American Culture: I Wish You a Merry…Holiday?

What is “X-Mas”? Why do some people say “Happy Holidays” while others say “Merry Christmas”? Find out in this episode.

• Listen to learn about how winter holidays are celebrated in America.
• First, try listening without reading the transcript. After that, listen again to check for any words you might’ve missed.
• You’ll also find a quiz at the end!

Transcript:

Hello and season’s greetings! In today’s episode, we’ll be talking about the many ways we can express our best wishes to friends and family during the holiday season! Stay tuned.

So there is a bit of a debate about holiday greetings here in the States. Some people will wish you “happy holidays”, while others will say “Merry Christmas”. What becomes problematic is that America is a country made up of many different religions and cultures. Because of this diversity, not everyone celebrates Christmas; some celebrate Hanukkah or Kwanzaa—while others have their own traditions or choose not to celebrate at all. Unlike other countries that have a recognized state religion, this isn’t the case in the US. This is because of the first amendment of the Bill of Rights, that prevents the establishment of an official national religion. So, what should you say? Well, if you know what a person celebrates, there’s no problem with using an expression like “Merry Christmas” or “Happy Hanukkah”. However, when in a professional setting or addressing people that you don’t know well, I would advise you to stick to “Happy Holidays”.

A family celebrating Hanukkah, an 8-day Jewish festival.

Alright! Now, let’s look at a few common written expressions that you can use. So, of course, you can write expressions like “Happy Holidays”, “Merry Christmas”, and “Happy Hanukkah”, but one thing to note is that Christmas can be written with an “X”. You might have seen the word “Christmas” spelled X-m-a-s as a shortened version of the whole word. This “X” used to represent the word “Christ” comes from Greek. In Greek, Christmas is Xrisyougenna (Χριστούγεννα), and the word Christ is Xristos (Χριστός). It is written with the Greek letter “hee”(χ) that looks like the English letter “X”. You’ll often see Christmas written this way in advertisements or greeting cards, but it is best to avoid this short version when writing more formal messages.

A Christmas ornament with “Merry Xmas” written on it.

Two great written expressions that can be used in both formal and informal situations are:
“Best wishes for the holiday season!”
“Season’s greetings and happy new year!”

My favorite expression for the new year is:
“May your new year be filled with _______(joy, health, happiness, etc.)!”
You can personalize this expression for the person you are sending your message to. For example, if your friend will be travelling in the next year, you might say, “may your new year be filled with adventure and exciting new experiences in far away places!”

Have you ever sent someone a holiday card in English?

Alright, Now let’s test your listening with a few questions about what we talked about in today’s episode. Which Amendment of the Unites States Bill of Rights prevents the establishment of an official religion? A.The First Amendment B. The Third Amendment or C. The Fifth Amendment

The correct answer is [A. The First Amendment].

Now for the next question.. When we spell Christmas as x=m-a-s, what language does this letter X come from?
A. Latin B. Greek C. German

The correct answer is [B. Greek].