They are one of the oldest foods still eaten today.

The first to make them were the Aztecs, Mayans, Incas, Olmecs and Toltecs beginning in Mesoamerica about 8,000 B.C. I’m talking, of course, about tamales, the iconic Christmas dish of Latin American cultures.

When it comes to tamales, Margarita Ramos takes first place. I sat down with her daughter, my sister-in-law, Karina, as she reminisced about Christmas past with her large Mexican-American family.

“When I think of Christmas and my family, the first thing I think of is sweet tamales,” she said. “Throughout the year we enjoy pork, chicken or cheese tamales, but for Christmas, we always have sweet ones, tamales de dulce.”

Margarita joins her two sisters and sister-in-law for the all-day preparation.

“On one side of the table is a stash of hojas, husks,” explained Karina. “Today they come washed, but back in the day they soaked them in these huge bowls. They add a whole mess of stuff to the masa to make it amazing, and then prepare three or four fillings – yellow with pineapple, pink with raisins – and then work for hours assembly-line style.

“We would help, of course,” she said. “We were five children in my family, plus the cousins, 15 or 20 kids running around. We’d be excited to make 10 or 15, and then we were over it.”

The ladies would prepare hundreds for their large family, enough for Christmas Eve dinner and trays for each to take home.

“All my aunts have their specialty. My mother and Tia Josefina compete for the best tamales,” Karina said. “Tia Rosa makes the best posole (meat and hominy stew) with fresh hominy, not canned. Tia Elisa makes the best mole. These labor-intensive dishes they happily and joyfully make when everyone is together. As children we expected it.”

Gifts are opened at midnight Christmas Eve.

“There’s always so much food; we have it all again for breakfast,” Karina noted. “The posole is made in the biggest pot on the planet, like a witch’s brew pot. It’s so big it has its own burner outside, because it’s too big for the stove. Then at some point the barbecue comes out. My dad (Juan) uses real wood, so no matter where they put it, everyone always goes home smelling from smoke.”

For dessert, they serve buñuelos, fried crisps with cinnamon sugar.

“The key to getting perfectly round disks is to stretch the dough as much as you can without making holes. My mother’s always has holes, but Josefina’s are perfectly round and thin with no holes,” Karina said. “I asked my mother for the recipe, but you know how they cook, some of this and some of that.”

Margarita makes the disks by adding lukewarm water with a pinch of salt to flour.

“You keep adding water until you get a ‘nice dough consistency,’ my mother told me. You make golf ball-sized balls, cover them with a kitchen towel, and let them rest at least an hour. Then you roll them out on a floured surface to about four or five inches, and then stretch them as thin as you can without creating any holes,” Karina said. “You fry them in oil (Margarita uses Mazola), turning them once until they’re golden brown, drain them on paper towels, and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar.”

Margarita’s recipe is “in her head,” says Karina, and after making them for so many years, she works by feel. I found a similar recipe on Food.com, just search Mexican bunuelos.

Fullerton’s Judy Bart Kancigor is the author of “Cooking Jewish” and “The Perfect Passover Cookbook.” Her website is cookingjewish.com.