples. Yoli’s sisters prepare additional foods, perhaps turkey or pork legs. All the cooking is to feed the ten people who live in their home, plus at least ten cousins who will join the celebrations, and then plenty of extra food for some neighbors.

Yoli’s father will also be preparing to work on Christmas Day. While others are celebrating and resting, he’ll be out on the streets selling granizadas, a shaved ice treat that he makes with lime and tomato juice.

Yoli and her family live in one of the homes that International Samaritan built almost 30 years ago. It’s in Zone 3, an area known for housing the city’s garbage dump. It’s the zone where most of our Samaritan Scholars live. A former Samaritan Scholar, Yoli is one of many former scholars who work on our country teams, yet she’s the first to lead a country team.

After a Christmas Eve day full of cooking and preparing, Yoli and her family enjoy their first dinner, and then together they head to church for a special 8 p.m. service. After the service, they don’t have to wait long before the midnight celebration, fireworks, and their much-anticipated traditional tamale dinner.

International Samaritan is a Christ-centered organization built on Catholic Social Teaching. Our mission is to walk hand-in-hand with people who live and work in the garbage dumps of developing nations to help them break out of poverty.

We provide holistic scholarships for students from kindergarten through college, and we’re currently supporting 950 scholars in Central America, the Caribbean, and East Africa.

Would your church or school group like to partner and travel with us? Learn about our Learn, Serve, Grow program.

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Yolanda Chacaj, Program Director

Yoli is the first former Samaritan Scholar to lead one of our country teams. She graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Computing with a Business concentration and then obtained a Master’s of Social Work. Outside of work, Yoli lives in Guatemala City with her family. She enjoys spending time with her family and says they are her main motivation for everything she does.

Your church, school, or community group can support Samaritan Scholars this Advent season by setting up a Samaritan Tree. Learn more and request your free kit: intsam.org/samaritan-tree.