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) However, the letter "X" looks similar to the Greek letter, "χ", which is the Greek abbreviation for Christ, although this is not well known.
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, New Zealand, Australia, South Africa, Mexico, Philippines, and parts of Western Europe not affiliated with the Eastern Orthodox rites.
It also remains popular in the largely non-Christian nations 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.
In the United States, "Happy Holidays" (along with the similarly generalized "Season's Greetings") has become the most common holiday greeting in the public sphere within the past decade, such as department stores, public schools and greeting cards. Its use is generally confined to the period between United States Thanksgiving and New Year's. American use of the term "Happy Holidays" to replace "Merry Christmas" dates back at least to the 1970s. Use of the term may have originated with the Irving Berlin song "Happy Holidays" (released in 1942 and included in the film Holiday Inn).
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, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, the Winter solstice, Christmas Day (The Nativity of the Lord), Boxing Day (St. Stephen's Day), the New Year and Epiphany.
As "Happy Holidays", a shortened form of the greeting "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year."
The increasing usage of "Happy Holidays" has been the subject of some controversy in the United States. Advocates claim that "Happy Holidays" is an inclusive greeting that is not intended as an attack on Christianity or other religions, but is rather a response to what they say is the reality of a growing non-Christian population. The parody religion, Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster interprets the use of "Happy Holidays", rather than more traditional greetings, as support for Pastafarianism.
Critics of "Happy Holidays" generally claim it is a secular neologism. The greeting may be deemed materialistic, consumerist, atheistic, indifferentist, agnostic, politically correct, and/or anti-Christian. It may be associated with the "War on Christmas," with the intent of deliberately diminishing the centrality of Christianity and advancing secularism.[8] However, some Christians, concerned that the 20th-century conflation of St. Nicholas Day (December 6), Christmas (December 25), and Epiphany (January 6) has 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.
Christians are upset because the business and secular worlds are trying to change the ever used phrase Merry Christmas to the less offensive Happy Holidays. The business world and non-Christians are offended that they have to hear and are expected to say Merry Christmas, preferring to use more generic terms as Happy Holidays or Season’s Greetings.
I, for one, am a bit weary of the argument. Aren’t you? So I decided that as much as I love to study words, I would see if the battle is really worth all the chagrin. Here’s what I found:
“Christmas” derived from an Old English word Cristesmaesse or “Christ’s Mass,” a day set aside to celebrate the birth of the Son of God Incarnate.
“Holiday” derived from an Old English word Haligdaeg or “Holy-Day,” used to denote religious and sacred days set aside for celebration or worship.
“Season’s Greetings” reminds me the Almighty and Sovereign God promised that “While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, winter and summer and day and night shall not cease.” Genesis 8:22 He IS the God of the Seasons.
Across the provinces, residents of Saskatchewan and Manitoba, at 80 per cent, are most likely to favour the term Christmas.
British Columbians come in at a close second with 78 per cent, followed by 77 per cent of Albertans and Ontarians, and 74 per cent of those living in the Atlantic provinces.
Quebecers, however, are less likely to prefer the term Christmas Season and are more likely to favour using holiday season.
Sixty-one per cent of Quebec residents prefer Christmas, while 39 per cent side with holiday season.
On what the holiday season means to them, a slim majority of 56 per cent of Canadians thinks Christmas is a time for family, down three points from last year.
For many Canadians, Wright said, Christmas is akin to American Thanksgiving, a time when people go home to reconnect with their family.
“It’s not about religion,” said Wright. “The No. 1 reason is really about family.”
Fourteen per cent think Christmas is a time for exchanging gifts this season, up from last year’s nine per cent.
Nineteen per cent think Christmas is a time to reflect on the birth of Jesus Christ, while 12 per cent see the holiday as just “a nice festive season in the middle of the winter.”
Women are more likely to see Christmas as a time for family, with 59 per cent, compared with 52 per cent of men.
Men, at 15 per cent, are twice as likely as women, at eight per cent, to see Christmas as a nice holiday in the middle of dreary winter.
Thirty-five per cent of Atlantic Canadians see Christmas as a time to reflect on the birth of Jesus Christ. The rest of Canada isn’t far behind, but just six per cent of Quebecers agreed, which Wright said could have to do with Montreal’s multicultural population.
The online poll of 1,021 Canadians from an Ipsos Reid online panel was conducted between last Dec. 14 and 19. The poll has a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points, 19 times out of 20.
Canadians appear to be adamant about their more traditional tastes, with their attitude similar to findings when the question was asked last year.
“I think what we’re seeing here is an interesting renaissance where Canadians, many of them, don’t feel that they are being offensive to someone if they call it the Christmas Season,” explained Ipsos Reid pollster John Wright. “Because the majority of people in this country are Christian, the majority of people in this country believe that it is Christmas.”
Meanwhile, 25% of Canadians say they prefer the more inclusive “holiday season” in describing year-end festivities, in order to be more sensitive toward others’ religions and cultures.
Middle-aged and older Canadians — 73% of 35- to 54-year-olds, and 80% of those aged 55 and older — are more likely to have a preference for the traditional “Christmas Season” term, which Wright said is not surprising.
But younger Canadians also favour calling it the Christmas Season, and significantly more so than last year.
Sixty-six per cent of those polled between the ages of 18 and 34 prefer the phrase Christmas Season, up 10 points from last year.
“Again, I think there’s a bit of a renaissance here,” said Wright. “Who knows what’s happening, except to say that young people are carving out a niche of their own.”
However, younger Canadians also are more likely than older Canadians to prefer the more multicultural moniker of “holiday season.”
Thirty-four per cent of 18 to 34-year-olds prefer the term holiday season, while only 27% of middle-aged and 20% of older Canadians agree, the survey found.
Across the provinces, residents of Saskatchewan and Manitoba, at 80 per cent, are most likely to favour the term Christmas.
