Mele Kalikimaka

About Mele Kalikimaka

Mele Kalikimaka is a Christmas song sung as a warm greeting from Hawaii. The song takes its title from the phrase of "Mele Kalikimaka," the Hawaiianized pronunciation of "Merry Christmas." The Hawaiian language does not include all the sounds found in the English language (notably the letter R). Thus the familiar English phrase of "Merry Christmas" when pronounced using Hawaiian language syllables becomes "Mele Kalikimaka" (note the substitution of L's for R's). "Mele Kalikimaka" is therefore not Hawaiian for "Merry Christmas," but simply a Hawaiian transliteration.

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 & The Andrews Sisters in 1950 on Decca 27228 (78 rpm) / 9-27228 (45 rpm) and has been covered by several artists.