Christmas and holiday season

The Christmas season, or festive season, (also called the holiday season or simply the holidays, mainly in the U.S. and Canada), is an annually recurring period recognized in many Western and Western-influenced countries that is generally considered to run from late November to early January, defined as incorporating at least Christmas, and usually New Year, and sometimes various other holidays and festivals. It incorporates a period of shopping which comprises a peak season for the retail sector (the "Christmas (or holiday) shopping season"), and a period of sales at the end of the season (the "January sales"). Christmas window displays and Christmas tree lighting ceremonies when trees decorated with ornaments and light bulbs are illuminated, are traditions in many areas.

Originally within the Roman Catholic Church, the term "Christmas season" was considered synonymous with Christmastide, a term associated with Yuletide, which runs from December 25 (Christmas Day) to January 6 (Epiphany), popularly known as the 12 Days of Christmas. However, as the economic impact involving the anticipatory lead-up to Christmas Day grew in America and Europe into the 19th and 20th centuries, the term "Christmas season" began to become synonymous instead with the traditional Christian Advent season, the period observed in Western Christianity from the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day until Christmas Day itself. The term "Advent calendar" survives in secular Western parlance as a term referring to a countdown to Christmas Day from the beginning of December.

The Holidays

The Holidays are an Australian indie pop/soul band. Formed in Sydney in 2006, the band consists of Simon Jones, Will Magnus, Alex Kortt and Andrew Kerridge. Their debut album Post Paradise was nominated for an Australian Music Prize.

Biography

The Holidays formed in late 2006 and quickly established themselves in the Sydney music scene as an upbeat, energetic addition. Simon Jones and Will Magnus had attended high school together, previously playing in cover bands in their schools' band competition. They were often up against the band Roger Explosion in these competitions, who went on to become the Australian electropop band Art vs. Science.

Within their first year as a band together, The Holidays toured with Jamie T, with The View, with Ben Kweller, and recorded an EP of demos which quickly sold out at gigs and received regular airplay on radio stations both in Australia and in the USA. In November 2007 The Holidays were featured on the Next Crop segment of national youth radio station Triple J, soon followed by their signing with independent Australian record label Liberation Music, in early 2008.