Mele Kalikimaka or Merry Christmas from Hawaii
Santa & Mrs. Santa in front of Honolulu Hale/City Hall Source: From the Honolulu Advertiser website
Of course, Santa comes on a surf board to
Hawaii rather than on a sleigh with reindeer.
We also have a diffferent way to say Merry Christmas. It is Mele
Kalikimaka. You may have heard our Christmas song.
Mele Kalikimaka (Song Lyrics)
Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say
on a bright Hawaiian Christmas Day
That’s the island greeting that we send to you
from the land where palm trees sway
Here we know that Christmas will be green and bright
The sun to shine by day and all the stars at night
Mele Kalikimaka is Hawaii’s way
to say Merry Christmas to you
Mele Kalikimaka or Mele Kaliki Maka is a Christmas song sung as a warm greeting from Hawaii. It came from the Hawaiian pronunciation of “Merry Christmas”.
Since Hawaiian does not have all English phonemes, in particular the “R” and “S”, “Merry Christmas” becomes “Mele Kalikimaka”. It is a transliteration of “Merry Christmas” and not really a translation of it.
The song was written in 1949 by Robert Alex Anderson who is better known to fans of Hawaiian and hapa haole
music as R. Alex Anderson. One of the earliest recordings of this song was by Bing Crosby and the
Andrew Sisters in 1950.