Ask a foreigner

[Teasel]

Merry Christmas!
Do you say Merry Christmas where you are or where you are from? Or Happy Christmas?

Or do you say Happy Holidays?

Or do you say both?

I never say Happy Holidays, I don't think other brits do either.

Any other greetings you use for today or this time of year?
Cheers

 

[notsurewheretoturn]

Brit here! We say either merry or happy Christmas, some shorten it to Xmas, especially in written form. Never heard a brit say happy holidays.

 

[Rose White]

Merry Christmas and/or happy hannukah and/or happy holidays in case you don’t know if they’re Jewish or pagan. Merry Yule for pagans

 

[Rose White]

Do people in America think hot dogs are called wieners because they kind of look like ? And does that make the restaurant Wienerschnitzel in the same category as Dick’s Sporting Goods or In ‘N Out (chains with double entendre names)?

(I looked up “companies with double-entendre names” and it was hilarious)

And now that I think about it… calling a burger animal style but also having Bible verses on the bottom of cups is an interesting tension.

 

[user27357]

@Rose White bible verses on the bottom of cups? Where is that?

 

[Rose White]

@enough In ‘N Out burger

 

[user27357]

gotcha. only one locally and it has had a line constantly since open. Never wanted to spend an hour in line for fast food.

 

[user27357]

ask a foreigner:
Northern hemisphere folks grow up learning about the northern lights, do people south if the equator learn about the southern lights or you call it something else? Teaching daughter calls it the aurora borealis, correct north/south?

 

[Rose White]

@enough I think they’re all auroras but in the southern hemisphere aurora australis?

 

[Friday]

In my family we tend to say Merry Birthday Happy Christmas.
Out and about in the US I tend to say Merry Christmas or Happy Holidays
At work, it’s usually Happy Christmas

Other greetings…

io saturnalia for dec 17th-23rd
chag sameach for Hanukkah
Light it up! Or ‘Here comes the sun!’ for solstice (we usually have a bonfire from dusk till dawn)

 

[RainbowSearchParty]

And then there is Festivus for the Rest of Us.

This is probably both a cultural (American) and generational (those who watched Seinfield in the late 90's) reference, although it has earlier roots: Festivus - Wikipedia

 

[Friday]

Do people in America think hot dogs are called wieners because they kind of look like ? And does that make the restaurant Wienerschnitzel in the same category as Dick’s Sporting Goods or In ‘N Out (chains with double entendre names)?

I think there’s too much of a German pop, at least in the northern states, for there to be much confusion? Weinerschnitzel came first, calling cocks by anything that looks like-ish them, second. Ish. Because “Sausage Wallet” was slang for “pussy” during Elizabethan times. So any kind of sausage = penis has a loooooooong history. Weiner-Dogs (dachshunds) & Weiner-Dogs (hotdog restaurant)