_{© Suzanne Barbezat}

We're so used to seeing poinsettias as small potted plants that it's a bit startling to see them towering over this wall. This is not such an uncommon sight in southern Mexico where the poinsettia originates.

The poinsettia is known as Flor de Nochebuena in Spanish. Nochebuena means "good night," but is also the name given to Christmas Eve. Find out more about the Mexican Christmas Flower, and Mexican Christmas traditions.

Wordless Wednesday on About
More Wordless Wednesday

If you're planning a trip to Cancun or the Mayan Riviera this holiday season, perhaps you would consider packing something extra in your suitcase for some of the less fortunate children in the area. Give a Toy, Get a Smile makes it easy to donate items to needy children on your vacation.

Give a Toy, Get a Smile is a non-profit organization that was founded in 2006 by Nancy Myers, originally from New York City. The program is modeled on Toys for Tots, and distributes toys, books, clothing and school supplies to needy children in the area of Cancun and the Mayan Riviera. The toys are distributed among children from families with AIDS/HIV, schools for children with mental, physical and emotional problems, orphanages, and children living in the jungle outside of Cancun.

Some of the items you can donate include new, unwrapped toys (not battery-operated), coloring books and crayons, school supplies such as backpacks, lunch boxes, pens, pencils, and erasers, etc. There are drop-off points in Cancun, Playa del Carmen, Puerto Morelos and Tulum. If you would like to make a financial contribution, the charity also accepts donations through Paypal.

For more information about the Give a Toy, Get a Smile program, visit their website: Give a Toy, Get a Smile.

During this holiday shopping season, treat your loved ones - or yourself! - to a little piece of Mexico! Here are some gift ideas for the Mexicophile in your life.

• Posters and Prints of Mexico Destinations: A seascape, or a poster of one of Mexico's gorgeous colonial cities or intriguing archaeological sites makes a great gift.


• Movies Set in Mexico: There are so many different kinds of movies on this list, from classics like The Night of the Iguana, to recent comedies like Nacho Libre, one of these DVDs will hit the right note with someone on your list.


• Best Mexico Guidebooks: Anyone planning a trip to Mexico would be happy to receive one of these guide books.

_{Photo by lecates, licensed under Creative Commons}

Playa del Secreto (Secret Beach) is a beautiful beach near Puerto Morelos in the Mayan Riviera.

Wordless Wednesday on About
More Wordless Wednesday

Follow me on Twitter

This is a great month to visit Mexico. Hurricane season is officially over, and the weather is in general more moderate, though it can be chilly in Mexico City. There are lots of events taking place, from cultural and religious festivals like the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, and posadas and other Christmas traditions. You won't run out of things to do in Mexico in December! Check out our list of December Festivals and Events.

About.com is currently looking to fill some Contributing Writers positions. Contributing Writers work alongside About.com Guides, covering specific subtopics that fall within the larger topic areas of GuideSites. They are responsible for producing a certain amount of content (articles or blog posts) per month on that subtopic. They are not responsible for managing or maintaining a full GuideSite.

One of the current openings is for a Contributing Writer to cover Mexico's beach resorts and cities for the Mexico Travel GuideSite:

While working alongside our Guide to Mexico Travel, you will be providing first-time and repeat visitors a comprehensive look at all these popular tourist destinations have to offer, without overlapping or duplicating existing content. The ideal candidate is a published writer (with clips) who either lives or has lived in Mexico, or who visits regularly enough to be considered an expert; experience writing for the Web is a plus.

Other Contributing Writer positions available in About.com Travel include Caribbean All Inclusives for Caribbean Travel, Italian Cities for Italy Travel, and South Pacific Travel for Hawaii/South Pacific Travel. For more information about the Contributing Writers program and to apply, see Be a Contributing Writer.

_{Photo by Ryan Godfrey, licensed under Creative Commons}

Forget the gravy. The correct topping for turkey is mole (pronounced "mo-lay"). But if you're not ready to change your traditional Thanksgiving dinner, you can give it a try with your leftover turkey. There are many different types of mole, and many variations on recipes. Here's one from About.com's Guide to Mexican Food: Traditional Mole.

Wordless Wednesday on About
More Wordless Wednesday

Mexico City's winter festivities the past few years have been pretty spectacular, but this year's celebrations promise to be even more so. In a recent press conference, Mexico City mayor Marcelo Ebrard announced that this year's "La Magia de Navidad" (The Magic of Christmas) festival will take place from December 5, 2009 to January 9, 2010, and will include the tallest Christmas tree in the world, and not one, but two skating rinks in the Zocalo, as well as traditional Mexican Christmas celebrations such as posadas, pinatas and pastorelas. One of the main events planned as part of this year's Christmas celebration in Mexico City is a free concert by famed tenor Placido Domingo. Billed as the Concierto del Angel, the concert will take place on December 19 at the Angel of Independence monument on the Paseo de la Reforma.

Read more:

• Christmas in Mexico
• Festivals and Events in Mexico in December
• Photos of Mexican Christmas Celebrations

_{Photo of last year's Christmas tree by Gary Denness, licensed under Creative Commons}

When the weather starts turning cold up north, those smart Monarch butterflies begin to head south for the winter. In a space of a few months the monarchs fly over 1500 miles to return to their overwintering grounds in the Mexican states of Michoacan and Mexico. The Monarch butterflies begin arriving in Mexico around the Day of the Dead, but January and February are the best months for visiting butterfly reserves, when you can experience being surrounded by these colorful creatures and have them fluttering around you. A trip to the monarch butterfly reserves is an amazing experience.

This year's monarch migration is lower than in past years due to the drought in Texas in the spring, and cold, wet weather in the northern United States over the summer, but there will still be plenty of monarchs for those who plan to visit them in Mexico this winter.

Read more about the amazing monarch butterfly, and about visiting Mexico's Monarch Butterfly Reserves.

_{Photo by Suzanne Barbezat}

_{Photo by Ivan Hernandez, licensed under Creative Commons}

This week marks the 99th anniversary of the Mexican Revolution and there's a big celebration in store next year, when besides being 100 years since the Revolution, it will also mark the bicentennial of Mexican independence. Read more about Mexico's 2010 Bicentennial Celebrations.

The Monumento a la Revolución is located in Mexico City in the Colonia Tabacalera. The monument was built between 1932 and 1938 using the foundation of what was to be a legislative palace under president Porfirio Diaz, who was deposed during the revolution. The remains of some of the important leaders of the Mexican Revolution are contained in crypts in the four columns of the monument, including Francisco Madero, Venustiano Carranza, Francisco "Pancho" Villa, Plutarco Elías Calles and Lázaro Cárdenas. A museum dedicated to the Mexican Revolution is located beneath the monument.

Wordless Wednesday on About
More Wordless Wednesday