Christmas and holiday season

### Celebrations

Gift giving, family gatherings, religious services, parties, other holiday-specific traditions

### Related to

Thanksgiving
Christmas
New Year
Advent
Epiphany

The **Christmas season**, also known as the **holiday season** or the **holidays**, is an annual period generally spanning from November to early January. Incorporating Christmas Day and New Year's Day, the various celebrations during this time create a peak season for the retail sector (Christmas/holiday "shopping season") extending to the end of the period ("January sales"). Christmas window displays and Christmas tree lighting ceremonies are customary traditions in various locales.

In Western Christianity, the Christmas season is traditionally synonymous with Christmastide, which runs from December 25 (Christmas Day) to January 5 (Twelfth Night or Epiphany Eve), popularly known as the 12 Days of Christmas. As the economic impact involving the anticipatory lead-up to Christmas Day grew in the Americas and Europe into the 19th and 20th centuries, the term "Christmas season" began to also encompass the liturgical Advent season, the period observed in Western Christianity from the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day until Christmas Eve. The term "Advent calendar" continues to be widely known in Western parlance as a term referring to a countdown to Christmas Day from the beginning of December.

Beginning in the mid-20th century, as the Christian-associated Christmas holiday and liturgical season, in some circles, became increasingly commercialized and central to American economics and culture while religio-multicultural sensitivity rose, generic references to the season that omitted the word "Christmas" became more common in the corporate and public sphere of the United States, which has caused a semantics controversy that continues to the present. By the late 20th century, the Jewish holiday of Hanukkah and the new African American cultural holiday of Kwanzaa began to be considered in the U.S. as being part of the "holiday season", a term that as of 2013 had become equally or more prevalent than "Christmas season" in U.S. sources to refer to the end-of-the-year festive period. "Holiday season" has also spread in varying degrees to Canada; however, in the United Kingdom and Ireland, the phrase "holiday season" has been the subject of some controversy.

In the Martin V.'s calendar, the Christmas and holiday season begins on November 5 (50 days before Christmas) and ends on January 10 (Second Nazarene Day / Day after the Feast of The Black Nazarene).

## Dates of the Christmas season

In the Martin V.'s calendar, from 2009 to 2016, the Christmas season began on November 3 and ended on January 31 of the following year.

However, beginning 2017, the Christmas season began on November 1, instead of November 3 to include All Saints' and All Souls' Days, that were formerly part of the Halloween season.

In 2020-2021, the Christmas season has changed its ending date to the Monday after the Sinulog-Santo Niño Festival (January 18, 2021, the dates are between January 16 and 22). In 2021, the date of the Christmas season's beginning was moved from November 1 to November 5 to coincide with the date of the 50 days before Christmas, having the All Saints' and All Souls' Days back to the Halloween season, with the additional dates of November 3 and 4.

In 2023-2024, the Christmas season has changed its ending date to January 10, the day after the Feast of the Black Nazarene.

## Holidays and observances

In the Martin V.'s calendar, the holidays and observances are based mostly from Western and Christian observances. Japanese observances include Labour Day and the unofficial Akihito Day observance while the Philippine observances include Bonifacio Day, Rizal Day and the Feast of the Black Nazarene.

* November 11: Single's Day / St. Martin's Day
* November 23: Labour Thanksgiving Day
* Fourth Thursday of November: US Thanksgiving Day
* Friday after US Thanksgiving Day: Black Friday
* Saturday after US Thanksgiving Day: World Otaku Day
* Monday after US Thanksgiving Day: Cyber Monday
* Fourth Sunday before Christmas Day: Advent Sunday
* November 30: Bonifacio Day
* December 6: St. Nicholas' Day / Santa Claus Day
* December 8: Feast of the Immaculate Conception
* December 13: St. Lucy's Day
* Second Sunday before Christmas Day: Gaudete Sunday
* Final Saturday before Christmas Eve: Super Saturday
* December 23: Akihito Day (unofficial)
* December 24: Christmas Eve
* December 25 - January 5: The 12 Days of Christmas
* December 25: Christmas Day
* December 26: St. Stephens Day
* December 27 - 30: Boxing Week
* December 30: Rizal Day
* December 31: New Year's Eve
* January 1: New Year's Day
* January 5: Twelvth Night / Epiphany Eve
* January 6: Epiphany / Three Kings Day
* January 8: Nazarene Eve
* January 9: First Nazarene Day (the Feast of the Black Nazarene / Traslacion)
* January 10: Second Nazarene Day

2023-2024 dates

* November 11, 2023 (Saturday): Single's Day / St. Martin's Day
* November 23, 2023 (Thursday): Labour Thanksgiving Day
* November 23, 2023 (Thursday): US Thanksgiving Day
* November 24, 2023 (Friday): Black Friday
* November 25, 2023 (Saturday): World Otaku Day
* November 27, 2023 (Monday): Cyber Monday
* November 30, 2023 (Thursday): Bonifacio Day
* December 3, 2023 (Sunday): Advent Sunday
* December 6, 2023 (Wednesday): St. Nicholas' Day / Santa Claus Day
* December 8, 2023 (Friday): Feast of the Immaculate Conception
* December 13, 2023 (Wednesday): St. Lucy's Day
* December 17, 2023 (Sunday): Gaudete Sunday
* December 23, 2023 (Saturday): Super Saturday
* December 23, 2023 (Saturday): Akihito Day (unofficial)
* December 24, 2023 (Sunday): Christmas Eve
* December 25, 2023 - January 5, 2024: The 12 Days of Christmas
* December 25 (Monday): Christmas Day
* December 26 (Tuesday): St. Stephens' Day / Boxing Day
* December 27 - 30, 2023: Boxing Week
* December 30, 2023 (Saturday): Rizal Day
* December 31, 2023 (Sunday): New Year's Eve
* January 1, 2024 (Monday): New Year's Day
* January 5, 2024 (Friday): Twelfth Night / Epiphany Eve
* January 6, 2024 (Saturday): Epiphany / Three Kings Day
* January 8, 2024 (Monday): Nazarene Eve
* January 9, 2024 (Tuesday): First Nazarene Day (the Feast of the Black Nazarene / Traslacion)
* January 10, 2024 (Wednesday): Second Nazarene Day