Christmas in Hawaii in the islands celebrate the Christmas traditions of Hawaii in their own unique ways, which may be religious or plainly secular. Even Santa Claus (Hawaiian: Kanakaloka) himself is not wearing his corporate red and white suit, but has swapped it for flowery Hawaiian clothes. Christmas wreaths are made from the poinsettia plant. The phrase "Mele Kalikimaka" can be translated from Hawaiian to mean "Merry Christmas". It is also a Hawaiian themed Christmas song composed by Robert Alex Anderson in 1949. The phrase is borrowed directly from English, but, since Hawaiian has a different phonological system (in particular, Hawaiian does not
Merry Christmas from the Family around the same cast of characters in Keen's humorous vision of a Texas style Christmas. Growing up in Houston, Texas, Robert Earl Keen didn't often see snow at Christmas time. He says "I didn't even know what a chestnut looked like until I was 30 years old and saw it in a picture book… It was a different kind of Christmas. Every Christmas song I had ever heard didn't have a lot to do with growing up in Houston where it was most likely 85 degrees and 95 percent humidity." "Merry Christmas from the Family" describes the Christmas gathering of