Christmas is conspicuously the only time of year when the word “merry” receives heavy use. The greeting “Merry Christmas” dates back to at least 1565, in which year the author of the Hereford Municipal Manuscript wrote “And thus I comytt you to god, who send you a mery Christmas & many.” Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, published in 1843, pushed it forward, as did industrialization: The first commercially sold Christmas card (also printed in 1843) contained the salutation “A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to You.”
Yet “Merry Christmas” did not gain universal support. The Night Before Christmas (Clement C. Moore’s, I mean, not Nikolai Gogol’s) ends with the words, “A Happy Christmas to all and to all a good night.” Queen Elizabeth II wishes British subjects a “Happy Christmas” in her annual Christmas broadcasts, and the phrase enjoys a broad general currency the U.K.
What accounts for the difference? Queen Elizabeth, a woman of serious low-church piety, is said to prefer “happy” to “merry” because she dislikes “merry’s” connotation of boisterousness, even slight intoxication. (Similarly, in Holland some of the more strictly reformed Dutch prefer Zalig Kerstfeest—“Blessed Christmas”–to Vrolijk Kerstmis—“Merry Christmas.”)
This moral suspicion of “Merry Christmas” dates back to the Methodist churchmen of the Victorian era who sought to promote sobriety among the English working class. Merrymaking of the ancient, alcoholic sort was frowned on year-round, perhaps never more so than during the celebration of the Savior’s birth. The phrase “Merry Christmas” would hang on, but the image of a family sharing a bottle of port or wine in the first commercial Christmas card was to give way to more temperate holiday depictions.
We may no longer associate “merry” with spirits alcoholic as well as high, but the meaning was once familiar. “Merry” appeared in both the Wyclife and King James bibles in reference to intoxication, where it describes an evening in the life of the rich man Nabal: “He held a feast in his house, like the feast of a king; and Nabal’s heart was merry within him, for he was very drunken.” (To wish someone a holiday feast like Nabal’s was to wish him a very good Christmas indeed.)
To certain ears, then, “Happy Christmas” conveys a sober, well-earned enjoyment, the satisfaction resulting from hard work and virtuous living. “Merry Christmas” stirs in us an impulse more primitive and unrestrained: The childlike giddiness of Christmas morning, the rush down the stairs and tearing at paper, the intemperate delight in gifts long hoped-for and wholly undeserved.
Which phrase conveys a more fitting response to the overwhelming, unearned, gift of Christ’s birth? Suffice it to say that when our Lord comes I hope I do not greet him with dignified reserve but instead rush at him with the unguarded, unembarrassed joy of a child at play or man at his cups. Merry Christmas to all!
h/t Christine Emba
December 24th, 2012 | 4:35 pm
I had no idea what the difference was between Happy & Merry Christmas except the biblical understanding that its a celebration of the birth of our Lamb Jesus Christ. The retailers have rendered the meaning to obscurity. It would seem its buying time. And its worse for people buying things they dont need and cannot afford
December 24th, 2012 | 5:41 pm
Forced to choose, I would rather be happy than merry. I think most people feel similarly, so it seems kinder to wish them a happy Christmas.
December 24th, 2012 | 6:47 pm
However, the KJV also uses “merry” in a positive sense, in such proverbs as
Prov 15:13 “A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance: but by sorrow of the heart the spirit is broken.”
Prov 15:15 “All the days of the afflicted are evil: but he that is of a merry heart hath a continual feast.”
Prov 17:22 “A merry heart doeth good like a medicine: but a broken spirit drieth the bones.”
December 24th, 2012 | 7:07 pm
Merry used to have the connotation of blissful, a mirth related to blessedness. Merry originally had a slightly more sacred connotation than merely happy.
God rest ye merry, gentlemen. Note the comma.
December 24th, 2012 | 7:09 pm
Well, not being a Methodist I never associated the word “merry” with alcohol. It just seemed a tad archaic and traditional—one of those expressions that persisted in the hinterland (i.e., the American colonies) when the Motherland moved on to new and shiny lingo. So I say “Merry Christmas”, with or without spiked egg nog.
December 24th, 2012 | 9:28 pm
As a Brit we always say “Happy Christmas”.
December 24th, 2012 | 11:38 pm
Merry Christmas
December 24th, 2012 | 11:40 pm
[...] on this, I’ll continue to prefer “Merry [...]
December 24th, 2012 | 11:52 pm
I think you had better read this article from a well known book on the subject: http://www.acecollins.com/books/storiesbehindchr.html
The author proposes that Merry really means mighty or great…I’m inclined to believe them.
December 25th, 2012 | 4:07 am
Many memories and considerations went through my mind before I left my solitary bed this Christmas morning. I looked back foolishly at many mistakes in life but after each I thought,”don’t keep living the mistake of the past, live the day you have, find some happy time within this day. . . come on old boy, get up, have breakfast and allow the marvels of the day to unfold.” So I did get up, but before breakfast checked my emails. . . nothing new waited to greet me from the inbox, so I turned to the internet . . . haw sad is that? However, I was happy to find your site and its comments. I like ‘happy, I think happiness is the pursuit of life. I think merryness can often be to forget a life. I’m going to stick with Tolstoy’s view on this. Whatever you do, wherever you are, I wish you a Happy Christmas.
December 25th, 2012 | 11:18 am
Richard, I wish you a happy Christmas!
December 25th, 2012 | 11:53 am
I think it’s interesting that we Americans see “merry” as more of a British kind of word, and yet, as you say, the British actually are more likely to say “happy Christmas” rather than “merry Christmas.”
December 25th, 2012 | 12:29 pm
Meh. “Certain ears” should probably just get over themselves. Happy Christmas, Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah, Joyous Kwanzaa, Super Solstice…it all amounts to the same thing. Season’s Greetings!
December 25th, 2012 | 6:43 pm
As I am of a certain generation, “Happy Christmas” always conjures up images of Harry Potter stuck in Hogwarts over Christmas. I think I prefer merry, and I definitely prefer it if it be connected with the ancient practice of merrymaking. What could be more appropriate or sacred than wine to celebrate the birth of the savior?
December 26th, 2012 | 9:43 am
Christina gives voice to a kindly sentiment offered by many in a secular society. Her wishes will certainly be received with gratitude by all people of good will.
Each greeting however does have specific content for those within each tradition. There is reward in taking the time to understand exactly what is meant beyond “season’s greetings”.
December 26th, 2012 | 9:51 am
I think it was St. Thomas More who closed his personal letters with “Till we all meet merrily in heaven.” I guess I am very prejudiced against Happy because of the liturgical and Biblical anarchists who replaced “Blessed” with it. Every feast day is a “Blessed” day, but only with Christmas can we also join a “Merry.” As for too much wine, the puritans can abstain and be “happy.” Speaking of which, wasn’t it the Puritans who outlawed Christmas altogether. Merry Christmas!!!
December 26th, 2012 | 10:21 am
But Christina, it’s always a season. Which one is what makes the difference.
December 26th, 2012 | 12:39 pm
Consider the joke on those who think “Happy Holiday” is a secular greeting. It actually means “Happy HOLY Day”, so the joke is on them. I respond with “Amen” and get surprised looks.
December 26th, 2012 | 4:54 pm
I wish for one and all a Joyous Christmas! Happiness depends on happenings while joy depends on Jesus. :)
December 26th, 2012 | 9:37 pm
Not so sure it needs to be an either-or kind of a greeting. Why not really communicate and say, “I hope you have a happy and merry Chrismas!”
December 27th, 2012 | 1:13 am
Ginny Bain Allen:
I was thinking along those lines, myself.
A Joyous Christ-filled Christmas to you and all here.
December 27th, 2012 | 6:42 am
“(Similarly, in Holland some of the more strictly reformed Dutch prefer Zalig Kerstfeest—“Blessed Christmas”–to Vrolijk Kerstmis—“Merry Christmas.”)”
Wrong. It’s the observant Catholics who say “Zalig Kerstfeest”.
December 27th, 2012 | 1:09 pm
According to my English professor, to be “merry” meant to be overflowing with joy, as we would “all be merry in heaven.” This was the usage of medieval word merriment. St. Thomas More used the word with this definition in mind. I never say anything but Merry Christmas. We can be happy at any time.
December 27th, 2012 | 2:11 pm
Puritans did outlaw Christmas, but they would never have abstained from wine and knew a thing or three about being merry. Their rejection of Christmas was not based on a reluctance to engage in appropriate merrymaking.
December 27th, 2012 | 6:16 pm
Thank you for the write up. I always interchange merry and happy in my Christmas greetings thinking they mean the same thing.
December 29th, 2012 | 6:20 am
I think most people prefer “Merry Christmas” so as to leave “happy” for their concurrent new year wishes; hence: “have a merry Christmas and a happy New Year.” Using happy for Christmas leaves a difficult choice for the new year.
December 30th, 2012 | 4:15 pm
In both cases, the sentiment being wished to me is a positive one, so why turn down either?
Given current traditions, though, it seems to make sense to wish one a happy Christmas and a merry New Year.
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