Home > OxfordWords blog > Merry Christmas

Tag archives: Merry Christmas

What makes Christmas merry?

What makes Christmas merry? A brief history of yuletide adjectives

From Happy Easter to Happy Halloween to countless Happy Birthdays, our felicitations hardly vary from one celebration to the next. Christmas is the notable exception, with the dominant descriptor being Merry. We wish our friends a Merry Christmas but a Happy New Year. Is there any difference? Not everyone’s Christmas is merry. Happy Christmas has [...]

Posted on: December 19 2011 | Posted by: | Comments: 0 | Categories: English in use, Word origins | Tags: , , , ,

Subscribe to updates

Blog categories


Take our poll:


Popular tags

confusables, definitions, dialect, dictionary, English in use, English usage, etymology, festive, French, grammar, idioms, interactive, lexicography, new words, OED, Oxford Dictionaries, Oxford English Corpus, Oxford English Dictionary, phrases, poetry, politics, quiz, quotations, slang, social media, spelling, Susie Dent, word origins, word trends, writing help

Top stories

1 Stork and bundle

Labouring language: the changing vocabulary of childbirth

2 Keeping it in Mind - Poetry by Heart

Keeping it in mind – Poetry By Heart

3 John Simpson - Chief Editor OED

Cricket and the Queen Mum: the OED’s Chief Editor discusses some fascinating words

4 Bible or Bard?

Bible or Bard?

5 Vampires say the funniest things! A quiz of quotations from famous bloodsuckers

Vampires say the funniest things! A quiz of quotations from famous bloodsuckers


Sign up for our newsletter