What I love most about Christmas is the singing of carols. No matter how depressed you are feeling, Christmas carols always helps to lift your spirits. I particularly like Jamaican Christmas carols as they are generally livelier and easy to sing. Not being a singer myself I don’t have to worry about being melodiousJ.

Today I thought I would share a Jamaican Christmas carol with you. It’s called ‘Christmas a come”. It dates back to slavery days and is actually a Jonkunnu song. At Christmas time people wear masks of different characters and parade dancing through the streets. Some of the characters portrayed are horses, cows, the devil and a bride. In slavery days the procession of Jonkunnu merrymakers would collect money from the onlookers for their own Christmas celebrations. This song was sung to draw attention to their lack of finery. Now a days, we still have parades of Jonkunnu however its all for fun and no money is collected form the spectators.

Two words that you may not know from this Christmas carol are, ‘lama’ which means presents, and ‘deggeday’, which means finery. The last three lines are substituted for ‘not a shoe to me foot’. You can also add your own verses as you are led. Have fun.

Nuff Love

Christmas a Come 

Christmas a come, me wan me lama,

Christmas a come, me wan me lama,

Christmas a come, me wan me deggeday,

Christmas a come, me wan me deggeday,

Pretty, pretty gal, me wan me lama,

Pretty, pretty gal, me wan me lama,

Pretty, pretty gal, me wan me deggeday,

Pretty, pretty gal, me wan me deggeday,

Not a shoe to me foot, me wan me lama,

Not a shoe to me foot, me wan me lama,

Pretty, pretty gal, me wan me deggeday,

Pretty, pretty gal, me wan me deggeday,

Not a frock to me back…….

Not a hat to me head……

Not a bangle to me han…..