How Do You Roll El Paso on Homemade vs. Store-Bought Tamales?

There are some holiday traditions we continue to keep up with that are always a joyful and tasty experience. We are only 11 days away from Christmas which means some families in the borderland are preparing for the day to either make or buy tamales.

Enter your number to get our free mobile app

I totally get so many different families in the borderland to partake in different holiday traditions every year. But I do know there are other families that share the same tradition as my family does every year before Christmas arrives.

Usually just days before Christmas we would pick a day to head out at the butt crack of dawn just to score some tamales in Canutillo. Now just by my reference of Canutillo should tell you where my family buys tamales from.

If you guessed Tamales Lupita in Canutillo then winner-winner tamale dinner. But seriously the phrase "The early bird gets the worm" is so true in this sense.

If you want to score your particular favorite means you have to get in line early, and I mean early. Depending on how far you live from Canutillo also makes a difference on how early you need to get up.

But my family's tradition is waking up at 3 in the morning to get ready so we can head on over to order some tamales of all sorts. But if you've also headed out early then you know about the line that is already formed when you arrive at Tamales Lupita.

Then after a victory of ordering our personal favorites in dozens, we make a stop for a little pick me up. Usually, our stop for coffee is at Dunkin' where I normally order something warm because of how cold it gets early in the morning.

I remember the time El Paso Times shared a video on YouTube about the fire that broke out at Tamales Lupita in 2013. I can just imagine how many people would have freaked if the fire happened during the Christmas Holiday. This is an annual holiday tradition for those families in El Paso who rather buy the best tamales instead of making them.