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Dec 8, 2021 · For starters, it's important to note that "Happy Christmas" hasn't faded completely—it's still widely used in England. This is believed to be because "happy" took on a higher class connotation than "merry," which was associated with the rowdiness of the lower classes. The royal family adopted "Happy Christmas" as their preferred greeting, and ...
- rebekah.lowin@hearst.com
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1843 was the date of the publication of Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol and it was around that time, in the early part of the reign of Queen Victoria, that Christmas as we now know it was largely invented. The word merry was then beginning to take on its current meaning of ‘jovial, and outgoing’ (and, let’s face it, probably mildly ...
Jun 30, 2021 · Merry Christmas in the 20 th Century. With the rise of "Merry Christmas" as the proper greeting for the end-of-year holiday, the 20 th century saw some push back from religious authorities against the term, rather wanting people to use "Happy Holidays" in its place as holiday is inherently a religious word, derived from an Old English word meaning 'holy day.'
- “Merry Christmas” Greetings
- The TV Yule Log
- “Do You Hear What I Hear?“
- Snow Globes
- “Silent Night”
- NORAD’s Santa Tracker
Brian Earl’s Christmas Past: The Fascinating Stories Behind Our Favorite Holiday’s Traditions traces the first known instance of “Merry Christmas” to a 16th-century letter from a bishop to England’s Chief Minister, in which the religious leader hoped God would bless the politician with a “Merry Christmas.” The carol “God Rest Ye Merry, gentlemen” a...
Americans without a fireplace can just turn on their TVs at Christmastime and get an hours-long loop of a burning log, often with a soundtrack of Christmas carols. The first televised yule log dates back to 1966, filmed at a fireplace in Gracie Mansion, then the home of New York City Mayor John Lindsay. The TV station WPIX found itself short on pro...
Six decades ago, in Oct. 1962, husband-and-wife songwriters Nöel Regney—yes, Nöel—and Gloria Shayne wrote “Do You Hear What I Hear?” as a plea for peace during the Cuban Missile Crisis, according to Michael P. Foley’s Why We Kiss under the Mistletoe: Christmas Traditions Explained.That’s clear from the line “Pray for peace, people everywhere!” Coin...
According to Earl, the common wintertime souvenir—a plastic or glass orb filled with liquid and fake snow that falls on a landscape—was originally developed as a way to light surgical operating rooms in the era before widespread electricity. In 1900, Erwin Perzy, who made surgical instruments in Vienna, Austria, tried placing a water-filled glass g...
Another Christmas tradition of Austrian origins, the Christmas carol “Silent Night” was first performed in 1818 and was written by Joseph Mohr, a priest at the Catholic St. Nicholas Church in Oberndorf. As Foley tells TIME, Mohr was “an Austrian priest who was very eager to celebrate a high mass for his congregation on Christmas, but the organ brok...
In 1955, a child was trying to reach Santa from a phone number listed in a Sears Roebuck ad and, due to a misprint, ended up reaching the red phone at the Continental Air Defense Command (CONAD) Operations Center in Colorado Springs, Colo. At the height of the Cold War, the phone was only supposed to ring if there was bad news. Air Force Col. Harry...
Sep 23, 2024 · The most likely reason for this is the fact that, well, “merry” was just a far more popular word back then than it is today. The first written record of someone using “Merry Christmas ...
In this sense, Happy Christmas is a bit more conservative and reserved than Merry Christmas, which conveys a more emotional, unrestrained celebration. No one knows for sure why Merry Christmas became the more popular greeting in the United States. Some Christians believe it is a more fitting greeting, given the unrestrained and emotional ...
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Nov 9, 2023 · According to the Oxford English Dictionary, Happy New Year came first in the mid-16th century, and Happy Christmas was in play by the late 17th. Merry young carolers in 'Aunt Louisa’s London Toy ...
