When I lived in Mexico City, it wasn’t uncommon for someone in my building to be throwing a party and playing loud music until the wee hours of the morning. Now I live in the city of Monterrey in Nuevo León, where the summers are long, it can get quite hot and humid, and homes and apartment complexes often have pools—so there are tons of people having pool parties. Of course this requires a barbeque as well, since the Mexicans love to eat meat. Mexico City is quite populous, so a lot of people live in apartments or condos, but it seems like there are more single-family homes in Monterrey. And they’re enormous compared to the homes in Japan. They crank up the music so loud here sometimes that there’s just no comparison with Mexico City.
The police say that it’s ok to file a report if the parties get really out of hand, but music is such a given for parties and everybody does it, so people don’t really demand peace and quiet when the music’s so loud they can’t sleep.
Weekend house parties don’t take much in terms of preparation, but if someone’s having a birthday or special celebration, the Mexicans go all out with the decorations—and Fantasías Miguel is the essential shop they need to throw their parties. Sometimes people hire professional decorators, but more often than not they buy all the materials and put them up themselves. You can buy almost anything at Fantasías Miguel.
Inside, the store is crammed with goods. It’s fun to just go in and look at the magnificent displays they set up before Christmas or the Day of the Dead.
They’ve got everything you need to throw a great party yourself.
Colorful papel picado banners for the Day of the Dead
Sample decorations for birthdays and graduations
Sample decorations for birthdays and graduations
There are also lots of smaller shops selling party goods, but Fantasías Miguel is definitely the most widespread and popular one. Every supermarket also has a little section with party goods on sale as well.
Since I have a daughter, I go to a lot of birthday parties. Sometimes they invite the whole class and cousins and neighborhood friends of the birthday kid—so there are usually between a dozen and over thirty people there. When you add in the parents of all those kids, the parties start to get huge. When we lived in Mexico City, they’d sometimes hold them between five and seven on weekday evenings, but far more often they’d be held during the day on a weekend. In Monterrey, the parties usually go from four to seven on weekday evenings. The difference probably has to do with the fact that in Mexico City, parents also participate in children’s birthday parties and have their own interactions. In Monterrey, with the exception of the birthday kid's parents, usually only the other kids' moms join the party, so I was surprised at first to see that the dads weren’t around. The venue is usually a common party room at an apartment complex or a kids’ game center. Because there are so many large homes with yards in Monterrey, they sometimes call in professional party companies to put up large play equipment or put on clown shows. I’ve even seen spa-themed parties where they do facials and manicures. Of course it’s also common for parties to be held at a park or an indoor play facility with trampolines and similar equipment.
Party equipment set up in someone’s yard
My daughter’s birthday was in April, so we had her party in a park. We had drinks and snacks like gummies and potato chips, and we also ordered a birthday cake and cupcakes. The play equipment in the park would have been plenty, but we also set up a kit to make giant soap bubbles. There is also a tradition where the birthday girl gives small gifts to her friends that come to the party, so we also got some candy, unicorn pens, and cookies with unicorn icing. She wanted a unicorn-themed party, so we used unicorn designs on the invitations we sent out via WhatsApp, on her cake, and on the little presents.
Unicorn cupcakes
It’s typical for Mexican cake shops to prepare these kinds of custom cakes, so it’s not like Japan where you see all the different cakes lined up in the display case and pick the ones you want.
If you’re ever invited to a party in Mexico, I strongly recommend that you go. Just recently my daughter made friends with another kid she met at an indoor play park, and she ended up jumping into the birthday party that kid was participating in. Everyone welcomed her with open arms. So if your next-door neighbor is having a late-night party and you can’t sleep, just head next door and join the fun, saying you cannot sleep because of their noise. You’re sure to make some new friends in the process!
