Hermiston Fiesta Foods Manager Leo Leal, center, wheels a pallet full of 500 toys to be given away to local children during the business' annual posada celebration Friday.

A large group of people enjoyed a traditional Mexican Christmas celebration at a local grocery store Friday.

Hermiston’s Fiesta Foods Manager Leo Leal said the store has hosted an annual posada celebration since it opened in 2009, offering free food and drinks, toys for children and a chance to experience the cultural holiday tradition locally.

Leal said he has worked for Fiesta Foods since 2006 but recently transferred to the Hermiston store, so this was his first posada here.

“It’s going to be really good,” he said as people lined up outside the store Friday. “The turnout is great so far.”

The business gave away free tamales and champurrado, a heated Mexican drink.

“It’s kind of like a hot chocolate, but it’s a champurrado with rice,” Leal said. “It has milk in it. It’s good. It’s something that people like to drink in the winter. It warms you up.”

After the crowd had enjoyed the refreshments, some went inside the store and others stayed outside to sing a traditional Christmas song about Joseph and Mary seeking lodging, which is an English translation of “posada.” The people inside the store sang the part of the host, and the people outside sang the part of Joseph seeking a place to stay.

After the song, the crowd funneled inside the store and out the opposite door to line up to receive a free toy from Santa Claus. Leal said the business had 500 toys to give away to the eager children who patiently waited in line for their turn.

“I think it’s a great draw,” he said. “It’s a good thing to bring the community together. It’s for everybody. It doesn’t matter who you are. We want everybody to come, every customer to come and participate. It doesn’t matter if you like champurrado and tamales or you don’t. There’s toys for everybody.”

Leal also oversees the Fiesta Foods store in Sunnyside, Washington, and the same event there Thursday “was a huge success” with the business running out of toys in about an hour.

Leal said he enjoys working for Fiesta Foods, which offers Mexican specialties in addition to American groceries.

“Obviously, we’re a grocery store, and we are here to serve everybody in the community,” he said. “We have Mexican food, and everything that any other grocery store has, we have here in this store.”

Leal said Fiesta Foods features “home-cooked Mexican food” on a daily basis, as well as a bakery and a deli with staff who make food from scratch and a traditional meat department.

“You know, not a lot of people have scratch bakeries anymore,” he said. “We bake everything. All of our cakes are baked from scratch. We’ve got meat cutters back there cutting fresh meat every day, so it’s not coming in packaged already. We’ll cut the meat any way you like it.”

Leal said the Hermiston location is a great store, and he is excited to get to know the community.

“I think (Hermiston) is a really good town,” he said. “I’m really excited to be part of the community. I do a lot in Sunnyside. I’ve been involved with the community there since the day I moved there. I’m excited to come in here and get my foot in the door and start meeting people and getting involved in events. Fiesta Foods is here to help, and I’m here to help Fiesta Foods help the community. That’s my job.”

Fiesta Foods is open from 6 a.m. to midnight at 1875 N. First St., Hermiston.