Christmas and holiday season

Also known as Christmas season, festive season, holiday season, New year holiday season, Year-end and New Year

Christmas period with related and unrelated holidays between the end of November until the first days of January

Key facts

Also called: Christmas season Christmastime Holiday season The holidays Festive season Winter holidays ( Northern Hemisphere ) Summer holidays ( Southern Hemisphere ) Yuletide New Year's holidays
Significance: Christian and secular festive season
Observances: Gift giving family gatherings religious services parties other holiday-specific traditions
Begins: Varies, generally late November or early December
Ends: January 1 (Commonly after New Year's Day ) , January 6 ( Epiphany ) , February 2 ( Traditional calendar )
Related to: Advent Christmas ( Eve ) Boxing Day New Year's Day ( Eve ) Twelfth Night Thanksgiving ( US ) Hanukkah Yule Epiphany Kwanzaa (US) Winter solstice others

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The Christmas season or the festive season, also known as the holiday season or the holidays, is an annual period generally spanning from November or December to early January incorporating Christmas Day and New Year's Day. The gift-giving associated with the season creates a peak season for the retail sector 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. Christmas in Italy is one of the country's major holidays and begins on 8 December, with the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, the day on which traditionally the Christmas tree is mounted and ends on 5 January with Twelfth Night (with the following day commencing Epiphanytide). Christmas is celebrated on December 25 Christmas Day, while the Christmas season extends beyond the holiday itself, commonly continuing through New Year’s Day and concluding on January 6 with the celebration of Epiphany. As the economic impact involving the anticipatory lead-up to Christmas Day grew in America and Europe into the 19th and 20th centuries, the term "Christmas season" began to also encompass the liturgical Advent season, the period of preparation observed in Western Christianity from the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day until the night of 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.