Mele Kalikimaka
original song written and composed by Robert Alexander Anderson
"Mele Kalikimaka" (pronounced [ˈmɛlɛ kəˌlitiˈmɐkə]) is a Hawaiian-themed Christmas song written in 1949 by R. Alex Anderson. It takes its title from the Hawaiian transliteration of "Merry Christmas", Mele Kalikimaka. One of the earliest recordings of the song was by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters in 1950 on Decca. It has been covered by many artists and used in several films (including L.A. Confidential, Catch Me If You Can, and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation).
History of the song
R. Alex Anderson recalled the inspiration for writing the song in 1949 while working at Vonn Hamm-Young:
Well, I'll tell ya, a stenographer in our office, this was just before Christmas, and we are all leaving (5 o'clock), and she was next to me and she said, "Mr. Anderson, how come there's no Hawaiian Christmas songs?" She said, "they take all the hymns and they put Hawaiian words to the hymns, but there's no original melody." Well, that spurred me right away – I thought, "what a good idea!" I thought this over, and over a period of a few days this came into my head, put it down on paper, and I've been singing it ever since.
Bing Crosby was a frequent visitor and golf partner of Anderson. Anderson played the song for Crosby, who liked it so much that he surprised Anderson with the 1950 recording. In 1955, the song became part of the reissue of Crosby's famous compilation album Merry Christmas. According to Anderson's daughter Pam, the family still receives revenues from all over the world every year from his songs including "Mele Kalikimaka".
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 13, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q3854181. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1949, 1950 and 1955.
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This entry incorporates text from “Mele Kalikimaka” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.