Christmas Eve Tradition Tastes Like Luna's Tamales
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DALLAS (CBSDFW.COM) - Tamales on Christmas Eve are a proud Texas tradition. One Dallas family is working around the clock to make sure they keep their customers' traditions alive.
Christmas Eve is the Luna family's version of Black Friday. Leslie Sharp is here to pick up just one of the thousands of orders for holiday tamales.
"The pressure is on, so we knew to call Luna's," Sharp said.
That pressure comes from taking over her mom's tradition of serving Christmas Eve dinner.
"She called me, and she said I think I maybe have made a huge mistake because this is a lot of work," Sharp's mom, Cynthia Harper said.
Sharp said she briefly considered making her own tamales from scratch.
"Oh no. No. There was no way. It was too labor intensive. I would much rather pay for them, but they have to be good tamales," Sharp said.
That's where Fernando Luna comes in, but isn't easy. After a fire destroyed his old location in 2013, he had to squeeze his tortilla and tamale factory under the same roof as his restaurant in a much smaller space.
"They've all banded together. They've all done an amazing job, and it's a credit to our staff that we've been able to come this far," Luna said.
Thanks to a lot of hard work with family members at it all night over the last few days, Luna's has been able to maintain its tradition of helping other families celebrate theirs.
"We had good teachers. We're just following in the footsteps of my grandmother and my parents," Luna said.
As for the passing of her mom's torch, Sharp says the hard part is over, and the celebration can begin.
"We'll take them home, heat them up, put out some queso and chilli con carne, rice and beans, a little salsa, chips, guacamole, and go for it," Sharp said.
The Luna family plans to open a new location to the public in late January. That will be just in time to celebrate the family business' 93rd anniversary.
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