Merry Christmas! Joyeux Noël!
Did you know that French children don't have stockings for presents - instead, they put their shoes in front of the fireplace, so that Père Noël (Father Christmas) can fill them with presents! Children also find that sweets, fruit, nuts, and small toys are hung on the Christmas tree (le sapin de Noël) overnight.
Here are the names of Père Noël 's reindeer in French:
Fougueux (Dasher), Danseur (Dancer), Fringant (Prancer), Mégère (Vixen), Comète (Comet), Cupidon (Cupid), Tonnerre (Donner or Thunder), and Eclair (Blixen or Lightning).
The French version of Jingle Bells is called 'Vive le vent'. Here are the words:
Vive le vent, vive le vent,
Vive le vent d'hiver,
Qui s'en va sifflant, soufflant
Dans les grands sapins verts. Oh !
Vive le temps, vive le temps,
Vive le temps d'hiver,
Boule de neige et jour de l'an
Et bonne année grand-mère !
In English, they mean:
Long live (or 'Hooray for') the wind, long live the wind,
Long live the winter wind,
Which goes whistling, blowing
Through the big green fir trees. Oh!
Long live the weather, long live the weather,
Long live the winter weather,
Snowball and New Year's Day
And Happy New Year Grandma!
Here is a website with Vive le Vent sung by Henri Dès (a famous French singer).
http://www.tradebit.com/filedetail.php/3198800-c-est-le-pere-noeel
On this website, there are extracts from some other French Christmas songs. See if you can find 'Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer' and some other familiar songs in French...
http://bmarcore.club.fr/noel/P-N136.html
Finally, voici (here is) some other Christmas vocabulary for you:
le Réveillon - a big feast, eaten on Christmas Eve
un cadeau de Noël - Christmas present
le sapin de Noël - Christmas tree
le Jour de l'An- New Year's Day
la Saint-Sylvestre - New Year's Eve
un renne - reindeer
la neige - snow
une boule de neige - snowball
un bonhomme de neige - snowman
une peluche - cuddly toy
un jouet - toy
Noël sous la neige - white Christmas
Have a great holiday! Bonnes vacances!
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