Merry Christmas in Mexican Spanish?

December 10, 2011 9:44 AM

I've drawn a colleague with an interest in Mexican wrestling for an office secret santa. I've got this person a book on the subject, and now I'd like to write an appropriate inscription - in Mexican Spanish. How would I say something akin to "To [name], merry Christmas, with love from the secret santa?"

Bonus points if anybody can come up with anything especially witty/poetic/Lucha Libre-esque! Thanx AskMe.

posted by Ted Maul to writing & language (8 answers total)

My Spanish is atrocious, so I wouldn't try anything fancier than Feliz Navidad, but I did make Christmas cards one year featuring the Mexican wrestler Santo as Santa. Plus, Santo was a secretive guy, so you could sign it Secret Santo.

It's kind of obvious, but the cards went over well. Plus, I'm done with it, so I'm happy to release that dumb joke into public domain for anyone needing to say Christmas stuff about Mexican wrestlers.
posted by ernielundquist at 10:10 AM on December 10, 2011 [2 favorites]

A [name], con carino de su amigo invisible.

Tilde over the n in carino (~). Disclaimer here is that I speak Spanish as spoken in Spain, so the nuances of Mexican Spanish might be slightly different.
posted by ellF at 10:35 AM on December 10, 2011

Heh, my immediate thought was Santo Claus! I'd probably sign the card "Por _____ - ¡Que tengas un Feliz Navidad y próspero Año Nuevo! Con cariño, tu Santo Secreto."
posted by gov_moonbeam at 11:11 AM on December 10, 2011

Actual mexican spanish speaker here. "amigo invisible" would mean invisible friend, which isn't what you want. If this were me, I'd write:

Para [name],

¡ Feliz Navidad !

Con cariño, de tu Santa Secreto.

The "¡" before feliz isn't a letter, it's the inverted exclamation point we use in spanish, so that'd be an extra touch of correctness from you.
posted by CrazyLemonade at 11:13 AM on December 10, 2011 [1 favorite]

Heh, my immediate thought was Santo Claus!

Actually, we say "Santa Clos", not santo claus.

"Santa Secreto" or even just saying "Secret Santa" is fine. Here in Mexico, at least where I live, we also have Secret Santa drawings and we actually call them Secret Santa...not the spanish version of it.
posted by CrazyLemonade at 11:16 AM on December 10, 2011 [2 favorites]

Interesting on the " amigo invisible" thing - in my experience, that is the closest thing to a secret Santa in Spain (and Central American?) Spanish. Thanks for clarifying!
posted by ellF at 11:41 AM on December 10, 2011

A helpful guide should you wish to get creative.
posted by rokusan at 11:42 AM on December 10, 2011

I suggest it would be fun to refer to the tradition of masks in the sport as a proxy for "secret". Try a reference to the silver-masked El Santo, or Mil Mascaras (a thousand masks), or combine them -- El Santo de Mascaras! (Just two personalities picked from the Wikipedia article.) I think the intent would be clear.
posted by dhartung at 2:27 PM on December 10, 2011