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up vote 6 down vote favorite

On the very first Christmas card was written "A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year..." http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/christmas-card-sayings-and-phrases.html

In wiki dictionary that same general phrase is "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year" http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Merry_Christmas_and_a_Happy_New_Year

However few quick searches in Google show many people use it without any articles like so:

"Merry Christmas and Happy New Year"

So ... does anyone have a source explaining if one of those phrases is "most" correct and if there's any difference implied by the number of articles used?

Edit: Just to make it more clear - I'm asking for the case when you for example design a Christmas card and you have to write the phrase on the card - not personally to anybody, but rather as an impersonally commercial message to the general audience ...

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4  
No more than two. – Peter Shor Nov 23 '11 at 13:41
@PeterShor: thwack, because that was too easy an opening. :-) – Marthaª Nov 23 '11 at 14:36
1  
Is the "extra" article simply a result of getting the song lyrics to match the melody? – JeffSahol Nov 23 '11 at 16:10
@Jeff ... I doubt that - they could've just made the a in "and" longer to match the rhythm – Ican Zilb Nov 23 '11 at 17:31

4 Answers

up vote 7 down vote accepted

There's a difference between a complete, grammatically-correct sentence and a greeting.

If I was writing a complete sentence, I would write "I wish you a merry Christmas and a happy New Year." But if I was just greeting someone, I'd say, "Merry Christmas!", not "A Merry Christmas".

It's like when you write a title or a headline, you often leave out words, especially articles and versions of the verb "to be". A newspaper headline will say something like "Stock Market Up", not "The Stock Market is Up".

I suspect people write "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year", i.e. no article on the first but including an article on the second, because they're starting out writing a headline type of construction but when they get to the middle it's getting kind of long and they put in the article as if it was a complete sentence through force of habit. I think it's inconsistant and I wouldn't do it. I'd generally write "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!", or maybe possibly "A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year."

Of course, in these politically-correct times, the correct greeting is "Happy Unspecified Holiday to you, unless the very idea of holidays offends you, in which case please pretend I said nothing and walked past you in silence".

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1  
well ... I'd say "Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year" is the one I've heard the most... what would you say is the correct one to put on a Christmas Card, or e-mail, etc. which you send to the general public, kind of not a whole sentence but impersonal greeting? – Ican Zilb Nov 23 '11 at 15:13
@Ican: I haven't checked any statistics, but I think the most common thing to write on a Christmas card, etc, is "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year". – Jay Nov 23 '11 at 19:07
+1 "There's a difference between a complete, grammatically-correct sentence and a greeting." That should be the complete, correct, necessary and sufficient answer. Everything else is off-topic on ELU. – Kris Dec 25 '12 at 5:44
up vote 2 down vote

Both seem fine. It is more of thing of conventions rather than rules.

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So if there isn't a rule, which is the convention? (you can have a look at the question - I added the specific case I'm asking about) – Ican Zilb Nov 23 '11 at 15:10
up vote 1 down vote

I don't think any of the solutions you posted are incorrect.

Generally sentences become more formal and elaborate, when you use more words. So despite all of your sentences being correct, the most formal one would, in my eyes be

"I wish you a merry Christmas and a happy new year".

Of course you can arbitrarily add more formality by making it longer:

"On this day, celebrated throughout the world as a day of peace, I wish you and your family a merry Christmas and a happy new year".

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up vote -3 down vote

You should put an article before "h" (i.e. "a happy"). See the rules here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/English_articles#Indefinite_article

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4  
I think you are confused about something. – slim Dec 20 '11 at 15:53

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