There’s a fiesta, fair or major happening going on somewhere in Mexico every day of the year. The Reporter has compiled a month-by-month run down of major dates to mark on the 2013 calendar.

With Christmas Day falling on a Tuesday this year, routines will not be put out of kilter significantly over the holidays.  Apart from most supermarkets and convenience stores, shops will be closed on December 25, as will all banks, government offices, post offices and diplomatic missions (including the U.S. and Canadian consulates). Hospitals will maintain skeleton staffs and will only attend to emergencies.  Both Red Cross and fire services will be operational.

The popular Plaza Galerias area in the western fringes of Guadalajara, with its adjacent Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, Costco and myriad stores and restaurants, continues to be a favored site for elaborately choreographed petty crimes. Despite reports in the Guadalajara Reporter and other media exposing them over the years, these rip-offs live on and claim new victims, some of them middle-aged and elderly foreigners.

Grinches are always extra active during the this season, looking for unsecured houses and even cars, and aiming to make off with some loot. Mexico is surely safer than many U.S. cities, but wise and wary expats should be prepared to foil grinches with heightened awareness of their modus operandi.