coming amid pressure to “keep Christ in Christmas” while also remaining inclusive of people who don’t celebrate the Christian holiday.
“Merry,” derived from the Old English myrige, originally meant merely “pleasant, and agreeable” rather than joyous or jolly. Though Christmas has been observed since the 4th century AD, the first known usage of any Christmastime greeting dates back to 1565, when it appeared in The Hereford Municipal Manuscript. “Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year” was in an informal letter written by an English admiral in 1699. The same phrase is contained in the sixteenth century secular English carol “We Wish You a Merry Christmas,” and the first commercial Christmas card, produced in England in 1843. Also in 1843, Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol was published, during the mid Victorian revival of the holiday. The word Merry was then beginning to take on its current meaning of “jovial, cheerful, jolly and outgoing.” The instant popularity of A Christmas Carol, the Victorian era Christmas traditions it typifies, and the term’s new meaning appearing in the book, Dickens’ tale popularized the phrase “Merry Christmas.”
The alternative “Happy Christmas” gained usage in the late 19th century, and is still common in the U.K. and Ireland alongside “Merry Christmas”. One reason may be the Methodist Victorian middle-class influence in attempting to separate their construct of wholesome celebration of the Christmas season from that of common lower-class public insobriety and associated asocial behaviour, in a time where merry was also understood to mean “tipsy” or “drunk”. Queen Elizabeth II is said to prefer “Happy Christmas” for this reason. In the American poet Clement Moore‘s “A Visit from St. Nicholas” (1823), the final line, originally written as “Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night,” has been changed in many later editions to “Merry Christmas to all,” perhaps indicating the relative popularity of the phrases in the U.S.
A new poll from Marist and the Knights of Columbus shows that nationwide, two-thirds of Americans prefer to go with “Merry Christmas” over “Happy Holidays.” There is a divide, however, between Americans living on the East and West Coasts, and Midwesterners and people living the South. Fifty-six percent of Northeasterners and 57% of West Coasters said “Merry Christmas” was their greeting of choice. In the Midwest, 70% chose “Merry Christmas,” and in the South 69% felt the same. Older generations were also more likely to choose “Merry Christmas,” while 50% of millennials (people ages 18-30) preferred to make merry with “Happy Holidays.” Americans over 65 overwhelming chose “Merry Christmas” over “Happy Holidays,” 74% to 22%. The Marist-Knights of Columbus poll was taken by phone November 8-10 from 1,026 adults. The sampling error was plus or minus three percentage points.
