Must-Haves For Your Next Mexican Fiesta Party

This post was originally published in February 2018 and was updated to include five food and drink recipes for your next Mexican fiesta party.

My family and I hosted a Mexican Fiesta Party in honor of our patriarch’s 98th birthday a couple of years ago.  Despite the fact that it was our first Mexican Fiesta, we coordinated a beautiful party full of color, fun, and delicious food.  Must-Haves for this fiesta included a gorgeous Mexican themed cake, Lotería cookies, Mexican candy, delicious Mexican food and drink, traditional Mexican music, and festive clothing.

Essentials for your Next Mexican Fiesta Party

Bold Colors

Desserts

The first essential in any Mexican fiesta party is color and lots of it!   Color is the one element that can easily be incorporated in your fiesta’s décor, food, and desserts.  Before I start planning any party, I create a Pinterest board to gather ideas and inspiration.  A Pinterest image is the inspiration behind my grandfather’s beautiful and colorful birthday cake.  To view my fiesta-inspired board, visit Mexican Fiesta Ideas.

The birthday cake was the centerpiece of both the party and the dessert table.  Sweet & Tasty Bakery in McAllen, TX created a three tier cake using an image from my Pinterest board.  The bakery was able to impeccably replicate the image I provided them using their artistry and vibrant buttercream colors.  Each cake tier was baked in a different flavor and color to coincide with the Mexican Flag (green, white and red).   The flavors were pistachio, almond and strawberry, respectively.

Cookies

Lotería Mexicana is both a vibrant and iconic image in Mexican pop culture.  Lotería is similar to Bingo and has 54 images – each with a name and an assigned number.  Cookie Place and Sweets, in Pharr, TX creates beautiful and colorful sugar cookies with various Lotería Mexicana images.  Two beautifully iced sugar cookies with different Lotería images were carefully packaged and sealed.  The cookies were a lovely addition to the dessert table and perfect parting gifts for guests.

Candy Table

Mexican candies are a definite must-have for your next fiesta.  If you have a large amount of guests attending your party, I recommend providing an assortment of various goodies in one table.  A combination of Chili-Chamoy Apples, Candy Bags, and Mexican Candy will not only add a festive touch to your Mexican fiesta, but it will also delight many of your guests.

Chili-Chamoy Apples

Chamoy is a popular Mexican condiment that is available in both a liquid and paste consistency.  It’s flavor profile ranges from salty, sweet, sour, and spicy-hot.  Cookie Place and Sweets creates apples covered in a Chili-Chamoy paste.  The Chili-Chamoy Apples are beautifully packaged and tied with a red bow.  The apple treats make a beautiful and colorful addition to any candy table.

Tip:  If you have 100 guests at your next Mexican fiesta, I do not recommend ordering or making 100 Chili-Chamoy apples.  The intent of the candy table is to provide a small sampling of various delights so that each guest can choose one or a couple of items among the varied assortment of goodies.

Candy Bags

One of my favorite DIY items are candy bags decorated with Lotería images.  The DIY activity requires colorful gift bags, a Lotería set, glue gun and glue sticks.   Keeping with the fiesta theme, I recommend using Red, White and Green Bags to coordinate with the Mexican Flag.  To enhance that color scheme, you can also incorporate other bold colors.  One Lotería set is sufficient to create 74 bags, since all Lotería sets have a 54 card deck and 20 boards.  For a personalized touch, the birthday boy or girl’s name, birth date or age can also be added on the candy bag.

Mexican Candy

Colorful Lotería candy bags need to be filled with authentic Mexican candy.  I loved helping set up the candy table at my grandfather’s party.  Along with the adults, we had several children that were guests at my grandfather’s Mexican fiesta.  To ensure that the children at your party have fun, a piñata and a candy table are essential.  Prefilled candy bags, a piñata, and a candy table ensure that each child at the minimum walks away with a small assortment of candies.

In addition to the prefilled candy bags and candy inside the piñata, we provided a spread of various Mexican candies on the table for both kids and adults to enjoy.  The colors of the Mexican candy provides a beautiful decorative detail.  Traditional Mexican candies that adorned our sweet table included: Tamarind Candy, Strawberry and Hazelnut Duvalin, Canel’s Gum, de la Rosa marzipan peanut candy, La Vaquita milk caramel lollipops, Sabritas peanuts, Rebanaditas – watermelon chili lollipops, and the very popular Takis tortilla chips.

 

 

Party Favors

Although party favors can add a pop of color and cheerful element to a party, it is not necessary to spend a lot of money on those items.  For my grandfather’s party, I chose to purchase a  Lotería photo frame from Creative Union Design.  The photo frame was a fun prop for both kids and adults to incorporate into their photography.  In addition to the photo frame, I also purchased personalized Mexican-themed photo props from BigDotofHappiness.  Both items added a pop of color and spice to all of our photos.

Mexican Food and Drink

Pineapple-Mango Salsa

A Mexican fiesta is not a fiesta without Mexican food.  Our fiesta’s menu included Mexican-style carne asada (BBQ), smoked brisket, Mexican rice, frijoles charros, potato salad, tamales, guacamole and plenty of salsa’s.  One of my favorite salsas that I can prepare the morning of any party is my Pineapple-Mango Salsa.  This recipe was one of my most requested at the Mexican fiesta.  The colorful salsa is a great accompaniment to any Mexican dish.  It is also perfect when served alongside tortilla chips as an appetizer.  To see the recipe, click here.

Authentic Mexican Ceviche

A second chilled dish that is excellent for any Mexican Fiesta party is Ceviche.  It can be prepared the morning of your party and is ready to serve after chilling for at least four hours.  The appetizer is a guaranteed crowd pleaser!  The ceviche is best when accompanied by saltine crackers or tostadas.   To see the recipe for my Authentic Mexican Ceviche, click here.

Asado de Boda

A traditional Mexican dish that will make your guests swoon is Asado de Boda or Wedding Stew.   This Mexican dish is composed of fried pork that is simmered in a rich sauce of guajillo peppers, ancho peppers, orange peel, avocado seed, and other ingredients.  My recipe, which hails from San Luis Potosí,  will take approximately two hours to make from start to finish.  The work involved in creating this rich Mexican dish is worth the time and effort.  To get the full recipe for Asado de Boda, click here.

Tamarind Margarita Cocktail

Any proper Mexican fiesta party will have a couple of featured cocktails to share with their guests.  My Tamarind Margarita Cocktail Recipe is a party favorite and pairs perfectly with both my Ceviche and Asado de Boda recipes.  To see the recipe for for my Tamarind Margarita Cocktail, click here.

Aguita de Melón

Aguas frescas are delicious non-alcoholic fruit, flower, or seed based drinks that both kids and adults can enjoy.  These refreshing beverages can be made the morning of any party.  After preparing the aguas frescas, serve them in beautiful decorative pitchers or large beverage dispensers.  These drinks will add a pop of color to any beverage station.  Aguas frescas de sandía, horchata and melón were the three beverages that made an appearance at my grandfather’s party.   To see the recipe for my Aguita de Melón, click here.

Music

One must-have at any Mexican-themed party is the music.  The Mexican music genre varies from region to region in Mexico and in the US.  We have Mexican Pop, Mexican Cumbia, Tejano, Grupera, Huapango, Corrido, Norteño, Ranchera, just to name a few.  The day of my grandfather’s party, we had a Mariachi band and a husband and wife duo who interpreted popular music that spanned these eight genres.  The music was key in fueling a joyous night of dancing and singing.

 

Festive Clothing

A Mexican fiesta party gives you and your guests the opportunity to sport your best traditional Mexican embroidered clothing.  Pictured below, Gabrielle and I are wearing traditional cotton hand embroidered blouses.  In the following photo, my niece wears a traditional hand stitched Chiapan dress from Artesanias y Curiosidades Angelita from Chiapa de Corzo, Chiapas, Mexico.  Festive clothing is another colorful element that can easily be incorporated into your fiesta.

 

 

As well as celebrating my grandfather’s 98th birthday, I enjoyed every step of helping coordinate, cook and set up at the fiesta.

Have you ever had a Mexican or Latin themed fiesta party?  I would love to know what are your fiesta must-haves.  Be sure to share in the comments section!