[3] Los Lobos reached out to song collectors and friends to gather a body of music that included 147 Latin Christmas songs (including one original tune), spanning several decades and the entirety of the Americas, across genres or styles as diverse as cumbia, cancion, ranchera, salsa, son jarocho, and Tex-Mex styles.

[3][4][5] The band promoted the album with live performances of Christmas songs interspersed with their regular material while on tour.

[6] The editorial staff of AllMusic Guide scored this album 4.5 out of five stars, with reviewer Mark Deming calling this a "fresh and interesting" take on standard Christmas albums that includes diverse styles and genres that displays the "passion, skill, and joy" that the band has fostered for decades.

[4] In The Arts Desk, Russ Coffey rated Llegó Navidad three out of five stars, noting that the band mixes not only genres but also moods that range from serious to silly.

[9] A Rolling Stone overview of 2019 Christmas albums by Connor Ratliff highly recommends Llegó Navidad, in part due to introducing the author to new music.