Guide to good holiday grammar

The holidays are here and many of us are probably doing a lot of writing to family, friends, colleagues, and clients. From greeting cards to letters, this time of year often inspires us to wax poetic—or, at least, send a cheery sentiment or two.

However, with all that writing comes more chances for us to make grammatical mistakes. It’s easy to misuse apostrophes, capitalise words unnecessarily, or pluralise last names incorrectly. Thankfully, you don’t have to let small mistakes take away from

the true sentiment of your season’s greetings. As always, we’re here to help you look better in writing.

Here are some grammar tips that’ll help you keep your holiday writing error-free.

Use apostrophes wisely

Apostrophes are one of the most misunderstood—and misused—punctuation marks. They’re used to form contractions, represent omissions, indicate possession, and (very rarely) make plurals. However, they often show up unnecessarily or don’t show up in places they’re most needed.

Several holiday phrases include apostrophes, which means that they can be confusing to remember and use correctly. We’ve broken down the most popular two for you.

Season’s greetings

During the holiday season, we often want to wish others “season’s greetings”. But where the apostrophe goes can be a little tricky to remember. Sometimes it’s misplaced (seasons’ greetings) or absent altogether (seasons greetings).

Jot and Tittle tip: Remember that you’re sharing the greetings of the season (or greetings that belong to the season), so use the apostrophe before the -s.

’Tis the season

This common holiday greeting is a great example of a contraction that can be confusing to use. “’Tis” is a contraction of “it is” with the ‘i’ omitted. So, the apostrophe should be placed before the ‘t’.

Jot and Tittle tip: Because the apostrophe comes at the beginning of the word, your computer or mobile device will probably show a single quotation mark (‘) instead of an apostrophe. To get around this, tap the key twice and delete the first punctuation mark.

Know your capitals

A lot of popular phrases contain proper nouns that are preceded by common nouns or adjectives. However, unless it’s at the beginning of a sentence, any word that’s not the name of the holiday itself shouldn’t be capitalised.

Examples:

We wish you a merry Christmas!

Wishing you a happy Kwanzaa!

On the flip side, there are some words that are part of phrases and, although they should be capitalised, they often aren’t. So, instead of “Christmas eve”, write “Christmas Eve”. The same goes for “Christmas Day” and “New Year’s Eve” (which we’ll tackle next).

Out with the old…

It’s best to use capital letters most times you use this phrase. When you tell someone “Happy New Year!”, you’re referring to the holiday, so it should be capitalised. You should also capitalise “eve” or “day” when they’re part of the phrase. However, if you’re referencing the year rather than the holiday, you can write it in lowercase.

Examples:

Have a happy New Year! (Note that “happy” is not capitalised, per our earlier example.)

Mom’s coming to visit on New Year’s Eve!

Let’s meet in the new year.

Are you coming to the New Year’s ball?

Pluralise last names correctly

One of the most common holiday writing mistakes is spelling last names incorrectly. People often (wrongly) use apostrophes to pluralise their last names. However, while there are two different ways to make a last name plural, neither of them requires an apostrophe.

So, how do you pluralise last names? Well, for most of them (those that end in a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h, i, j, k, l, m, n, o, p, q, r, t, u, v, w, and y) you can add -s to the end. Note that there are exceptions to names that end in h, which we’ll discuss next.

Examples:

Happy Kwanzaa from the Smiths.

Season's greetings from the Doyles.

If the name ends in s, x, z, ch, or sh, you might be tempted to add an apostrophe or just use -s. Don't! Pluralise these names by adding -es.

Examples:

Love, the Perezes.

Wishing you the best! From, the Simmonses.

When do you use an apostrophe to pluralise a last name? Never. Only use an apostrophe if you want to show possession. It should come at the end of the name after the -s or -es.

Examples:

The party’s going to be at the Sanchezes’ house.

We’re meeting at the Berrys’ later for lunch.

If you’re in doubt or don’t like how the plural form of your last name looks, use family instead.

Examples:

Season’s greetings from the Jeffers family.

Happy holidays! Love, the Cumberbatch family.

Use these tips to help you express yourself clearly and correctly when you send your holiday greetings. Your loved ones and associates will thank you for it.

Have a great (and grammatically correct) holiday season!