When Christmas rolled around each year ... The venerable Oxford English Dictionary (OED) includes not a single definition or example of the word "merry" ever having been used in English to ...

Someone dressed as Belsnickel may go about on Christmas or New Year “to play pranks or beg for small gifts or refreshments,” according to the OED. In German folklore, he “visits children ...

By the 18th century, Noel was closely tied to Christmas carols, further embedding it in the cultural fabric of the holiday season. Oxford English Dictionary, s.v. “yule (n.),” June 2024.

It reflects the festive atmosphere of A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, the very man who came up with the adjective Christmassy. The OED cites Dickens’s usage that appeared in the newspaper ...