SAN ANTONIO – Similar to Christmas trees and Santa Claus, tamales are a holiday tradition in South Texas.
Kevin McGree ordered a couple of dozen at Delicious Tamales on Culebra Road on Thursday morning.
"Every year on Christmas Eve, we eat tamales," he said.
Enriquetta Mancha Stuart also bought several dozen for her family.
"That's our breakfast for Christmas morning," she said.
Delicious Tamales owner Valerie Gonzalez said about 1,200 dozen tamales are sold every day at the Culebra location in the days leading up to Christmas.
"Of course, the five days leading up to Christmas are going to be the busiest," she said. "It's the busiest days of the year."
Traditionally, tamales were only made with pork.
These days, Gonzalez sells chicken, jalapeno varieties, bean and sweet tamales, among others.
Last year, Gonzalez unveiled the Southwest Vegetarian tamale, made with black beans, corn and canola oil instead of lard.
"We knew that there was a group of people out there that didn't eat the tamales because of health reasons or personal choice so we had to give them a product that would give them the tradition of the Christmas holidays," she said.
Gonzalez said pork is still the top seller, but different choices help keep the tamale tradition going strong in changing times.