With Thanksgiving now in our rearview mirrors, it is time to focus on Christmas or Natale.
It’s time to break out the panettone and decorate albero di natale.
It is while we are decorating that I like to listen to Christmas carols.
And while I adore Bing Crosby singing “White Christmas” or Lou Monte’s irreverent “Dominick the Donkey,” it is the songs sung Italian that fill me with the Christmas spirit.
After a while, and because you know the tune, you will find yourself singing along.
YouTube has plenty of choices.
The opening of “Venite Fedeli” or “O Come All Ye Faithful in Italian” is familiar. Here give it a try:
Venite fedeli, l’Angelo ci invita
Venite, venite a Betlemme.
Nasce per noi Cristo Salvatore
Venite adoriamo, venite adoriamo
Venite adoriamo il Signore Gesù.
Try this one:
Din don dan! Din don dan! Din don din don dan!
Suona allegro il campanil, è Natale in ogni cuore.
Din don dan! Din don dan! Che felicità!
Oggi è nato il Buon Gesù tra la neve che vien giù.
Yes, it is “Jingle Bells” or “Din Don Dan.”
“Il Piccolo Tamburino” is “The Little Drummer Boy.”
Tamburino, pa ra pa pam pam
Vieni anche tu con noi, pa ra pa pam pam
La strada è lunga ma, pa ra pa pam pam
Più corta si farà, pa ra pa pam pam
Ra pa pam pam, ra pa pam pam
Se tu suonerai, pa ra pa pam pam
È nato gesù
And no matter what language you listen to it in, “Silent Night” is hauntingly beautiful and always moving.
Astro del Ciel (Silent Night)
Astro del Ciel, pargol divin,
Mite agnello, Redentor,
Tu che i Vati da lungi sognâr,
Tu che angeliche
voci annunziâr,
Luce dona alle menti,
Pace infondi nei cuor.
Astro del Ciel, pargol divin,
Mite agnello, Redentor,
Tu di stirpe regale decor,
Tu virgineo, mistico fior,
Luce dona alle menti,
Pace infondi nei cuor.
Astro del Ciel, pargol divin,
Mite agnello, Redentor,
Tu disceso a scontare l’error,
Tu sol nato a parlare d’amor,
Luce dona alle menti,
Pace infondi nei cuor
Check out Spotify and YouTube as they have comprehensive playlists for Christmas songs in Italian.
After you listen for a few hours, you will appreciate the beauty of Christmas songs in Italian.
Maybe play some as you drive around town admiring the lights later in December.
There is something magical about the Christmas season. It is one of the times I feel most connected to my family in Italy and Sicily and my Catholic roots.
There are times when the music is playing and I think that Babbo Natale may be real and preparing to visit our home on Christmas Eve after I have gone to bed.
Buon Natale, Hammonton!
Do you have a story about growing up Italian, either in Hammonton or anywhere else? Send it to hammontongazette@yahoo.com.