Wednesday Wildcard: Happy Christmas, not Merry!

We all know the common American phrase “Merry Christmas” as we see it on the TV and in a lot of films. Did you know that in the UK we say “Happy Christmas” instead?

So why not Merry Christmas? For as start, for a long time in the 17th century celebrating Christmas in the way that we do now was illegal. So, it was not very happy or merry. The puritan people (very very very Christian people) thought that a large celebration was not very Christian and did not like all the food, dancing, and alcohol.

The other thing to think about is that “merry” can also mean “drunk” in British English, so people who wanted to sound respectable used “happy” which is much more innocent (not sinful). The connection between “merry” and “drunk” is not strong in the USA so they were OK with using merry.

Did this surprise you? You will see Merry Christmas everywhere in Britain now as well because we buy a lot of Christmas things from America, like films for example. It is not impolite to say Merry Christmas in England so do not worry 😊 It is just more usual to say Happy Christmas!