Definition of "Christmas"

Christmas

/ˈkɹɪsməs/

proper noun
countable and uncountable, plural Christmases or Christmasses
1. A festival/holiday commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ and incorporating various Christian, pre-Christian, pagan and secular customs, which is celebrated on December 25 in most places.
  Quotations
  The time draws near the birth of Christ:⁠The moon is hid; the night is still;⁠The Christmas bells from hill to hillAnswer each other in the mist.
  1850, [Alfred, Lord Tennyson], In Memoriam, London: Edward Moxon, […], canto XXVIII, page 45
2. The Twelve Days of Christmas: Christmastide; the season (traditionally from the 24th of December to the 6th of January) around the holiday.
3. A personification of Christmas.
4. (marketing, retailing) The Christmas season, variously defined as the period from the Friday following Thanksgiving to Christmas Eve, or the end of the year period, when consumers shop and prepare for Christmas.
5. A surname.
6. A number of places in the United States:
  1. An uninhabited mining community in Gila County, Arizona.
  2. A census-designated place in Orange County, Florida.
  3. An unincorporated community in Au Train Township, Alger County, Michigan.
  4. An unincorporated community in Bolivar County, Mississippi
adjective
not comparable
1. (US) Red and green (traditional Christmas colors), especially red and green chile sauce in New Mexican cuisine.
verb
third-person singular simple present Christmases or Christmasses, present participle Christmasing or Christmassing, simple past and past participle Christmased or Christmassed
1. (intransitive) To spend Christmas in some place.
  Quotations
  He will Christmas at Calcutta, and then make a tour through Bengal, and pay a visit to the frontier.
  1889 July 6, “Facts and Fancies”, in St. Stephen’s Review, number 330, page 9, column 1
  Mr. Danby never omitted his annual visits to Penlyon Place. He Christmassed there, and he Eastered there, and he knew the owner of the fine old Tudor house inside and out, his vices and his virtues, his weaknesses, and his prejudices.
  1894, M[ary] E[lizabeth] Braddon, “Prologue”, in The Christmas Hirelings, London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent & Co. Limited […], page 20
  André Maurois will be one of the spearheads of the Harold R. Peat list for the coming season, a result of Mr. Peat’s holiday visit to England, where he Christmassed with H. G. Wells.
  1937, Program, page 7
  Christmasing in Khartoum, writing in his Cairo study about the Al Azhar University, overseeing the publication of learned articles about Moslem medievalism, attending conferences and tea parties hosted by his former AUB students, feted constantly in many an Arab capital, and filling up his diary with descriptions of the bazaars of Lucknow and the exotic birds of Asia, Dodge was reaping the bounty of a life devoted to the Arabs and Moslem culture.
  1993, Robert D[avid] Kaplan, The Arabists: The Romance of an American Elite, The Free Press, page 80
  In particular, please keep my brother in your prayers as he Christmases in Afghanistan.
  2012, Lorrene Desbien, Losing Sarah: A Mother’s Journey to Peace, AuthorHouse, page 64