Yuletide

Meaning

Noun

• The period around Christmas; the Christmas season, Christmastime; specifically, Christmas itself.
• The period of celebration of a pre-Christian festival associated with the (northern) winter solstice, later absorbed into the festival of Christmas (but sometimes recreated by modern neo-pagans).
• The period of southern winter in the middle of the year, sometimes celebrated in the colder, snowy regions of Australia with allusions to Christmas, which originated as a marketing gimmick.

Related

Similar words

• Christmastide

Origin

• From Yule (from Middle English yole, from Old English ġeōl, ġeōla, either cognate with or from Old Norse jól ("midwinter season, yule"), from Proto-Germanic *jehwlą ("celebration, festivity; yule"), perhaps from Proto-Indo-European *yekə- ("joke, play")) -tide (from Old English tīd ("period, season, time; feast-day, festal-tide"), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dī- ("time")).