Spending Christmas in Korea, or want to wish your Korean friends a merry Christmas? In this guide, we explore how to say Merry Christmas in Korean.
The Most Common Way To Say Merry Christmas: 메리 크리스마스
The most common way of saying the phrase is simply 메리 크리스마스 (meri keuliseumaseu). This is simply “Merry Christmas” with Korean pronunciation.
As Christmas celebrations didn’t exist before Christian missionaries went to Korea, the English phrase is predominantly used.
A Punny Version: 미리 크리스마스
Ahead of Christmas, you can use the punny phrase 미리 크리스마스 (miri keuliseumaseu) to spread good cheer! This switches the word 메리 (meri; merry) for 미리 (miri), which means “in advance” or “ahead of time”.
Other Ways of Saying Merry Christmas
There are other ways of spreading the Christmas cheer in Korean too!
For example, if you want to wish someone a happy Christmas, you can also say 크리스마스 잘 보내세요 (Keuriseumaseu jal bonaeseyo). This can be used in polite conversations and translates to “Have a good Christmas”. Here are some more:
| Korean | Romanization | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| 즐거운 크리스마스 되세요 | Jeulgeoun Keuriseumaseu doeseyo | Have a joyful Christmas |
| 행복한 크리스마스 되세요 | Haengbokhan Keuriseumaseu doeseyo | Have a happy Christmas |
| 따뜻한 크리스마스 되세요 | Ttatteuthan Keuriseumaseu doeseyo | Have a warm Christmas |
Religious Ways To Say Merry Christmas
If you belong to a Korean church or you’re in a more formal situation, you might want to use one of these expressions instead. 성탄절 is the Korean word for Christmas. Broken down, 성 (seong) means saint or king, 탄 (tan) means birth and 절 (jeol) means holiday.
| Korean | Romanization | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| 성탄절 되시길 기도합니다 | Seongtanjeol doesigil gidohamnida | Wishing you a blessed Christmas |
| 기쁜 성탄절 되세요 | Gippeun Seongtanjeol doeseyo | Happy Christmas |
| 성탄절 잘 보내세요 | Seongtanjeol jal bonaeseyo | Spend Christmas well |
| 즐거운 성탄절 보내세요 | Jeulgeoun Seongtanjeol bonaeseyo | Have a merry Christmas |
How Do You Say Happy Holidays In Korean?
There isn’t really a direct translation for “happy holidays” in Korean as they don’t generally consider the period between Christmas and New Year as a holiday period. Instead, Christmas and New Year are two separate holidays.
Chuseok (추석) is Korea’s version of the holidays, so it’s more common to wish people a happy holiday during this celebration.
Related Christmas Vocabulary
Here are some Christmas-related words and phrases that you might hear if you spend Christmas in Korea!
| Korean | Romanization | Translation |
|---|---|---|
| 산타 할아버지 or 산타클로스 | Santa Halabeoji/Santakeulloseu | Grandfather Santa/Santa Claus |
| 화이트 크리스마스 | Hwaiteu Keuriseumaseu | White Christmas |
| 눈 | Nun | Snow |
| 눈사람 | Nunsaram | Snowman |
| 겨울 | Gyeoul | Winter |
| 추운 날씨 | Chuun nalssi | Cold weather |
| 루돌프 | Rudolpeu | Rudolph |
| 크리스마스 트리 | Keuriseumaseu teuri | Christmas tree |
| 선물 | Seonmul | Gift/present |
| 크리스마스 양말 | Keuriseumaseu yangmal | Christmas stocking (양 is also a general word for socks) |
| 장식 | Jangsik | Decorations |
| 전구 (e.g. 크리스마스 트리 전구) | Jeongu | Lights (bulbs) |
| 눈싸움 | Nunsaum | Snowball fight |
| 집에 트리를 하세요? | Jibe teurireul haseyo? | Do you put up a tree at home (when speaking about Christmas, you can shorten to “트리 하세요?”) |
| 진짜 나무로? | Jinjja namuro? | A real tree? |
| 소나무 | Sonamu | Pine tree |
| 가짜 트리 | Gajja teuri | Fake tree |
| 캐롤 | Kaerol | Carol |
| 요정 | Yojeong | Elf |