holiday season

American  

[hol-i-dey see-zuhn] / ˈhɒl ɪˌdeɪ ˈsi zən /

noun

holiday seasons plural

1. a period of days or weeks in which two or more annual observances occur, especially in the United States, where it most often refers to the approximately 5–6 weeks from Thanksgiving in November to New Year’s Day in January.

   The kids will be singing Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa songs for the holiday season.

---

Usage

What is the holiday season? The holiday season is the period that starts on Thanksgiving and continues until New Year’s Day. It includes the holidays of Hanukkah, Christmas, Kwanzaa, and New Year’s Eve. The holiday season is sometimes called the holidays. These terms are typically used to refer collectively to all of the holidays that occur during this time, regardless of whether the person using the term celebrates them or not. In contrast, the terms Christmas season and Christmastime specifically refer to the period leading up to Christmas. People often wish each other a happy holiday season by saying happy holidays. Example: I start feeling all warm and fuzzy as soon as the holiday season begins.

Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• holiday seasons
  plural

Etymology

Origin of holiday season

First recorded in 1840–45

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

holiday season

The area has a year-round population of just under 8,000 people, but numbers can increase 10 fold during the summer holiday season.

From BBC ● Jul. 24, 2026

The company is launching several TV games this holiday season for families — will this help generate the popularity for games that Netflix seeks?

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 22, 2026

Fidget spinners were wildly popular in early 2017 but were already over by that holiday season.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 28, 2026

China combines the trade data for the first two months of each year to account for fluctuations around the Lunar New Year holiday season, which falls on different dates each year.

From BBC ● Apr. 15, 2026

The holiday season is supposed to be a time of happiness that you can spend with your family, but this year turned out to be tragic.

From "The Freedom Writers Diary" by The Freedom Writers