Here is an article that was posted on November 28, 2013, that is still appropriate today. Happy Thanksgiving!
Thinking about Thanksgiving here in the United States got me thinking about the names of holidays and grammar rules. For instance, if you use Eve or Day with the name of a holiday, i.e., Thanksgiving Day, you capitalize day. However, if you were to say “the day before Thanksgiving,” day would not be capitalized. Religious holidays are also capitalized
- Good Friday
- Hanukkah
Even some “invented” holidays are capitalized
- Black Friday
- Pi Day
Is happy capitalized when used with a holiday? If you exclaim “Happy Thanksgiving!” then it is, but if you use it in a regular sentence “I wish you all a happy Thanksgiving,” then it is not.
Generally, the seasons of the year are not capitalized unless it is part of a proper name.
- This winter seems to be colder than normal.
- The Phoenix College Spring Semester 2014 will begin in January.
- HOWEVER: The fall semester is nearly over.
When using seasons to describe the time of year, remember that seasons are reversed in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. When it is summer in the U.S., it is winter in most of South America and Australia. In that case, it is clearer to say “the first three months of the year,” or “the last quarter of 2014.”
As for possessives with the word “season,” the phrase Season’s greetings! is possessive because you are referring to holidays that happen only during one season—winter. Possessives with names of holidays are usually singular; however, where the holiday is plural, the apostrophe is after the plural word:
- Presidents’ Day (celebrating more than one president)
- April Fools’ Day (more than one fool)
- Mother’s Day (each family celebrating its mother and it is the official name of the holiday)
- Father’s Day (same)
- HOWEVER: Veterans Day (official name of the holiday)
The official holiday name wins out over plurals and possessives, so you may just have to look it up to be positive you are correct.
I wish you all a happy Thanksgiving and know that when I count my blessings, the people who read my blog faithfully, those who stumble across it, and those who cheer me on are near the top of my list. Thank you!
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It’s time for “Confusing Words of the Week” where I take a set of two or three words that get confused and give you definitions and try to give you a memory trick to help you remember when to use which word. If you have words that confuse you, use the Ask PTB tab on the website or send an email to 
It’s time for a review of recent blog posts just in case you’ve missed them. We call this Replay Thursday. Here are posts from Proof That proofreading blog and 60 Is The New 60 blog during the past week.
Last week was really “eye-opening” for me. As has turned into my usual style, I wrote a blog post late one night, proofread it, and set it up to be published the next morning. I know I have mentioned many times on this blog that it is easiest to draft something, walk away from it, and come back to proofread it. But that’s not what I did. I drafted, reviewed, and set it up to post–all in the span of a couple of hours with no break.