The Weltchek Weekly

I hope everyone had a happy Thanksgiving and for those who celebrate, I’m wishing you a happy Hanukkah.

Should I have capitalized the word happy in both instances?

No, happy (lowercase h) is correct because it’s part of a sentence. Had I made Happy Thanksgiving and Happy Hanukkah standalone greetings, each on their own lines, I would have given happy the uppercase treatment.

The same goes for Season’s Greetings, Happy Holidays, and Happy New Year. When you’re putting these good wishes on their own, capitalize all the words, for example, in the opening or a close of an email, or on a holiday card.

And, of course, the actual names of holidays—e.g., Christmas Eve and Christmas, Kwanzaa, and New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day—always get capitalized.

But when you’re referring to the new year as in the next 12 months, new year always goes in lowercase, as in, I hope you have a healthy and happy new year.

Let’s all dance and drink to that!

I’ll be back in the new year with more bulletins. Among the topics in the pipeline are how to put the reader first; the difference between anxious and eager; and the correct use of those itty-bitty Latin abbreviations, e.g., etc., and i.e.

If you have a topic you’d like me to address, please email me at nancy@weltchekwrites.com.