Happy Holidays from . . . Who Now?
It’s that time of year again, when the generosity of this festive season seems to extend to the extraneous apostrophes, commas, and capital letters adorning holiday cards. Here’s what you need to know to pass the annual holiday card grammar test that no one’s actually grading (and please don’t be that family member that gets judgy about grammar).
Making a last name plural
The standard rule is to add an -s to make a word or name plural. No apostrophes!
Names ending in s (and z, x, sh & sometimes ch): add -es
Names that already end in s, z, x, sh, or sometimes ch need an added -es to become plural. Why sometimes ch? If the ch ending makes a k sound, just add an -s to form the plural; otherwise, the ch sound is followed by an -es.
For example:
A card signed “Happy holidays from the Martinezes” would include a very valuable signature from Edgar Martinez himself.
“The Lewises wish you a merry Christmas.”
“To the Ulrichs, happy holidays. Sent with love, the Jovoviches.”
Names ending in y: add s
Don’t get tripped up by words ending in y that take -ies to become plural. Simply add an -s to last names ending in y to make them plural.
For example:
“Season’s greetings from the Murphys.”
But what if it looks awkward?
If you don’t like the way a last name looks in its plural form, you can always change it to something like “the Singh family” or “the Levi household.”
Making a last name plural and possessive
After you’ve made a word plural, add an apostrophe (‘) after the -s (of course, for words with irregular plural forms, you add an -’s to the end, like “children’s,” but that doesn’t apply to last names).
For example:
The Bachs’ musical greeting cards are always the best.
“You are invited to the Knowleses’ New Year’s Eve party.”
Of course, if I had my dream job as party planner for Beyoncé, I’d rewrite this sentence to avoid that problem altogether: “You are invited to a New Year’s Eve party at the Knowles home.”
Capitalizing holiday cards
Proper names of holidays: capitalize
The names of holidays are proper nouns and should be capitalized. By the way, New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day are considered proper nouns in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary.
Holiday phrases: lowercase
The words that often come before the names of holidays (like “merry” and “happy”) do not need to be capitalized unless they start a sentence. Also, the word “holidays” is not capitalized, even when it is acting as a stand-in for Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa.
For example:
“Have a joyous holiday season.”
“Our family wishes you a happy Hanukkah!”
Don’t over-capitalize phrases like “the Obama family.” There is no reason to capitalize “the” or “family” if it appears in the middle of a complete sentence (unless you are a family band).
Kinship names: it depends!
Capitalize kinship names like aunt, grandma, and mom when it is a part of their name, but not when the word is simply referencing their relationship to you. A good rule of thumb is to use lowercase when the word is preceded by an article like “the” or “my.”
For example:
“Dear Grandpa, I am spending the holidays with my father and my cousins on that side of the family. I think even Uncle Marcus will be able to come this year!" (No shade to all the uncle Marcuses out there.)
Keeping the apostrophes that are necessary
Season’s greetings
The phrase season’s greetings (not seasons greetings) is written with an apostrophe. The greetings belong to the season.
Compound possession
How do you indicate possession when you have more than one person or subject? You have to know whether their possession is joint or separate to put the apostrophe in the right spot! If two people own something together, only the second person in the list gets the -’s. However, if these two people have two different versions of the same thing, you must put the -’s after both their names. Keep a close eye on this, as it is something almost all automatic grammar checkers miss.
For example:
“You’re invited to a New Year’s Eve party at Amir and Terrence’s.” (This means you’re going to the house Amir and Terrence live in together for the party.)
“I will open Sage’s, Julie’s, and Mariko’s presents first because they have to leave soon.” (This means Sage, Julie, and Mariko all brought separate gifts.)
"I heard Miguel’s and Vita’s grandparents got stranded at LaGuardia on their way home.” (This means the separate sets of grandparents related to Miguel and Vita respectively both got stranded at the airport. If Miguel and Vita were siblings and therefore shared the same grandparents, you’d say “Miguel and Vita’s grandparents got stranded.”)
I hope this covers everything you need to know as you’re writing to your loved ones this holiday season! May these next few months bring you peace, joy, and plenty of error-free greetings.
