Completely trivial point, but a non-USAist I don’t think I’ll ever stop finding the phrase “the Holiday Season” weird. If you mean Christmas because you want people to buy it as a Christmas present, then just say Christmas! I guess it’s to be non-religious but I just find it funny to say “the holiday season” to mean winter when the season that everyone goes on holiday is summer.
In the US, there are multiple holidays people get together for. Halloween (to a lesser degree), Thanksgiving, Christmas (or Hanukkah), New Years. Extended families will often get together multiple times for these and then not see each other again until the next year. Thanksgiving really kicks off the retail season with black Friday, but there’s also a lot of time off during the winter time from school and work.
It really is a season with Christmas at the center of it. A lot of our “Christmas” songs don’t even mention Christmas. It’s just songs about winter.
That much makes sense, but when it’s companies releasing products they hope will be bought as Christmas presents then it’s just odd to hear them skirting round the word “Christmas”. Unless you guys buy each other PS5s for new year?
It’s also somewhat inclusive of Lunar New Year and Diwali. More broadly, it’s a public recognition that not everyone celebrates Christmas to make it clear they’re accepting of diversity.
Maybe it’s the Canadian in me, but I don’t wish anyone a “Merry Christmas” unless maybe if I specifically know they celebrate Christmas; I almost always say “Happy Holidays!”
I think of it like there’s more than just Christmas being celebrated at the end of the year, so to include them all it’s easier to just say the holiday season
Completely trivial point, but a non-USAist I don’t think I’ll ever stop finding the phrase “the Holiday Season” weird. If you mean Christmas because you want people to buy it as a Christmas present, then just say Christmas! I guess it’s to be non-religious but I just find it funny to say “the holiday season” to mean winter when the season that everyone goes on holiday is summer.
In the US, there are multiple holidays people get together for. Halloween (to a lesser degree), Thanksgiving, Christmas (or Hanukkah), New Years. Extended families will often get together multiple times for these and then not see each other again until the next year. Thanksgiving really kicks off the retail season with black Friday, but there’s also a lot of time off during the winter time from school and work.
It really is a season with Christmas at the center of it. A lot of our “Christmas” songs don’t even mention Christmas. It’s just songs about winter.
That much makes sense, but when it’s companies releasing products they hope will be bought as Christmas presents then it’s just odd to hear them skirting round the word “Christmas”. Unless you guys buy each other PS5s for new year?
It’s also somewhat inclusive of Lunar New Year and Diwali. More broadly, it’s a public recognition that not everyone celebrates Christmas to make it clear they’re accepting of diversity.
Maybe it’s the Canadian in me, but I don’t wish anyone a “Merry Christmas” unless maybe if I specifically know they celebrate Christmas; I almost always say “Happy Holidays!”
When I was a kid, it wasn’t entirely uncommon to get a big gift during a random holiday get-together.
But I think “holidays” is more of a generic retail term used to get people to buy more and feel less limited.
I think of it like there’s more than just Christmas being celebrated at the end of the year, so to include them all it’s easier to just say the holiday season
Yeah I get it, it’s just one of those phrases that sounds weird to the non-American ear
Where I live we have a bunch of small holidays in the spring. Winter only has the one big one. Spring seems more the season for them