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.

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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

Disney’s live-action “Mufasa: The Lion King” opened in 2024 to a middling $35 million, but ended up grossing more than $722 million globally through the holiday season.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 12, 2026

Executives then lobbied Urner Barry throughout the 2024 holiday season, the Justice Department said, asking the market research firm for ever-higher price quotations and to pay less attention to other companies’ bids.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 1, 2026

Some of the Rock's 230 monkeys in frequent contact with tourists were observed to eat more dirt, and dirt-eating rates were seen to be higher during peak holiday season.

From BBC ● Apr. 22, 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

Joylette, Kathy, and Connie would never again be able to experience the joy of the holiday season without also reliving the ache that came from their father’s death.

From "Hidden Figures" by Margot Lee Shetterly