Better than hot chocolate?

’Tis the season for gift-giving, so Amador Arteaga of Arteaga’s Food Center Sacramento (1340 Fulton Avenue) will be hosting a Christmas Festival on December 22 from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., offering free pan dulce and champurrado—a thick Mexican hot chocolate made with spices and thickened with masa that’s a traditional belly-warmer this time of year. Inside the store, Arteaga will have sales on a variety of goods for Christmas feasting like meat, tortillas and hominy for long-simmering pots of pozole. He also partnered with radio station La Tricolor 99.9, which will provide music as well as goody bags filled with toys and candy for children. There will also be a visit from Santa Claus, who somehow found time amid his hectic Christmas preparations to make an appearance. Perhaps the big man has a soft spot for champurrado.