“Christmas is” / “Christmas are” – singular or plural?

by Jakub Marian

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In some languages, “Christmas” is a plural noun, and since the English word for Christmas ends with an “s”, it sometimes makes English learners think they should use a plural verb with it.

However, the English word Christmas comes from Christ’s mass, and “mass” is a singular noun. There is no reason to say “Christmas are”; the only correct form is “Christmas is”:

correct Christmas is a traditional holiday.
wrong Christmas are a traditional holiday.

This naturally applies to all verbs, not just “to be”:

correct Christmas has always been a time for family and friends.
wrong Christmas have always been a time for family and friends.

Also, don’t forget that the corresponding determiner is “this”, not “these”:

correct What are you going to do this Christmas?
wrong What are you going to do these Christmas?

and similarly for “that”we would say “that Christmas”, not “those Christmas”.

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