[ExI] Why is xmas 'the holiday season' in America??

[Gary Miller]

In America a holiday means more a special event day like Christmas, Easter,
Thanksgiving where you get a day off from work and family joins together to
celebrate.

The time you plan to use the majority of your time off to go where you want
to go or just relax is thought of as your vacation. 

Thanksgiving, Christmas, Hanukah, and New Years are about a month apart and
both give at least a day off from work and are usually spent with family.
Christmas and Hanukah require gifting, decorations and preparation and they
can be very stressful for some people with a lot of suicides occurring in
this period due to loneliness failed expectations and the money pressures
that the holidays bring.  The onset of winter and less daytime sunlight also
lead to decreased serotonin levels and more frequent depression.

As a whole though most people enjoy the holiday season as it's called and
many in the northern states take the longer school break that the children
have as an opportunity to travel to and vacation in a warmer climate to get
a break from the colder winter weather.

Americans seldom say they are going to go on holiday.  They always say they
are going on vacation when they travel.

Gary



-----Original Message-----
From: extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org
[mailto:extropy-chat-bounces at lists.extropy.org] On Behalf Of ben
Sent: Sunday, December 16, 2007 6:25 AM
To: extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org
Subject: [ExI] Why is xmas 'the holiday season' in America??

Can someone tell me why Americans refer to christmas as the 'holiday
season'?

The first time i met this it confused me, and i wondered if i'd somehow lost
6 months. The season in which people take their holidays is usually summer.
Xmas is the time you stay at home and get stressed (unless you abdicate from
the whole thing, which can be difficult to do, but is worth it).

So do most Americans take their holidays around xmas instead of the summer,
or what?

Otherwise it seems daft. I mean, what do they call the time of year when
they actually go on holiday? (or is there no particular favoured time of
year for this in America?).

Can somebody clear this up for me? Everytime i hear the phrase, i keep
thinking "No, it's not! it's xmas!", because to me, the 'holiday season' 
is July-August.

ben zed

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