Ask Lemmy

Merry Christmas is a popular expression in the UK too.

I think that merriment is actually much easier to attain than happiness. One could be miserable in life, but have a few drinks and be merry.

Personally, merry Christmas just sounds better than happy Christmas. Something about the repeated "m" sound, I think.

Who is "everyone else" in this story?

The only place I know that days Happy Christmas is the UK

In Australia, it's merry

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.

In my country we say "Have a good Yule".

Insofar as there's a distinction between the two, I feel like you've got it switched. Merriment would be a night out with drinks and friends, whereas deep happiness would be more like contentedness with your life choices. But they're about the same. Plus "A Christmas Carol" uses Merry, and it's like the ultimate Christmas story.

Tradition, mostly.

Dickens used Merry Christmas in his Christmas Carol and the US used the greeting since the 19th century.

In the UK however, happy christmas is more common as the royals used that phrase.

There’s apparently no big thing behind it. Just the way language evolved with different influences in different regions.

Around here we wish you a homosexual Christmas

"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.

We like to brag about our ability to still pronounce the R sound.

Similar to why Brits say Happy Christmas, honestly.

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 only people I've personally known who exclusively say "Happy Christmas" are Irish. Are you Irish, OP?

Bah humbug

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

Happy Chrimbo

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.

UK here... Merry Christmas, yes. Happy Christmas, yes. Happy Holidays, no, no, no and just for effect no.

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.

Automatic response. Nobody that I am close with is actually happy (or even fine), but when staff asks you in greeting if you're having a good day and did you find everything okay, you know they are bullshitting the "I'm doing well, and yes, thanks". Same sort of automatic bullshit response.

We are living paycheck to paycheck (some not even that), with slowly rising levels of debt, in dead-end jobs while the earth slowly boils us and rich fucks get richer. In tight-knit circles, suicide is often discussed openly and often, and death is welcomed. My best friend recently told me that (if they die before me, as if lol) when I attend the funeral, if anyone suggests that they had a happy life, I am to punch that person in the face, without hesitation.

Life is pain. But it's so much quicker to fake that your existence isn't hell, so lying to people in ways that doesn't matter is way easier.

Happy holidays.