Puluwan Wage Sudu Raula Digai Lyrics by Gypsies

A long white beard, white like cotton
A lovely outfit, splendid to see
He beats the raban drum, little bells jingle
Here comes the Christmas grandfather (Santa)

The sack on his shoulder is full
Packed with toys //

For the little baby, the big sister, the little brother
He has brought a gift for every one of them //
The dolls are pretty, a toy monkey turns somersaults
Christmas is full of joy

I’ll hang it up on the Christmas tree
I’ll pick out and give you whatever you want //
I want a car, and a doll would be nice for me too
The toys are so pretty

This is a cheerful Christmas song sung from a child’s point of view, all about the arrival of Santa Claus, who in Sinhala is affectionately called the Naththal Seeya, the “Christmas grandfather.” The whole thing bubbles with the excitement of a child watching him come, and you can almost feel the bouncing rhythm of a school nativity show or a holiday party behind it.

It opens by drawing Santa exactly the way a small child would notice him: a long white beard as white as cotton wool, a beautiful red suit, and then a very Sri Lankan touch. Instead of sleigh bells, he beats the raban, the round hand drum you hear at village celebrations and at Avurudu, while little gejji bells jingle along. That detail quietly makes Santa local, a familiar figure folded into a Sri Lankan festival rather than an imported stranger. The sack over his shoulder is stuffed full, and the child’s eyes go straight to it, because it is bursting with toys.

From there the song turns to the happy business of who gets what. There is a gift for the baby, for the older sister, for the younger brother, nobody left out, and the toys themselves are listed with a child’s delight: pretty dolls, a wind-up monkey that flips and does somersaults. The line “Naththala preethi saruyi,” Christmas is full of joy, is the heart of it, the simple feeling the whole song is built around.

By the end the child is already busy planning, deciding what to hang on the Christmas tree and dreaming up a wish list out loud: a toy car, maybe a doll too, because every single thing looks lovely. It is a small, warm song with no hidden depths to decode, just the pure, uncomplicated happiness of a Sri Lankan child at Christmas, the kind of tune that makes grown-ups smile because they remember feeling exactly that way.