while it seems everyone else says ‘happy christmas’
which imo is a way better phrase, it’s very … pragmatic. happiness is more attainable than merriment. how often is anyone merry?
Personally, merry Christmas just sounds better than happy Christmas. Something about the repeated “m” sound, I think.
Bah humbug
The song goes “We wish you a merry Christmas”, so that’ll always be there for as long as the song is popular.
Plus (also because of the song, I assume), you say “merry Christmas and a happy new year”, not “happy Christmas and a happy new year”. Too much happy there.
Who is “everyone else” in this story?
The only place I know that days Happy Christmas is the UK
In Australia, it’s merry
Merry also means drunk - at least in common British English.
Therefore it is quite an easy state to attain either from the offy, or a few pubs tat are also open for a few hours in the afternoon.Around here we wish you a homosexual Christmas
AKA: make the yule time gay.
Canada says Merry Christmas even though we usually do British spelling and measurements.
Also, the north pole is either in Canada or Russia (not going to look it up) so we are probably correct.
The vast majority of Americans don’t even know that ‘merriment’ is a word. They just know you’re supposed to say ‘Merry Christmas.’ That’s it.
The only people I’ve personally known who exclusively say “Happy Christmas” are Irish. Are you Irish, OP?
“Merry Christmas” is pretty much the only context I see my fellow Americans use the word “Merry” other than deliberately trying to sound upper class British.
I think Merry Christmas is a harken to antiquated dialect, much like other religious phrases. Thou shalt not kill or Thy will be done or extra Ecclesiam nulla salus
Common in the UK too. I think it’s because we often add “… and a happy New Year”. Two happies doesn’t scan and merry New Year doesn’t work as well.
