I checked the archives but didn’t find this asked previously:
Why (in American English, at least) do we say “Merry Christmas” and not “Happy Christmas,” “Fan-tab-u-lous Christmas,” or some other variation? How far back does this go? OED to the rescue?
My subject line got truncated somehow. Could a moderator please change it to read “Why ‘Merry’ Christmas?” Thanks!
[gotcha covered. -manhattan]
[Edited by manhattan on 12-27-2000 at 05:22 PM]
Why not?
Twenty-five years later, I’m wondering the same thing. On New Year’s Day, Valentines Day, Easter, Mothers Day, Fathers Day, Independence Day, and every other holiday, we wish everyone a “Happy {Holiday}, but on the 25th of December, we seldom say “Happy Christmas”. I know Clement-Clarke Moore ended his poem with St. Nicholas wishing “Happy Christmas to all”, but Dickens has everyone wishing everyone else a “Merry Christmas.” It’s not an important question, I know, but I am curious why and when we started using the phrase.
FWIW, it seems like “Merry Christmas” is the norm in the U.S., but “Happy Christmas” is often used in England (though, apparently, “Merry” gets used there, too).
Apparently “Merry Christmas” goes way back to the 1500s with a letter from John Fisher to Thomas Cromwell during Henry VIII’s reign. That’s a pretty long time ago…
Dickens and the Victorians established many of the trappings we currently use for Christmas, as I understand it, and he used the “merry” phrasing, I think because of the “God Rest ye Merry Gentlemen” song the carolers sing when they bother Scrooge early in the book.
And of course “We Wish you a Merry Christmas” became famous in the late 1800s/early 1900s, which sort of cemented that phrasing.
“A Visit From St Nicholas” was 1823, so before Dickens - perhaps that explains the “Happy” v. “Merry” usage.
This is my article that I wrote about it a few years ago. Grunge(dot)com is not an unimpeachable source, but I cited other sources of similar legitimacy.
TLDR: The Puritans took away Christmas, and when it started becoming fun again in the mid-19th century, we used “merry” because it denotes more than just happiness. It means, well, drunken carousing. At least, originally. The British stick with “Happy Christmas” because it’s more genteel and polite.
I thought it was because it was invented by Meriadoc Christmas…
Google’s ngram viewer shows it winning over everything else from 1800 to now. it steadily rose from 1820 to a peak in 1948, then slumped to a low in 1982 and rose again more recently.
You mean, the British don’t drink on Christmas? That’s news to me. 
[Direct quotes to follow]:
Traditionally, the term happy means to be pleased, content and satisfied. However, merry tends to be more of a celebration. In the 18th century, when merry was first developed, it was actually a euphemism for being intoxicated.
People associated being happy with being polite and quietly content and merry with dancing, drinking, feasting and celebrating.
It made sense why the term merry began to be associated with Christmas so often during the 18th century. After a period of time where Christmas celebrations were outlawed by the Puritans. Many people wanted to bring the holiday back to its former glory.
So, influencers of the time looked back to the history of the Christmas holiday. Back to the Middle Ages, when Christmas was truly a holiday that could be described as “merry.” Back then, Christmas included 12 days of feasting, entertainment, singing and celebrating—it was a merry Christmas back then indeed.
In the U.K. you will find [the Monarch]’s annual Christmas address concluding with a “Happy Christmas” to all. This is because “Happy Christmas” is still a widely used phrase in many places—particularly in England.
Many attribute this to the fact that while Americans started to change from “Merry Christmas” to “Happy Christmas” (a term that was brought over from British settlers). The same cultural impact wasn’t happening across the pond. Simply put, those in England didn’t feel the need to adapt to this new American “slang.”
Yes! 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 others took note. (In fact, each year, [the Monarch] continues to wish [their] citizens a “Happy Christmas,” rather than a merry one.)
Regarding what I posted above: I know that a blog post and a fluff piece in a lifestyle magazine do not equal rigorously-studied academic etymology. But it’s what I’ve been able to find.
Edited: Nevermind.
I saw a clip of Queen Elizabeth saying “Merry Christmas”. They say both over there.
We say Merry Christmas and Happy New Year. To my ears saying Happy Christmas and Happy New year doesnt sound as good.
Try “Happy Christmas and Merry New Year”.
After all, if “merry” is about drunken carousing, that seems the better fit.
“Thank you for correcting my English, which stinks!”