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It is common in the US to use "Season's Greetings" or "Happy Holidays" as a more secular sentiment for this time of year (Wikipedia has a pretty good description of these). Also, "Happy New Year" by itself is quite common and not considered lame at all. Finally, I am not Christian, but I don't find it offensive when well-wishers offer me a "Merry ...

This isn’t a full answer, but some more pieces of the puzzle. Briefly: the OED supports the argument that the usage “twelfth night” = “Jan 6th” comes not from subtleties of ecclesiastical reckoning, but from a recent shift in meaning. According to the OED, the twelve days originally referred to the twelve days after Christmas, i.e. starting from the first ...

No method. The twelfth day is January 5th: 25-Dec 26-Dec 27-Dec 28-Dec 29-Dec 30-Dec 31-Dec 01-Jan 02-Jan 03-Jan 04-Jan 05-Jan January 6th is the day after the twelfth day of Christmas. I am not an expert on this subject, but this is from the Wikipedia page on Epiphany: Christian feast celebrating the appearance of Jesus Christ to the Magi ...

If you're looking for a "greeting message for new year", what's wrong with "Happy New Year?" I don't see anything lame about it. Happy Holidays, Season's Greetings If you're reasonably certain the person you are addressing lives in a region where these holidays are widely celebrated, you can say "Happy Holidays" or "Season's Greetings." That doesn't ...

Wikipedia has the answer for you: "Christmas" is a compound word originating in the term "Christ's Mass". It is derived from the Middle English Cristemasse, which is from Old English Crīstesmæsse, a phrase first recorded in 1038. Crīst (genitive Crīstes) is from Greek Khrīstos (Χριστός), a translation of Hebrew Māšîaḥ (מָשִׁיחַ), "Messiah"; and mæsse is ...

Looking at the definitions of merry and happy, I would suggest that merry implies more short-term jollity, and happy more long-term contentment. That would square well with the Merry Christmas and Happy New Year usage. The definitions of merry I found here and here, and for happy here and here. It might also be worth noting that merry is used in phrases ...

As others have mentioned, Christmas and New Year are proper nouns, and thus are capitalized. Generally the phrases "Merry Christmas" and "Happy New Year" are used in greetings, as headings, or in some other isolated way, and thus "Happy" and "Merry" are the first word of the sentence, and thus those words are capitalized. Happy New Year! is a sentence ...

This is a social propriety question and not a language question. But in that spirit, here's my answer: If you're a non-Christian and don't celebrate Christmas, or if the person you're speaking to does not celebrate Christmas, then just say "hello"! Why in the world do people look for a way to bring up a specific religious holiday without mentioning the ...

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, ...

You don’t typically use a preposition there, but if you must, on is the correct one, because you are basically referring to a day, or a general time period within a day: on Wednesday (night) on (the night of) Christmas Eve At is definitely not correct, because generally we use at for times, not dates. In is technically correct as well, because “in ...

The word usage is wholly dependent upon what you are trying to say with the sentence. Note that the differences, while real, are also minor. Most readers would guess the reason for the gathering. The whole family got together at Christmas. This implies that the family got together around Christmas time, but does not suggest that Christmas was the ...

Originally, "Christmas Eve" meant the night before Christmas day. Today we count days from midnight to midnight. That is, we begin each new day at midnight. On the ancient Jewish calendar, the day went from sunset to sunset. That is, sunset marked the beginning of a new day. When Christians borrowed holidays from the Jews, they borrowed this idea of the ...

"I hope you had a nice Christmas" or "I trust you had a nice Christmas" would both suffice. The latter might sound a bit overly-formal to some ears, but if it's a business contact you don't know outside of business that's not necessarily a bad thing. Much is made in some quarters about whether it is better to refer to Christmas or the holidays generally, ...

Linked on from the Wikipedia page, The Telegraph says, But many people believe Twelfth Night falls on Jan 6, at the end of the 12th day after Christmas... The difference in opinion is said to be down to the fact that in centuries past, Christmas was deemed to start at sunset on Dec 24 and so the 12th night following it was Jan 5. ...

From Wikipedia: "Xmas" is a common abbreviation of the word "Christmas". It is sometimes pronounced /ˈɛksməs/, but it, and variants such as "Xtemass", originated as handwriting abbreviations for the typical pronunciation /ˈkrɪsməs/. The "-mas" part is from the Latin-derived Old English word for "Mass", while the "X" comes from the Greek letter Chi, which ...

mer·ri·ment a state of enjoyable exuberance; playful fun noun /ˈmerēmənt/  Gaiety and fun - her eyes sparkled with merriment Happiness Hap"pi*ness, n. [From Happy.] 1. Good luck; good fortune; prosperity. - All happiness bechance to thee in Milan! Shak. Merriment is having some good fun, while happiness is a much broader term, ...

In the examples you make, there is no need to use any preposition. We can get together Wednesday night. Since there was nothing I could do, I wandered downtown the night of Christmas Eve. At least in American English, you can use a weekday as adverb, such as in the following sentences: We will try again Friday. (We will try again on Friday.) ...

It depends on what you're trying to say (as noted by others). "On": refers to that day: "We got together on Christmas for dinner and a gift exchange." "We went to a movie on Christmas because everything else was closed." "For": refers to purpose: "We got together for Christmas" implies that Christmas was the reason (versus the movie example above). ...

Is the 25th of December the 'first day' of Christmas, or the 'zeroth' day? According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twelve_days_of_Christmas Boxing Day, or the 26th, is considered the 'first full day' - so that would place the twelfth night on the 5th of January, but the twelfth day would be the 6th. I wonder if this is at all related to the idea of the ...

Well, the origin of the holiday is the pagan holiday "Yule", also known as "Dude, it's the winter solstice, let's get drunk."[citation needed]; so you could say "A joyous Yule to you.". Of course, it might be seen as insensitive by some, but a very good option seems to be the phrase "Merry Christmas, and a happy New Year.". This is a fairly good phrase to ...

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 ...

I would imagine the confusion comes from having people who assume day precedes night tacking an extra, incorrect, night to the end. The Twelfth Night is January 5th, the last day of the Christmas Season before Epiphany (January 6th). In some church traditions, January 5th is considered the eleventh Day of Christmas, while the evening of ...

Christmas and New Year are proper nouns. I know that Merry Christmas and other such greetings are usually capitalised, but the reason why is unclear. They are not proper nouns, but they are phrases and as such the first letter of the first word is often capitalised, but this is not set in stone. I get the impression that their are cultural differences, ...