Somehow, I managed to exist until this year without hearing the Christmas song, “Dominick the Donkey.”
Because I love Christmas, Christmas songs (of basically all genres), and donkeys I became an instant fan of the song. Curious if it is based on any actual traditions, I turned to the trusty internet.
As far as I can tell, the songwriter Lou Monte was playing fast and loose with history. Italians using donkeys to traverse steep hills was of course a thing, but I couldn’t find documentation of a widespread story of Santa enlisting the help of a donkey.
The novelty song is cheerful and paints a picture of Dominick spreading Christmas cheer. I’ve listened to it multiple times this season on my own initiative and at my 6-year-old daughter’s request.
This song has become a happy addition to old and new holiday traditions for my family.
We sang it while going to a Christmas tree farm to cut our own tree for the first time, and I plan to sneak it into the playlist while my family cooks our 12-dish Christmas Eve dinner.
During this meal prep, we often listen to Lithuanian Christmas songs, many of which are pagan advent songs that have been preserved for more than half a millennium.
Lithuania, my mother’s motherland, converted to Christianity only in the late 1300s, making it the last pagan country in Europe. Many of the pre-Christian traditions persist under the guise of Christian holidays (i.e. celebrating the winter solstice as Christmas and summer solstice as Saint John’s Eve, etc).
Thinking about Lithuanian traditions and the new holiday song on my playlist started me thinking about Christmas traditions in other cultures.
In Scotland, celebrating Christmas was banned for about 400 years. The ban was started in 1560 by minister John Knox, a Calvinist who supposedly thought extravagant celebrations distracted from the teachings in the Bible.
In 1640, the Scottish parliament passed a Scrooge-ish law criminalizing Yuletide celebrations, then another similar law (prohibiting taking Christmas Day off work) in 1690 — laws that were apparently enforced. The ban was lifted in the beginning of the 1700s.
In the 1970s, KFC launched a holiday marketing campaign in Japan, and as a consequence Japanese Christmas (although not a public holiday) traditions remain associated with the fast food chain. Lines wind out the doors of KFC stores in late December. In recent years, KFC Japan rakes in roughly $63 million Dec. 20-25.
In Australia, Santa sometimes arrives via surfboard. Hawaiians import trees from the U.S. mainland or decorate palm trees creatively.
A holiday activity I did with my kiddo last year was a trip to Pittsburgh to see the gingerbread house competition and the Santas from around the world. I had hoped to continue this tradition every year, but we skipped this year due to the pandemic. We just baked our own gingerbread house and got out an around-the-world Santa paper doll book.
When it’s safe to do such trips again, I plan to enjoy reading about all the different Santa stories from many different cultures.
In the meantime, carols help to keep our spirits bright.
“Deck the Halls” was originally a pagan yuletide wintertime drinking song. The English lyrics by Scottish composer Thomas Oliphant were added to the melody of the 16th century Welsh song “Nos Galan” and the “fa la la” repetition possibly comes from medieval ballads.
While enjoying such classics, I’m continuing to sing “hee-haw, hee-haw, the Italian Christmas Donkey,” as we decorate and bake this week.
