Latin Christmas music: parranda, aguinaldo and why December sounds like this
What Latin Christmas music actually is: the Puerto Rican parranda, the aguinaldo song form, Cuban Nochebuena traditions, and why the season is danceable rather than solemn.
Latin Christmas music is largely built on two traditions: the aguinaldo, a Caribbean Christmas song form, and the parranda, the Puerto Rican practice of moving from house to house late at night with instruments. Both are participatory and rhythmic, which is why the season sounds like a party rather than a service.
The parranda
A parranda is a Puerto Rican Christmas custom in which a group arrives at a friend's house late at night, unannounced, with cuatro, guitar, guiro and percussion, and plays until the household gets up, feeds them and joins in. The group then moves to the next house, growing as it goes. The practical consequence is musical: parranda repertoire has to be portable, loud enough without amplification, and easy for anyone to join.
That is why the instruments are hand held and why the songs use short repeated refrains.
The aguinaldo
The aguinaldo is the Christmas song form of the Hispanic Caribbean, with roots in the Spanish villancico. It uses standard melodic frames over which improvised or traditional verses are set, which means a singer can compose new words for the household they are standing in front of. It is closer to a living form than to a fixed carol repertoire.
Cuban Nochebuena
In Cuba the emphasis falls on Nochebuena, Christmas Eve, and on the meal, with music around it rather than in a formal setting. The repertoire is largely the ordinary repertoire: son, salsa, bolero and, in the countryside, punto guajiro with its improvised ten line decimas.
Why it is danceable
Northern European Christmas music grew up in churches and in the parlour. Caribbean Christmas music grew up in the street and around a table. Neither is more festive than the other; they simply inherit different rooms. When a Latin Christmas mix puts a carol melody over a salsa montuno or a bachata pattern, it is not a novelty gesture, it is the ordinary way the season has always worked in these traditions.
For the rhythms themselves, see the guides to salsa, bachata, cumbia and bolero.
The Christmas Latin Mix playlist page covers when to put this on rather than what it is.