Feliz Navidad

Feliz Navidad is a Christmas song written in 1970 by the Puerto Rican singer-songwriter José Feliciano. With its simple Spanish chorus (the traditional Christmas/New Year greeting, "Feliz Navidad, próspero año y felicidad" meaning "Merry Christmas, a prosperous year and happiness") and equally simple English verse "I wanna wish you a Merry Christmas from the bottom of my heart", it has become a classic Christmas pop song in the United States, throughout the Spanish-speaking world and internationally.

Author(s): Publisher: Code: UL509

Main Category: Arpeggios Main Instrument: Ukulele

Subjects: Holiday

2026-08-19

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Feliz Navidad

A young really young José Feliciano playing a Cuatro popular in sSouth America and the cousin of the ukulele. Biggest difference is steel strings for the cuatro.

Feliciano's version of Feliz Navidad (in which he plays both an acoustic guitar and a Puerto Rican Cuatro) is one of the most downloaded and aired Christmas songs in the United States and Canada. The album drummer was Paulinho Magalhaes. The addition of the horns as a final touch was the idea of producer Rick Jarrard. It was also recognized by ASCAP as one of the top 25 most played and recorded Christmas songs around the world.

More Feliz Navidad content below, continue exploring...

Feliz Navidad is one of my favorite songs to play and perform. I can't wait until the Christmas season starts, just to play this song. I start playing it earlier and earlier every year and finally have it memorized from year to year. — Curt

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Video recorded around 2013, and I tweak and play it different every ear. Some of what I change I get back into the PDF file. With every one of my arrangements, I say, use it as a starting point and make it your own.

Feliz Navidad is pretty much a full diatonic song with the chords coming right out of the major scale of the song. The first three chords are a II, V, I in D major.

This is one of the songs I like playing the most. Too bad it's a Christmas song and I can only play it a few months at the end of the year - and I stretch it out a few weeks on either side.

For the introduction in the video I simple took the ending and used it as an intro. Totally forgot I did that until I viewed the video again. Checkout the series on Create Introductions and Endings .

I play the second ending several different ways depending on where my ear is taking me at the time. Here are the various ways I do it.

Don't think of my arrangement as set in stone. I take rhythmic and melodic liberties as well while staying close to the original melody. Make it your own.

Checkout the Downloads and Assets section of the this page for additional links and resources for this song. I love working on and playing this song end of every year.