Merry Christmas…. But why do we say that to each other?

MERRY Christmas and a Happy New Year!

These are the words you’ll likely hear more than any others during “the holiday season”, but why have they become our default festive greeting?

Why don’t people do what I used to do as an easily-confused kid and wish everyone a “Happy Christmas and a Merry New Year”?

Or wish you a festive Christmas?

Actually, I can answer that one — because it sounds rubbish.

When you think about it, why is Christmas merry when no other occasion seems to be?

Put it this way, you probably don’t wish people a merry birthday, nor do you hear many “Merry Hanukkahs!” or “Merry Ramadans!”, either.

Historians and linguists can’t pinpoint for sure exactly why we tend to say “Merry Christmas”.

The greeting dates back to at least 1534 in London, when it was written in a letter sent to Henry VIII’s chief minister, Thomas Cromwell, from Bishop John Fisher.

And scholars also note the phrase was used in the 16th-century carol We Wish You A Merry Christmas.

But what is certain is that “Merry Christmas” certainly built up a head of steam with the publication of Charles Dickens’ classic A Christmas Carol in 1843, the same year in which the phrase also appeared on the first commercially-sold Christmas card.

However, not everyone is a fan.

You might have noticed that, in her annual Christmas speech, the Queen very pointedly wishes us all a “Happy Christmas”.

Rumour has it that Her Majesty prefers happy because the word merry, to her, encourages boisterousness and even intoxication. Heaven forbid!

Supporting this theory, there is evidence that early church leaders in the British Isles may have encouraged people to be happy because in the Bible “merry” was often used simply to mean drunkenness.

In other words, “Happy Christmas” is a bit more conservative and reserved than “Merry Christmas”, which conveys a more emotional, unrestrained celebration.

But maybe we should make good use of any kind of Christmas greeting while we still can.

A couple of years ago, it was reported that the Department of Energy and Climate Change in Whitehall had told its staff not to wish anyone any kind of Christmas, be it merry or happy, in case it offended any non-Christians.

This partly explains why one of the campaign pledges of the US President-Elect — who is known to delight in thumbing his nose at the PC brigade — was that he would ban the now habitual use of “Happy Holidays” across the pond and reintroduce “Merry Christmas”.

You never know, that might be the one promise he keeps . . .