User:Jnestorius/Christmas greetings

Christmas greetings or Holiday greetings are conventional greetings which are exchanged during the Christmas or holiday season. These expressions are used in formal and informal speech and writing, and printed on Christmas cards and other greeting cards sold in the lead-up to the festive season. The traditional greetings in European languages uniformly refer to Christmas, the Christian feast of the Nativity of Jesus, and often also refer to New Year, which occurs a week later in the Gregorian calendar. In English, "Merry Christmas" and related phrases are of this form. In the United States, "Happy Holidays" is a greeting which encompasses other December/January holidays such as Hanukkah and Kwanzaa; it has been variously promoted as inclusive of non-Christians and deprecated as denigrating Christmas.

Summary list

 * Christmas-specific
 * Merry Christmas (and a Happy New Year)
 * Happy Christmas (and a Peaceful/Prosperous New Year)
 * Responses:
 * and a Happy New Year
 * Many happy returns
 * Happy and Holy Christmas
 * Peace on Earth (and Goodwill to/toward all/Men/all Men)
 * Be of Good Cheer


 * Non-specific
 * Season's Greetings
 * Compliments of the Season
 * Happy Holidays


 * Non-Christian holidays
 * Happy Hanukkah - Jewish
 * Happy Kwanzaa - African American
 * Joyous Yule - Usually a Wiccan or Neopagan greeting for the Winter solstice

Merry Christmas
The greetings and farewells "Merry Christmas" and "Happy Christmas" are traditionally used in North America, the United Kingdom, Ireland and Australia, commencing a few weeks prior to Christmas (December 25) of every year.

The phrase is often preferred when it is known that the receiver is a Christian or celebrates Christmas. The nonreligious often use the greeting as well, however in this case its meaning focuses more on the secular aspects of Christmas, rather than the |Nativity of]] Jesus.

Its meanings and variations are:
 * As "Merry Christmas," the traditionally used greeting for those from America and the UK, composed of merry (jolly, happy) and Christmas (Old English: Cristes mæsse, for Christ's Mass).
 * As "Merry Xmas," usually used to avoid the length of "Merry Christmas," with the "X" (sometimes controversially) replacing "Christ." (see Xmas)
 * As "Happy Christmas," an equivalent that is commonly used in the United Kingdom and Ireland, as well as "Merry Christmas."

As of 2005, "Merry Christmas" remains popular among countries with large Christian populations, including: the United States; Canada; the United Kingdom; Ireland; Australia; South Africa; Mexico; and Western Europe not affiliated with the Eastern Orthodox rites.

It remains popular in the largely non-Christian nations of People's Republic of China and Japan, where Christmas is celebrated primarily due to Western cultural influences. Though it has somewhat decreased in popularity in the United States and Canada over the past decades, polls from 2005 indicate that it remains more popular than "Happy Holidays" or other alternatives.

History
Merry is derived from the Old English myrige, which originally meant "pleasing or agreeable". The sense "pleasant, delightful" is attested from the thirteenth century, and "animated from feasting or sport" in the fourteenth. "Tipsy from drink" is attested from 1567. The earliest known use of "Merry Christmas" is in The Hereford Municipal Manuscript, written in 1565, which includes "And thus I comytt you to God, who send you a mery Christmas." Fynes Moryson's History of Ireland (1616) records how Lord Mountjoy raided Phelim MacFeagh's house on Christmas Day 1600; MacFeagh escaped alone into the woods where he "kept a cold Christmas", while his provisions allowed Mountjoy's men to "keep a merry Christmas".

"Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year" is first attested in an informal letter written by an English admiral in 1699. Writing to "Stella" on 21 December 1710, Jonathan Swift began "first I will wish you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year"; the following Lady Day, he wished her a "merry new year". The secular carol "We Wish You a Merry Christmas" was sung in the West Country in the eighteenth century or earlier. Its refrain, "We Wish You a Merry Christmas and a happy New Year", is similar to the message on the first printed Christmas cards, sent by Henry Cole in 1843: "A Merry Christmas and A Happy New Year to you".

"In its early days the custom [of Christmas greetings] had a spontaneity which it was to lose when it became more stereotyped. However, all the modern formulae occurred in the eighteenth century, including 'a happy Christmas', 'a merry Christmas', 'a happy and prosperous New Year', and (commonest of all) 'A merry Christmas and a happy New Year.'"

Also in 1843, Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol was published, during the mid Victorian revival of the holiday. The word Merry was then beginning to take on its current meaning of "jovial, cheerful, jolly and outgoing." "Merry Christmas" in this new context figured prominently in A Christmas Carol. The cynical Ebenezer Scrooge rudely deflects the friendly greeting: "If I could work my will.. every idiot who goes about with 'Merry Christmas' on his lips should be boiled with his own pudding." After the visit from the Ghosts of Christmas affect his transformation, Scrooge exclaims; "I am as merry as a school-boy. A merry Christmas to everybody!" and heartily exchanges the wish to all he meets. The instant popularity of A Christmas Carol, the Victorian era Christmas traditions it typifies, and the term's new meaning appearing in the book, Dickens' tale popularized the phrase "Merry Christmas."

The alternative "Happy Christmas" gained usage in the late 19th century, and is still common in the U.K and Ireland alongside "Merry Christmas." In the 1850s, some Methodist Sunday schools favoured "Happy Christmas"; earlier they were reluctant to celebrate Christmas at all. One reason may be the Methodist Victorian middle-class influence in attempting to separate their construct of wholesome celebration of the Christmas season from that of common lower-class public insobriety and associated asocial behaviour, in a time where "merry" was also understood to mean: "tipsy" or "drunk." Queen Elizabeth II is said to prefer "Happy Christmas" for this reason. In the American poet Clement Moore's "A Visit from St. Nicholas" (1823), the final line, originally written as "Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night," has been changed in many later editions to "Merry Christmas to all," perhaps indicating the relative popularity of the phrases in the U.S.

Happy Holidays
Eastern Airlines used "Happy Holidays" as a trademarked brand name for package holidays from 1950. In 1965, the name was to be changed to "Storybook Vacations", although "Happy Holidays" newspaper ads were still running in 1967.

Some social conservatives in the United States and Canada have charged that "Happy Holidays" is a neologism deliberately coined to be an all-inclusive, generic greeting for the holiday season, which not only includes Christmas, but other (Northern hemisphere) winter holidays like Hanukkah and New Year's. They claim that the term is a bland and politically correct maxim, that is part of an alleged secular "War on Christmas," with the intent of deliberately diminishing the centrality of Christianity

Advocates on the other hand, maintain that "Happy Holidays" is an inoffensive and all-inclusive greeting that is not intended as an attack against Christianity, but rather a response to a growing and increasingly diverse population.

It is unclear whether "Happy Holidays" is indeed a recent or politically-motivated coinage. Widespread commercial use of the term "Happy Holidays" dates back at least to the 1970s. Use of the term may have begun with the Irving Berlin song "Happy Holiday" (released in 1942 and included in the film "White Christmas") or the term may predate that song.

In the United States, it can have several variations and meanings:
 * As "Happy Holiday", an English translation of the Hebrew Hag Sameach greeting on Passover, Sukkot, and Shavuot.
 * As "Happy Holiday", a substitution for "Merry Christmas"
 * As "Happy Holidays", a collective and inclusive wish for the period encompassing Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, the Winter solstice, Christmas, and the New Year

The phrase "Happy Holidays" also considers the fact that New Year's Day and Boxing Day (Or St. Stephen's Day in Ireland) occurs shortly after Christmas. Hence, "Happy Holidays" is effectively a short form for the greeting "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year."

In the United States, "Happy Holidays" (along with the similarly generalized "Season's Greetings") has become the common greeting in the public sphere within the past decade, such as department stores, public schools and greeting cards.

Some Christians, concerned that the 20th-century conflation of St. Nicholas Day (December 8), Christmas (December 25), and Epiphany (January 6) subsumed the meaning of Christmas itself, have taken to using "Happy Holidays" and "Season's Greetings" throughout the season, reserving "Merry Christmas" for December 25.

Gallup polls in the United States before Christmas in 2004 and 2005 surveyed public opinion of "Merry Christmas" and "Happy Holidays". Support for "Happy Holidays" was relatively stronger among the young, self-identified Liberals, and non-Christians; education level did not affect attitudes. The percentages who regarded use by stores of "Happy Holidays" as a change for the better and for the worse were 26% and 62% respectively in 2005, compared with 44% and 43% in 2004; this trend was similar across subgroups. Non-Christians saying "Happy Christmas" increased from 31% to 45%. In a 2008 poll, 81% identified as Christian while 93% said they celebrated Christmas.

Season's Greetings
"Season's Greetings" is a greeting more commonly used as a motto on winter season greeting cards than as a spoken phrase. In addition to "Merry Christmas", Victorian Christmas cards bore a variety of salutations, including "Compliments of the Season" and "Christmas Greetings." By the late 19th century, "With the Season's Greetings" or simply "The Season's Greetings" began appearing. By the 1920s it had been shortened to "Season's Greetings," and has been a greeting card fixture ever since. Several White House Christmas cards, including U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower's 1955 card, have featured the phrase.

Some believe that the "Season" in "Season's Greetings" is referring to the Christmas season. Consequently, some consider the replacement of "Merry Christmas" with "Season's Greetings" as an attack on the Christian elements of the Christmas holy day. Others claim it is commercially-motivated pandering to a greater consumer base hoping that avoiding overtly Christian or Christmas messages will spur shoppers to spend, regardless of any religious overtones. (see also: Christmas controversy)

A differing opinion claims the phrase "Season's Greetings" is more neutral and avoids any implication of one "holy" day's dominance over another. It may be used to be more inclusive of other winter holidays (such as Kwanzaa or Hanukkah), or to acknowledge the possibility that the reader may be non-religious.

Quotes
Philadelphia, 1834:
 * Christmas-day, or the day which by some denominations is celebrated as the natal day of the Redeemer of the world, when 'He was made man and dwelt among us,' used to be characterized by certain methods of salutation—such as, 'A happy Christmas to you,' or, 'I wish you a merry Christmas.' But these methods are now out of fashion. Happily, the failure of the custom by no means detracts from whatever real benefit has been brought into the world by the event which Christmas is intended to celebrate. But the merriest, or rather the happiest, Christmas which this world is to see, is at that time when there shall be a complete fulfilment of that part of the song of the angels who announced the birth of the Great Redeemer: 'On earth, peace—good will towards men.' These few words, 'good will towards men,' are worthy the attention of every reader, who is either anticipating, or at this moment enjoying, the blessings of a Christmas festival. ... If you would make a merry Christmas to others, and a really happy one to yourselves, on Christian principles, 'feed the hungry, visit the sick, clothe the naked,' and give the gospel 'to the poor.'

Virginia, 1852:
 * For half the year the "Noel Noel" of the middle age resounded in all hearts—for the whole year, the "Happy Christmas!" of to-day is well remembered. The old, loving, merry, joyous, blazing Yule-tide is a reality in every heart—the pen that strives to trace its outline even, finds the attempt so vain!"
 * And so with these few words "about Christmas-times. I end my idle scribbling, wishing that you and all have had a "merry Christmas"— much more that we may all have "happy New Years!"

England, 1861:
 * In the west country, during the last century, at seven or eight o'clock in the evening, cakes were drawn hot from the oven ; cider or beer exhilarated the merrymakers in every house; and carol-singing was prolonged late into the night. Davies Gilbert says that on Christmas-day "carols took the place of psalms and hymns in all the churches at afternoon service, all the congregation joining; and at the end it was usual for the parish clerk to declare in a loud voice his wishes for a "merry Christmas and a happy new year." ... There are only some few old-fashioned folks left who bid each other "a happy Christmas," or conclude their letters with the ancient formula "all the compliments of the season."

London 1867:
 * Once more, my sisters, once more, my children, a happy Christmas ! To you, sisters in His service, the Bridegroom of the Bride, the Lover of Chastity; to you, children of the Child King, dear to Him who is lying in the manger for your sake. How it is to be a happy Christmas, you hear in the text; that gives the only way, that shows the only means. " Let us now go even to Bethlehem." Let us; then that tells us that there are others who will not. And we all know how sadly true that is. A merry Christmas is not of necessity a happy Christmas. It is not a happy Christmas, that of those who will in thousands and tens of thousands go down to the Crystal Palace to-morrow, only set on enjoying themselves, quite forgetting how He, Whose birth they profess to be honouring, joyful as that birth was for us, was Himself the man of sorrows, and acquainted with grief. It is still less a happy Christmas, that of those who have a holiday indeed from their everyday work, but only that they may spend it in riotous living as the prodigal son, in drunkenness and revellings, and worse.

New York, 1880:
 * Of course Marjorie's aunt and cousins would wish her a "merry Christmas," quite oblivious of its irony, coming from them. She was prepared to reply as usual. But she knew well that the only one from whom she would receive a Christmas greeting was Jack.
 * "I hope you'11 have a happy Christmas," said Jack, as gayly as he could, as they stood together, on the afternoon before that day, by the school-room fire.
 * Marjorie had just fastened a glowing cluster of berries in her hair, and was looking far more cheerful than any one else in the house, although there was no one but Jack to welcome, with her, the happy time.
 * "And a happy one to you, Jack!" she answered brightly, holding out her two hands, which he took in a strong clasp that had more assurance in it of trustworthy affection than any speeches. They had wished each other a "happy Christmas" for many years now, and the world had not succeeded in depressing them yet.

Canada, 1888:
 * From the earliest days of Christianity, almost while the footprints of its founder were fresh upon the shores of Galilee, the period of the nativity has been kept as a season of festivity, with ceremonies common in their purpose, but varying in their form, according to creeds and nationalities; all, however, having the same divine purpose of proclaiming the advent of " peace on earth and goodwill toward men."
 * Christmas feasts, Christmas greetings, the decoration with evergreens of churches and dwellings, Christmas trees, Christmas carols, and Christmas family greetings, are universal, and most of them have been for centuries. ... But it is in old England that the music of the Christmas carol was, and is, universal among " all sorts and conditions of men." ...
 * Christmas is a sacred time, a holy time, a time for opening the heart and the hand, a time for families to meet around the festive board, for kindly thoughts of those who are away. for subdued sorrow for those who lie under the crisp, thin snow, who were, perhaps, but a year ago, guests at the well-filled board. No carol can arouse them, no " merry Christmas" wreathes their brow with smiles. In vain we decorate their portraits with the holly and the ivy; the calm faces look down upon the Christmas festival, but the eyes no longer brighten at the song, the lips no longer smile at the jest, nor will their merry laugh, which rang like music over the scene, be evermore heard.
 * "Merrie Christmas!" Is there not some mistake in the name ? It is kindly Christmas, perhaps happy Christmas, but merry—No! It is a time when children, and grandchildren, and grandfathers, and grandmothers met together; when old memories are revived, old scenes recalled, the hidden household gods brought forth ; when hands which have never been clasped for a long, long period, lie enfolded in each other, marvelling how they came to be separated. But it is not a merry season. It makes a man meditate on how many Christmas Days he has seen, how many more he is likely to see.
 * Nonsense, man; look at the children, the bright-eyed rosyfaced children, like rays of God's blessed sunshine pouring through the house. Hear them laugh, see them loaded down with toys, the whole world of life before them, no regrets behind ; every breath they draw a pleasure, every thought they think a delight. Is not this to be merry ? If it be not, then there is no merriment on earth. How could I be so recreant as to try and filch from Christmas its proverbial adjective ? It is, it shall be, " Merry Christmas!" till the end of time.
 * No need to go back to feudal days, to the mother-land in the northern sea, where and when the whole country was filled with the influence of Christ's birthday; when in baronial hall the heavy oaken tables groaned with good cheer; when the ancient armour and the antlers of the deer glistened with redberried holly, black-berried ivy, and the viscous white berries of the basial mistletoe; when tongues of flame, from the massive Yule-log, leaped cheerily up the wide old-fashioned chimneys, and all within was warm and light, and no poor shivering beggar was left out in the cold starlight. Roast goose and roast beef, boar's head and chine, plum-pudding and mince-pie, and mighty bowls of posset and " lamb's wool" for all comers, while festive retainers, below the salt, shouted at the close of the carol " God bless you, my masters and mistresses, a merry Christmas to you, and a happy New Year! "

London, 1894:
 * The legends, painfully monotonous in their greeting, are, as a rule, the only common factor [the Christmas card] possesses. It has never descended to the fatuous vulgarity of the valentine, on the other hand, it has rarely risen far above the conventional courtesies of daily life. Its idiom hardly conveys more personal feeling than the commonest colloquial phrases—"Good Morning" or "Good-bye." On the whole, this absence of fervour is a thing to be grateful for. A passion poured out in a phrase, to be used haphazard by any chance purchaser, is more likely to be ridiculous than apt. Consequently the wisdom of the publishers has generally preserved them from ridiculous excesses of sentiment — so far as regards the message the cards are supposed to bear. "A Merry Christmas," more usually modified to "A Happy Christmas," frequently (I regret to say) abbreviated unnecessarily to "A Happy Xmas," with or without the " to you," may be taken as the representative phrase in ninety-nine out of a hundred instances. ... Indeed, it is amusing to note the pictorial accompaniments considered fit to illustrate the very mundane wish for "A Happy Christmas." As we know, the hope implied is unquestionably that the recipient may be surfeited with turkey and mince pie; have a feast of roast beef and plum pudding, and well-filled stockings if a juvenile ; and good entertainment and much jollity if an adult.

England, 1920:
 * I do not forget that, together with its watchnight services and its good resolutions, Victorian England used to wish you "A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year." Nowadays the formula is "A Happy Christmas and a Prosperous New Year." It is a priggish, sophisticated change—a sort of shamefaced implication that there is something vulgar in being "merry." There isn't. For my part, I do not want a Happy Christmas: I want a Merry Christmas. And I do not want a fat, prosperous New Year. I want a Happy New Year, which is a much better and more spiritual thing.

New York, 1921:
 * I send you tender tidings of regard this Christmas Day
 * I hope you will lack nothing to make a Merry Christmas
 * On this day I think of you, and wish you happiness without limit
 * May all joys combine to give you a happy Christmas Day
 * With best wishes and heartiest greetings for Christmas
 * I wish you a joyful Christmas from the bottom of my heart
 * With kind remembrances and all good wishes for a Merry Christmas and a Bright New Year
 * With best wishes for a Merry Christmas and a New Year of health and happiness
 * The best of good wishes for a happy Christmas
 * May Christmas bring you plenteous store of happiness and joy
 * Heaps of Christmas wishes
 * With the kindest thoughts and the best of good wishes for a happy Christmas I heartily send all good Christmas wishes to you and yours

C. P. Snow:
 * Someone cried "Happy Christmas!"
 * From the floor Edgar Hankins, was was far gone, raised a dormouse-like head.
 * "Not the English greeting," he muttered, fluffing the words.
 * "What's the matter?" said Irene.
 * "Not Happy Christmas. Insipid modernism. Vulgar. Genteel taste. Merry Christmas – that's the proper way. Merry Christmas."

Andy Rooney:
 * Millions of cards—the majority—read simply "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year." I have often wondered why the phrase is not "Happy Christmas and Merry New Year."

In other languages
In many European languages, the usual Christmas greeting is formed by applying the usual name of Christmas to a common template used for the conventional greeting or felicitation for many other holidays or celebrations. The analogy in English is "Happy Christmas" (which is of the same form as "Happy birthday", "Happy Valentine's Day", "Happy anniversary", etc) as opposed to "Merry Christmas" (where the use of "Merry" is specific to the Christmas greeting).
 * Catalan, French, Irish, Italian, Portuguese


 * Mele Kalikimaka - Hawaiian, is preferred over the traditional American "Merry Christmas" in the U.S. state of Hawaii; made popular worldwide by Bing Crosby and the Andrews Sisters in 1950 in song

In some languages, there is an idiomatic greeting specific to Christmas and not in a form common to other greetings.
 * God jul - Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, lit. "Good Yule" (cf also Glædelig jul - Danish)
 * Boldog karácsonyt/Kellemes karácsonyi ünnepeket : Merry Christmas/Pleasant Christmas Holidays in Hungarian

The greeting may specify Christmas Day or the entire Christmas season.
 * Frohe/Fröhliche Weihnachten - Weihnachten is the German not for Christmas Day (Kristtag) but for the Christmas festival, from Christmas Eve to Epiphany.

In the Netherlands, Catholics and Protestants use different greetings; Zalige "Blessed" and Prettige "Pleasant" respectively.

In Hungarian, the adjective may be "Merry" "Peaceful" or "Blessed".

Eastern Orthodox greetings are emphatically religious:
 * S'Rozhdestvóm Khristóvym! (С Рождеством Христовым!) or, more commonly, simply С Рождеством (S Rozhdestvóm!) for the informal Christmas greeting, while the traditional religious greeting is Khristós rozhdáyetsya! (Христос рождается, meaning "Christ is born!") and the traditional response is Slávite! (Cлавите!, meaning "Let us glorify Him!"); С Новым годом! (S Nóvym gódom!) - Happy New Year! in  Russian.
 * Честито Рождество Христово (Chestito Rozhdestvo Hristovo, Happy Nativity of Jesus) or Весела Коледа (Vesela Koleda, Merry Christmas) or Честита Коледа (Chestita Koleda, Happy Christmas) in Bulgarian
 * "Христос се роди!" answer: "Вaистину се роди!" ("Christ is Born!" "Indeed He's Born!") or: "Srećan Božić" (Serbian) "Merry Christmas" also Hristos se rodi''.
 * З Різдвом Христовим (Z Rizdvom Khrystovym) or, when meeting in person, Христос народився! - Славімо Його! ("Khrystos narodyvsya! - Slavimo yoho!", lit. "Christ was born! - Praise be with Him!") in Ukrainian.

New Year
In some languages, wishes for the New Year are usually offered along with Christmas wishes; in some, the New Year wishes are optional; in some, they are offered as a conventional response by the person receiving the initial greeting.


 * Czech, Catalan, Croatian, Faroese, Lithuanian, Malta, Slovak language, Slovene, Swedish, Welsh

The wish may be for just the turn of the year, or may extend for the whole of the coming year; in the latter case, the specific year number may be used in the greeting.

In France, Christmas cards are not sent; instead, a carte de voeux is sent in January with wishes for the new year, and often a summary of the sender's personal events of the old year.


 * Vrolijk Kerstfeest or Zalig Kerstfeest with en een Gelukkig Nieuwjaar - Dutch, "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year"
 * Noflike Krystdagen en in protte Lok en Seine yn it Nije Jier! in Frisian
 * Frohe Weihnachten/Fröhliche Weihnachten und ein glückliches/gutes Neues Jahr - German for Merry Christmas/Merry Christmas and a Happy/Good New Year
 * Feliz Navidad y próspero Año Nuevo - Spanish lit. "Happy Nativity and prosperous New Year"
 * Geseënde Kersfees en 'n voorspoedige nuwe jaar - Blessed Christmas and a prosperous New Year - Afrikaans speaking South Africans
 * ''Prettige Kerstdagen en een gelukkig nieuwjaar - Dutch

In Hungarian, Boldog új évet kívánok "I wish (you) a happy New Year" is often abbreviated to the acronym BÚÉK in both writing and speech.

Non-Christmas
Very few European languages other than English have seen significant adoption of greetings which avoid reference to Christmas. Secular post-Christians are comfortable with a secularised version of Christmas. Large Muslim populations in many countries, and Jews in France, are not so well accommodated.


 * Joyeuses Fêtes - French for Happy Holidays used in French Canada
 * Boas Festas - Galician for Happy Holidays
 * Καλές Γιορτές Greek for Happy Holidays or Χρόνια Πολλά Greek literaly "Many Years"

Some Asian languages have greetings referring to the New Year, used around January 1 as well as or in instead of any local traditional New Year.