I've always wondered about this because in my family my cousins who are 20 and 25 still go to the Christmas posadas, but my aunts say they should already be doing "adult things." Is there a specific age or does it depend on each family? I'd like to know what's most common in other regions.
It completely depends on each family and their context - there's no fixed rule. What your aunts say about "grown-up stuff" is more of a generational bias than an actual rule. There are families where 80-year-old grandparents still go to the posadas and nobody questions it. If your cousins who are 20 and 25 are having a good time and want to go, why shouldn't they? The trick that works in a lot of families is having the older ones take on other responsibilities - organizing the music, bringing the food, helping with the little ones - so they feel like they have an adult role in the event instead of it just being kids' fun. That way everyone's happy and nobody feels out of place.
There's no specific age that marks when you should stop going to las posadas. It's really more of a cultural and family thing. What you see in your family is pretty normal: there are people who participate from childhood all the way to their 80s, and others who stop going at 15. It all depends on how important the tradition is to each family and what meaning they give it.
The most common thing I've seen across different regions is that people keep going as long as they're having fun and feel like they're part of the tradition. Your cousins who are 20 and 25 aren't out of place at all; many families value having young adults keep the custom alive. What your aunts call "grown-up stuff" is really more of a shift in personal priorities than something that's required based on age. If your cousins enjoy las posadas, they should keep going. The tradition is meant to be experienced as a family, no matter how old you are.
The question starts from the idea that there's such a thing as an "age limit," but really it's more flexible than it sounds. What works in my experience is that people participate in posadas as long as they're still interested in doing it - some get bored at 16, others are still going at 35 with their own kids. Your cousins who are 20 and 25 are in a zone where a lot of families see them as young adults who can still enjoy the tradition without it being weird; if in some places that looks like "kid stuff," in others it's totally normal. The trick that almost nobody mentions is asking your cousins directly what they think - if they're going because they're having fun or because they feel obligated makes all the difference, and it'll probably settle the aunts' gossip better than any answer about ages.
What's happening in your family is totally normal: participating in posadas doesn't have an expiration date - it's something people keep doing at any age if they're interested or if it's part of their tradition. The trap some families fall into is confusing "growing up" with "stopping participating in traditions," as if enjoying posadas at 25 meant staying stuck in childhood, when really it's just keeping a custom alive. Your cousins who are 20 and 25 can be perfectly fine there, and your aunts might just be projecting their own ideas about what an adult "should do," but that varies a lot depending on the region and family - in many places adults keep going without any problem.
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