It’s that time of the year again and this year has been especially complicated for many people.
So to bring some laughter and cheer I’ve decided to teach you the Portuguese version of Jingle Bells.
We used to sing this one as kids growing up, you couldn’t get away from it! Every Christmas school or church play or event there is was. There were others of course as you can imagine.
This song is called “Pinheirinho” which means “Little pine tree”.
Below is the audio to the song and below that are the lyrics including a few additional notes.
For a printout please click here.
“Pinheirinho”
Pinheirinho, pinheirinho
De braços verdinhos
P’ra enfeitar, p’ra enfeitar
Bolas, bonequinhos. (bis)
Uma bola aqui
Outra acolá
Luzinhas que tremem
Que lindo que está.
Olha o Pai Natal
De barbas branquinhas
Traz o saco cheio
De lindas prendinhas.
É Natal, é Natal
Tudo bate o pé
Vamos pôr o sapatinho
Lá na chaminé. (bis)
Breakdown of the lyrics with translation
Before jumping in I would like to say that sometimes there are no good translations for the diminutives of nouns. The “inho” and “inha” ending usually mean the “little” version of the noun. For example:
casa – house | casinha – little house
However, sometimes these diminutives are used to imply other qualities or deficiencies either literal, figurative or sarcastic. For example:
pessoa – person | pessoazinha – “little person” but meaning a not very good person, someone with a small personality.
In the case of this song, there are lots of these diminutives in it and they mainly serve the purpose of smoothing out the rhyming. In terms of meaning, as I said before, it’s to enrich the description.
Translation
Pinheirinho, pinheirinho
Little pine tree, little pine tree
De braços verdinhos
with “very” green branches
P’ra enfeitar, p’ra enfeitar
To decorate, to decorate (as you’ve heard me say many times, we don’t spell “para” like this ever in normal conversation. But we do say it like this and as you can see, use it in lyrics too)
Bolas, bonequinhos. (bis)
Balls, little figurines. (repeat)
Uma bola aqui
One ball (over) here
Outra acolá Another
(one over) there
Luzinhas que tremem
Little lights that “shake” (shimmer/twinkle)
Que lindo que está.
How beautiful it is (looks).
Olha o Pai Natal
Look at Father Christmas
De barbas branquinhas
in a/with a “very” white beard
Traz o saco cheio
Bringing the/his bag full
De lindas prendinhas.
of beautiful “little” gifts. (in this case, not necessarily small gifts, just “cute” or filled with joy
É Natal, é Natal
It’s Christmas, it’s Christmas
Tudo bate o pé
Everyone stomps their foot/feet (although it says “pé” – foot when we translate it, it makes more sense in English to say feet)
Vamos pôr o sapatinho
Let’s put the “little” shoe
Lá na chaminé. (bis)
There in the chimney. (repeat)
Back to Christmas songs in Portuguese