Merry Christmas in 35 Languages — the Ones Santa Actually Says

Merry Christmas in 35 languages

This list is not copied from a phrasebook. Santa's messages on this site end with "Merry Christmas, *name*!" in the language the family wrote in, and this is the table that phrase comes from — 35 languages, checked one by one. If the phrase is here, a child somewhere has heard Santa say it.

• English: Merry Christmas
• Ukrainian: Веселого Різдва
• Belarusian: Вясёлых Калядаў
• Bulgarian: Весела Коледа
• Spanish: Feliz Navidad
• Portuguese: Feliz Natal
• French: Joyeux Noël
• German: Frohe Weihnachten
• Italian: Buon Natale
• Dutch: Vrolijk Kerstfeest
• Catalan: Bon Nadal
• Polish: Wesołych Świąt
• Czech: Veselé Vánoce
• Slovak: Veselé Vianoce
• Hungarian: Boldog Karácsonyt
• Romanian: Crăciun Fericit
• Croatian: Sretan Božić
• Swedish: God Jul
• Norwegian: God Jul
• Danish: Glædelig Jul
• Finnish: Hyvää Joulua
• Greek: Καλά Χριστούγεννα
• Turkish: Mutlu Noeller
• Arabic: عيد ميلاد مجيد
• Hebrew: חג מולד שמח
• Hindi: मेरी क्रिसमस
• Tamil: மகிழ்ச்சியான கிறிஸ்துமஸ்
• Thai: สุขสันต์วันคริสต์มาส
• Vietnamese: Chúc Giáng Sinh vui vẻ
• Indonesian: Selamat Natal
• Malay: Selamat Hari Krismas
• Filipino: Maligayang Pasko
• Japanese: メリークリスマス
• Korean: 메리 크리스마스
• Chinese: 圣诞快乐

Why we keep this table at all

Because the alternative went wrong. Santa's messages are written by a model, and the rule says: end with "Merry Christmas" in the family's language. Early on, the rule only gave examples in six European languages. So for the other languages the model reached for the first example it had seen — and in a full test run on 17 August an Arabic greeting ended with *Feliz Natal, أحمد!* and a Chinese one with *Merry Christmas, 小明!*. A Brazilian sign-off on an Arabic message. That's why every language now has its own fixed line, and why the same child never hears 圣诞快乐 in one message and Merry Christmas in the next.

Three details from the table that people ask about. Spanish opens with the inverted mark — *¡Feliz Navidad!* — and that has to be in the text, not just the voice. Swedish and Norwegian are the same two words, *God Jul*, and Danish is one letter off, *Glædelig Jul*. And Japanese, Korean and Chinese use their own comma and exclamation mark — *メリークリスマス、太郎！* — because a Western comma inside Japanese text reads as a mistake.

The language that's missing on purpose

There is no Russian line, and that's deliberate. In Russia the gift-bringer is Ded Moroz — Grandfather Frost — and he comes at New Year, not Christmas; Orthodox Christmas is 7 January and isn't the present-giving day. A Russian-speaking child wished "Merry Christmas" by Santa on 24 December would find it slightly off, the way an English child would find "Happy New Year" under the tree. So Russian messages are written on their own terms, with their own ending.

The same logic applies elsewhere in smaller ways: in Italy the big gift day for many children is Epiphany, 6 January, when La Befana comes; in the Netherlands it's 5 December, Sinterklaas; in Spain it's the Three Kings on 6 January. "Merry Christmas" is right everywhere on the list — but it isn't always the *main* greeting.

How to use it

The cheapest personalisation in the world is a greeting in the child's own language — or a grandparent's. If a child has a Polish grandmother, *Wesołych Świąt* on the card from Santa is the line she'll read out loud.

If you want to hear rather than read: Santa's messages and calls are available in most of the languages above, and the greeting at the end comes from exactly this table.