"Merry Christmas"

[Sam Clements]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Arnold M. Zwicky" <zwicky at CSLI.STANFORD.EDU>


> On Dec 25, 2004, at 11:47 AM, Barbara Need wrote:
>
> > ... I was recently rereading an Agatha Christie in which someone wishes
> > another person "Merry Christmas", so the question may be, when the
> > British start saying "Happy Christmas"?
>
> americans said it too: recall the final line of the famous poem of
> 12/23/1823:
>
> Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night.
>
> arnold

Ah!  But it depends on WHO wrote it.

<<The first known uses of "all snug" are in the ribald anapests that
influenced Livingston's other poems. Another example: the benediction "Happy
Christmas." Almost everyone else said "Merry Christmas," but Mr. Livingston
consistently used "happy.">>

>From http://genforum.genealogy.com/livingston/messages/1439.html

one of the great detective stories of Christmas--Livingston or Moore?

Sam Clements