page_title: Christmas and holiday season
section_title: Merry Christmas and Happy Christmas
hierarchical_section_title: Christmas and holiday season / Greetings / Merry Christmas and Happy Christmas
caption_attribution_description: English: A neatly decorated Christmas cake.
context_page_description: The Christmas season, also called the holiday season, or the festive season, is an annually recurring period recognized in many Western and other countries that is generally considered to run from late November to early January. It is defined as incorporating at least Christmas, usually New Year, and sometimes various other holidays and festivals. It also is associated with a period of shopping which comprises a peak season for the retail sector and a period of sales at the end of the season. Christmas window displays and Christmas tree lighting ceremonies when trees decorated with ornaments and light bulbs are illuminated are traditions in many areas.
  In the denominations of Western Christianity, the term "Christmas season" is considered synonymous with Christmastide, which runs from December 25 to January 5, popularly known as the 12 Days of Christmas.
context_section_description: The greetings and farewells "merry Christmas" and "happy Christmas" are traditionally used in English-speaking countries, starting a few weeks before December 25 each year.
  Variations are:
  "Merry Christmas", the traditional English greeting, composed of merry (jolly, happy) and Christmas (Old English: Cristes mæsse, for Christ's Mass).
  "Happy Christmas", an equivalent greeting often used in Great Britain and Ireland.
  "Merry Xmas", with the "X" replacing "Christ" (see Xmas) is sometimes used in writing, but very rarely in speech. This is in line with the traditional use of the Greek letter chi (uppercase Χ, lowercase χ), the initial letter of the word Χριστός (Christ), to refer to Christ.
  These greetings and their equivalents in other languages are popular not only in countries with large Christian populations, but also in the largely non-Christian nations of China and Japan, where Christmas is celebrated primarily due to cultural influences of predominantly Christian countries. They have somewhat decreased in popularity in the United States and Canada in recent decades, but polls in 2005 indicated that they remained more popular than "happy holidays" or other alternatives.
caption: A Christmas cake with a "Merry Christmas" greeting
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