Culture in Motion: The Latino Traditions Anchoring Austin’s Holiday Season
Austin’s Latino community is keeping traditions alive in 2025 through cultural events, food, and arts programs that anchor holiday life across the city. These celebrations appear not only in December but throughout all the seasons—from Día de los Muertos to community tamaladas, Las Posadas, and year-round arts activities.
Each fall, Austin hosts some of Texas’s largest and longest-running Día de los Muertos celebrations. Families build ofrendas, join parades, and attend festivals such as the Viva La Vida Festival organized by the Mexic-Arte Museum. Other institutions, including the University of Texas, help keep cultural practices visible by building community altars and hosting performances during this time. These fall observances flow directly into the winter holiday season with community events like Las Posadas and tamaladas.
Las Posadas, the tradition reenacting Mary and Joseph’s search for shelter, remains a meaningful way Latino families in Austin connect faith, culture, and community during the holidays. In Central Austin, St. James’ Episcopal Church organizes a series of Posadas from December 16–24, while in Northwest Austin, Bethany United Methodist Church hosts a family Posada on December 20. These events blend traditional processions, Christmas foods, and cultural elements from Mexico, Central America, and South America to reflect the diversity of the various Latino congregations.
Tamales also remain a core aspect of holiday tradition during the winter season. Austin institutions actively support this through hands-on community events; the Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center hosts an annual tamalada where families learn to make traditional tamales, even encouraging them to hold their own tamaladas at home.
Celebrating Latino culture and heritage is not only reserved for the holiday seasons.
Throughout the year, the Mexican American Cultural Center also offers arts and culture programming, welcoming hundreds of visitors annually. For example, its Casa de la Cultura program and seasonal youth exhibits feature music, dance, visual arts, and theatre, bringing in visitors and community members alike; the center prides itself on connecting younger generations to Latino heritage through creative practice rather than formal instruction alone.
In a rapidly growing city, these festivals, Posadas, tamaladas, workshops, and family gatherings show how Austin’s Latino community keeps traditions both rooted and evolving. By centering public art, food rituals, bilingual programming, and intergenerational learning, Latino Austinites make the 2025 holiday season, and more, a living expression of cultural memory and pride.