Building Their Traditions on Faith, Family

Inside the cozy home of Jose and Karlyn Gutierrez, the Christmas tree is trimmed in white, red and green, the national colors of Mexico.

It’s a fitting tradition for this large family, a blend of Jose’s Mexican roots and Karlyn’s Danish culture. Together, they have raised 10 children, ages 5 to 30, and have 10 grandchildren.

At Christmas, the family joke is that no matter where they celebrate, “it’s going to be crowded,” Jose Gutierrez said.

Both Jose, 42, who is a printer, and Karlyn, 49, have been on a missionary trail that began right after they met in Sacramento years ago. As Christians, they’ve celebrated Christmases past in Northern California, at an orphanage they ran in Mexico and, in recent years, on Santa Catalina Island helping a pastor begin a new church.

For them, as for thousands of Orange County residents who mark the birth of Jesus as a holy day rather than a holiday, Christmas is about faith and family, traditions and customs--not shopping sprees.

Jose, for example, plans to read the Christmas story to his children and share the background of the nacimiento--a Nativity scene with figurines portraying the Holy family, the Magi, shepherds and animals--prominently displayed in the family’s living room.

“I want to pass down some of the traditions of Mexico and also what my wife and I believe in,” Gutierrez said.

This Christmas, they are expecting Jose’s sister, Gudelia, to visit and help prepare chicken tamales and pozole, a hominy stew she makes to perfection.

“Jose was orphaned at the age of 5,” Karlyn Gutierrez said, “and his sister is very important to him and us. Plus, she’s a wonderful cook and really the one who taught me how to make tamales.”

Though of Danish background, Karlyn Gutierrez said that years ago she decided that when the couple began having children, “I wanted them to embrace his culture.”

For their Christmas tree, she and the family adorned it with bright red and green ribbons and bows, and added strings of popped white popcorn, to represent Mexico’s colors.

“Because I’m Danish, I also like to tell the kids about St. Nicholas,” Karlyn Gutierrez said, referring to the legend of the saint arriving on a boat from Spain and giving presents to children for opening on Dec. 6, St. Nicholas Day.

The Gutierrez family places faith first, above what they call the commercializing of Christmas. Though they have had little in the way of material things, they said, many of life’s blessings have come their way through prayer.

“It’s been that way ever since we married and ran an orphanage,” Jose Gutierrez said.

On Christmas Day, in addition to enjoying the food and each other’s company, they plan to eat a traditional birthday cake that Karlyn Gutierrez bakes each year in recognition of Christ’s birthday.

Then the entire family will attend church.

Wednesday: Creating family and community traditions for Christmas.