From Wikipedia the free encyclopedia
| Christmas and holiday season |
| Also called | Christmas season
Holiday season
The holidays
Christmastime
Holidaytime
Yuletide season other |
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| Observed by | All who celebrate year-end holidays. |
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| Type | Secular |
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| Significance | Use of "holiday season" as means of including those who do not celebrate Christmas in an end-year festive spirit. |
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| Date | end November early January |
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| Observances | Gift giving family meetings religious services parties other |
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| Related to | Christmas Hanukkah New Years Day Thanksgiving New Years Eve Kwanzaa other |
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"Christmas season" redirects here. For other uses see Christmas season .
In the Northern Hemisphere the Christmas season 1 2 or holiday season is a late-year season that surrounds the Christmas holiday as well as other holidays during the November/December timeframe. It is sometimes synonymous with the winter season. It has been found to have a proportionate effect on health compared to the rest of the year. Its reference and naming by schools and governments has been the subject of controversy. It incorporates a holiday shopping season which comprises a peak season for the retail sector and a period of sales at the end of the season .
The exact definition name and celebratory method of the period varies from culture to culture: According to Yanovski et al 3 in the United States the season "is generally considered to begin with Thanksgiving and end after New Years Day". According to Axelrad 4 the season in the United States encompasses at least Christmas and New Years Day and also includes Saint Nicholas Day. The U.S. Fire Administration 5 defines the winter holiday season as the period from December 1 to January 7. According to Chen et al. 6 in China the Christmas/winter holiday season "is generally considered to begin with the winter solstice and end after the Lantern Festival". Some stores and shopping malls advertise their Christmas merchandise beginning after Halloween or even in late October alongside Halloween items. In the UK Christmas food appears on supermarket shelves as early as September.
The precise definition of feasts and festival days that are encompassed by the Christmas/winter holiday season has become controversial over recent decades. Traditionally the only holidays included in the "season" were Christmas Eve Christmas Day Boxing Day New Years Eve and New Years Day. In recent times this definition has begun to expand to include Yule Hanukkah Kwanzaa and Thanksgiving. 7 Due to the phenomenon of Christmas creep and the informal inclusion of American Thanksgiving the "winter" holiday season has begun to extend into late autumn.
