Radio stations play nothing but Christmas songs. On TV, it’s one Christmas movie after another. At home, families decorate their trees while singing carols. As we get closer to December 25, Christmas is all anyone can talk about. So let’s take a moment to consider the word itself. Where does it come from? Is it a proper noun or common noun? Does it have more than one meaning? The term Christmas might very well surprise you.
An introduction to the word “Christmas”
Various sources agree on the origin of the word Christmas, which is often abbreviated to X-mas. It comes from the Old English Cristesmæsse, meaning “mass of Christ.”
Christmas, which is a proper noun, is always written with a capital C. But the word can also be plural.
Christmases in this family are usually very festive.
While people in the United Kingdom wish others a happy Christmas, it’s much more common to hear “Merry Christmas” in Canada and the United States. Both expressions have the same meaning. Note that the adjectives happy and merry are lowercased when preceded by the indefinite article a.
- Happy Christmas!
- “Merry Christmas,” I said to my parents.
- The children watching the Santa Claus parade shouted, “Happy Christmas!”
- We wish you a merry Christmas!
More than a holiday!
Christmas is the celebration of the birth of Christ, but that’s not all. Christmastime refers to the whole holiday season, including the days leading up to and following December 25.
I’ll be taking advantage of Christmastime to redecorate my apartment.
Christmas is also a name given to children born on December 25 , regardless of their gender. If you don’t know anyone named Christmas, that’s understandable—over the last few decades, its French counterpart, Noel, has become more popular. Christmas is also a family name. Famous people with the name Christmas include Art Christmas, a Canadian jazz saxophonist; Eric Christmas, a British stage and screen actor; and Dionte Christmas and Rakeem Christmas, American professional basketball players.
The word Christmas is also commonly used to describe the poinsettia, a bushy plant native to Mexico, whose leaves, which are green at first, change colour at Christmastime. There are several varieties of this shrub, but the most popular is the one whose leaves turn from green to bright red. This variety is known as the Christmas star or Christmas flower.
The hotel lobby was decorated with Christmas flowers.
From island to inland
In Canada, there’s a municipality in Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, called Christmas Island. Thousands of people around the world send their Christmas parcels there, just to have their package stamped with the special Christmas Island cachet before final delivery.
Another Christmas Island is located on the west coast of Australia. Although other versions of the story exist, the island is said to have been given this name because English sea-captain William Mynors sighted it on December 25, 1643, while sailing past it.Note 1
In the United States, several places have names evoking Christmas, including Christmas, a small community in Florida; Christmasville in Tennessee; and Christmas Cove in Maine.
Between snow and sun
Although I grew up on a tropical island, I often associated the word Christmas with winter, so much so that at home, my family—like many other families—wrapped the Christmas tree in cotton wool to mimic snow. While it was 30 degrees Celsius outside, we’d happily sing, “Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow,” without even having a clue what a flurry of snow was.
But I obviously had it all wrong! The season in which Christmas falls varies from country to country: when the cold sets in in the southern hemisphere, summer is in full swing in the northern hemisphere. In Australia and Argentina, for example, Christmas is celebrated around a barbecue or on the beach while other countries, such as Canada and France, are blanketed in snow of varying depths.
An interesting tradition on campgrounds in Quebec is to celebrate Christmas on July 25, during summer in Canada. Festivities take place in a true Christmas atmosphere, with decorations, music and turkey dinner for the whole family. All that’s missing are the cold and snow! They call it Noël des campeurs or Campers’ Christmas. This tradition also exists in other Canadian provinces, but outside Quebec, it’s called Christmas in July.
This brings me back to the date—or rather, dates—of Christmas. For the vast majority, notably Western Christians and some Eastern churches, Christmas is celebrated on December 25. However, many Orthodox churches celebrate Christmas on January 6. And in the Julian calendar, the holiday falls on January 7.
Christmas-themed idioms
The word Christmas has found its way into many English idioms. Here are a fewNote 2:
Christmas came early
This expression is used when something pleasant happens unexpectedly.
New job? Looks like Christmas came early for you.
To light up like a Christmas tree
This is a “brilliant” way of describing someone whose facial expression suddenly shows great joy or excitement.
When the little girl saw her father arrive, she lit up like a Christmas tree.
Like turkeys voting for Christmas
This expression, heard mainly in the United Kingdom, is used when someone makes a decision that will impact them negatively.
I have to work early tomorrow morning, but like turkeys voting for Christmas, I’ve agreed to drive all my friends home after the party tonight.
Do you know any other interesting facts about the word Christmas? Feel free to share them with me in the comments. And if you’re celebrating Christmas, depending on where you are, I hope you have a merry Christmas or a happy Christmas!
