To start off the series, we wrote a list of a few Christmas words and expressions in French and created a complimentary Christmas letter for Santa in French so kids can print it, color it and send it!

Let’s start with the Christmas words in French:

• Merry Christmas! or shall we say, Joyeux Noël!
• Christmas eve is commonly referred to as “la veille de Noël”.  Another way to refer to it is “le Réveillon de Noël”.
• Santa Claus, as in other cultures and languages, there are many ways to call Santa Claus in French, like, “Père Noël”, “Papa Noël”, “Saint Nicolas”.  The most commonly used “Père Noël”.
•  An elf can be called “elfe” or “lutin”.
• Thinking of hanging mistletoes? You can call those “gui”.

Christmas expressions in French:

Thinking about writing a letter and wishing happy holidays in French? Try one of these expressions:

• Season's Greetings - Meilleurs vœux!
• Happy Holidays - Joyeuses fêtes!
• Our best wishes in this Holiday Season! - Vœux de Bonheur pour un Joyeux Noël
• Bonne année et bonne santé!  means Happy New Year and good health, because after all, having good health is  one of the most important things in life.

Some of the common concepts or expressions we have in Canada are strongly tied to culture; however, they are not very common in other francophone speaking countries. Stay tuned to our future blog posts as we will be speaking about Christmas traditions in French places. 

Now that you know some common expressions, want to try helping your kids write out their letter to Santa? We have given you a head start with a template letter for “Père Noël”.

Download template of Christmas letter for Santa in French Download template of Christmas letter for Santa in French

Feeling in the holiday mood? Listen to our playlist “Noel dans les oreilles x AFV” on our Spotify channel.

If you want to improve your French knowledge even more there is always time in one of our  French classes!