Proper noun

Singular Christmas

Plural Christmases

Christmas (plural Christmases)

1. The Christian holiday which celebrates the birth of Jesus Christ.

   This Christmas we'll open presents then go to grandma's for dinner.

2. The day it is celebrated, 25th December, an English quarter day.
3. The season (traditionally from the 24th of December to the 6th of January) around the celebration of Christ's birth.

   The Christmas shoppers spent less this December, than last year, but our store will probably see just as many returned items during the twelve days of Christmas.

4. (US, retailing) The period from the Friday following Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve, busy with shopping and preparations for Christmas.

   The last three Christmases have been good for retailers.

Synonyms

• Yule

Derived terms

• Christmas box
• Christmas cake
• Christmas card
• Christmas carol
• Christmas club
• Christmas cracker
• Christmas Day
• Christmas Eve

• Christmas Island
• Christmas present
• Christmas pudding
• Christmassy
• Christmas star
• Christmas stocking
• Christmastide
• Christmas time

• Christmas tree
• Father Christmas
• Merry Christmas
• Twelve Days of Christmas
• white Christmas
• X-mas/Xmas

Christmas (pronounced /ˈkrɪsməs/), also referred to as Christmas Day, is an annual holiday celebrated on December 25 that commemorates the birth of Jesus of Nazareth. The day marks the beginning of the larger season of Christmastide, which lasts twelve days. The nativity of Jesus, which is the basis for the anno Domini system of dating, is thought to have occurred between 7 and 2 BC. December 25 is not known to be Jesus' actual date of birth, and the date may have been chosen to correspond with either a Roman festival or the winter solstice.

Modern customs of the holiday include gift-giving, Church celebrations, and the display of various decorations—including the Christmas tree, lights, mistletoe, nativity scenes, and holly. Santa Claus (also referred to as Father Christmas, although the two figures have different origins) is a popular mythological figure often associated with bringing gifts at Christmas for children. Santa is generally believed to be the result of a syncretization between Saint Nicholas and elements from pagan Nordic and Christian mythology, and his modern appearance is believed to have originated in 19th century media.

Christmas is celebrated throughout the Christian population, but is also celebrated by many non-Christians as a secular, cultural festival. Because gift-giving and several other aspects of the holiday involve heightened economic activity among both Christians and non-Christians, Christmas has become a major event for many retailers.

Quotes regarding Christmas (listed alphabetically by author):

• The purpose and cause of the incarnation was that He might illuminate the world by His wisdom and excite it to the love of Himself.
  • Peter Abelard, as quoted in "The Abelardian Doctrine Of The Atonement" (1892), published in Doctrine and Development : University Sermons (1898) by Hastings Rashdall, p. 138

• Let us remember that the Christmas heart is a giving heart, a wide–open–heart that thinks of others first. The birth of the baby Jesus stands as the most significant event in all history, because it has meant the pouring into a sick world the healing medicine of love which has transformed all manner of hearts for almost two thousand years... Underneath all the bulging bundles is this beating Christmas heart.
  • George Matthew Adams in "The Christmas Heart"

• Christmas is over and Business is Business
  • Franklin Pierce Adams

• I have often thought, says Sir Roger, it happens very well that Christmas should fall in the Middle of winter.
  • Joseph Addison in The Spectator (January 1712)

• The rooms were very still while the pages were softly turned and the winter sunshine crept in to touch the bright heads and serious faces with a Christmas greeting...
  • Louisa May Alcott

• Christmas Eve was a night of song that wrapped itself about you like a shawl. But it warmed more than your body. It warmed your heart...filled it, too, with melody that would last forever.
  • Bess Streeter Aldrich in "Song of Years"

• Let's be naughty and save Santa the trip.
  • Gary Allan

• Wretched excess is an unfortunate human trait that turns a perfectly good idea such as Christmas into a frenzy of last-minute shopping.
  • Jon Anderson

From Wikiquote under the GNU Free Documentation License.
Mon Aug 31 15:54:45 2009