Christmas

FormsChristmases, Christmasing, Christmased

1. 1
   proper nouncountable or uncountablebefore a noun

   A festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, blending Christian, older pagan, and secular customs, observed on December 25 across most of Western Christianity.

   Cities across Europe fill their squares with festive markets in the weeks leading up to Christmas.

   Many families who never attend church still celebrate Christmas with a tree and gifts.

   SimilarYule, Noel

   Note

   The name is a compound in plain sight: Old English Cristes mæsse, literally "Christ's mass", the celebration of the Eucharist held for the feast. Older English often speaks of keeping Christmas. Richard Grafton's chronicle of 1569 has the king keeping his Christmas at Eltham to escape the plague. The word can be counted (this Christmas, past Christmases), and it shares its ground with Yule, Noel and the clipped Crimbo and Chrissy.

2. 2
   proper nouncountable or uncountablebefore a nounabbreviationellipsis

   Ellipsis of Christmas season.

   The store hires extra staff for Christmas to handle the long lines of shoppers.

   Online sales tend to peak well before Christmas, then taper off into January.

   Note

   How long Christmas lasts depends on who is counting. In church usage the season can mean Advent, or the Twelve Days running from Christmas Day to Epiphany on January 6. In American retail it stretches from Black Friday to New Year's Eve. When a report says the last three Christmases were good for retailers, it means whole selling seasons, not the festival itself.

3. 3
   verbUSintransitivebefore a noun

   To observe and take part in the celebration of Christmas.

   Most of our relatives Christmas together at the old farmhouse.

   We prefer to Christmas quietly, away from crowds and noise.

   Similarcelebrate

4. 4
   verbUSintransitivebefore a noun

   To spend Christmas or the Christmas season in a particular place.

   The couple likes to Christmas abroad, usually somewhere warm and sunny.

   Grandparents who Christmas with us always bring stories from their travels.

   Note

   This verb almost always wants a place after it: to Christmas at Calcutta, or in Normandy. Writers of the 1870s to 1890s used it freely. M. E. Braddon's The Christmas Hirelings (1894) pairs it with a sister verb: "He Christmassed there, and he Eastered there." The pattern is the same one that lets people summer or winter somewhere. Without the place, the meaning slides toward simply celebrating the holiday.

5. 5
   adjectiveUSbefore a noun

   Colored in a combination of red and green.

   The team's Christmas uniform pairs a red jersey with bright green socks.

   He painted the fence in Christmas tones, alternating red slats with green.

6. 6
   adjectiveUSbefore a noun

   Of a dish: served with a sauce made from both red ripe and green unripe chili peppers.

   At the diner she always asks for her huevos rancheros Christmas.

   Locals order their enchiladas Christmas to get both the red and the green.

   Note

   A New Mexico kitchen word: a dish can come with red chili sauce, made from ripe chilies, green, made from unripe ones, or Christmas, meaning both. It usually follows the dish when ordering, as in enchiladas Christmas or huevos rancheros Christmas. It is the cooking cousin of the plain "red and green" adjective, and outside the region it may need explaining.

7. 7
   noundialectalBritishuncountablebefore a noun

   Sprigs of holly and other evergreen plants used as festive decorations, or seasonal decorations generally.

   By Twelfth Night the Christmas must come down, or so the old saying goes.

   He pinned fresh Christmas above the hearth, sprigs of holly bright with berries.

   Similargreenery, decorations, evergreens, greens

   Note

   A mass noun for the greenery itself, so it takes no plural: you put up the Christmas and later take it down. Percy Manning, writing on folklore in 1893, recalls the "Christmas" that once formed the center of the decorations in Yorkshire. In his use the word names one particular made-up ornament. This is regional British speech, so outside it, greenery or decorations is the safer choice.

8. 8
   verbcolloquialUStransitivebefore a noun

   To decorate a place with holly, evergreens, or other Christmas decorations.

   Every December they Christmas the office to lift everyone's mood.

   She had already Christmased the porch before the first snow fell.

   Similardecorate, deck

   Note

   The verb made from the noun for holly and greenery: to Christmas a room is to put that greenery up. Henry Mayhew's London gardener of 1851 reckons what it would cost "properly to Christmas St. Paul's". The spelling wavers between one s and two, so Christmasing and Christmassing both appear. The past participle also works as an adjective, as in a town "completely Christmased".

9. 9
   verbcolloquialUStransitivebefore a noun

   To subject someone or something to Christmas celebrations.

   Each December the staff cheerfully Christmas every visitor who comes through the door.

   By noon they had thoroughly Christmased the new intern.

   Note

   Almost always met in the phrase Christmassed-out (or Christmased out): worn down by too much festivity. "I'm about Christmassed-out," says a character in Susan Kiernan-Lewis's Toujours Dead (2001), and in Tina-Sue Ducross's No Shadows Left Behind (2008) the kids claim they are "all Christmassed-out". The tone is weary and humorous, and the phrase follows a linking verb or stands set off by commas.

10. 10
    interjectioneuphemisticUSbefore a noun

    Uttered to express annoyance or surprise, as a milder stand-in for "Christ."

    Christmas! Would you look at the size of that bill.

    Aw, Christmas, not another flat tire on the highway.

    Similarjeez, gosh, crikey, heavens

    Note

    A different word in origin from the festival. It is short for Jiminy Christmas, probably a variant of Jiminy Cricket, which itself softens Jesus Christ. Used alone, it is a mild oath that can take an "oh" in front, as in "Oh Christmas!" in Ngaio Marsh's False Scent (1959). Kipling uses it in Captains Courageous (1897). The fuller Jiminy Christmas and Jimmy Christmas do the same work.

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