Why Is 'Tis the Season Reserved for the Holidays?

Culturally, there are many seasons beyond the usual winter, spring, summer, and fall (such as football season, award season, open season, mating season, and more). Yet, the phrase ’tis the season is specifically tied to one: the holiday season.

But that wasn’t always the case. 

Spring Gets Left Behind

Some of the earliest uses of ’tis the season from the 17th and early 18th centuries—when people often shortened ’tis as a contraction for it is—actually referred to warmer weather.

“[’Tis] the season of the year that calls to me,” says Springlove in Richard Brome’s 1641 play A Joviall Crew: Or, the Merry Beggars. As his name clearly indicates, he’s referring to spring, when the songs of birds and other natural signs lure him to roam until the weather turns too cold for travel. In Richard Steele’s 1705 play The Tender Husband; Or, the Accomplish'd Fools, a character describes spring this way: “Oh, ’tis the Season of the Pearly Dews, and gentle Zephirs.”

Poets and songwriters all the way into the 19th century continued to use ’tis the season to honor springtime and all the renewal, beauty, hope, and romance it promised after a long, harsh winter.

Here’s an example from 1828:

“’Tis the season of joy and delight,The season of fresh-springing flowers;Young Spring in her innocent beauty is bright,And leads on the rapturous hours;”

Here’s a similar one from almost 30 years later:

“’Tis the season when deep, holy feeling,Gushes up from the depths of the soul,In light, love, and beauty revealing,The music of Spring’s sweet control!”

That’s not to say 19th-century authors didn’t also reference the phrase in connection with the holidays—they certainly did. In 1824, British bishop Charles Bloomfield opened a Christmas poem with the line “’Tis the season for friends and relations to meet”; and a song dating back at least to the 1850s repeated variations on this stanza:

“We’ll sing a merry tune tonight;And drink a cup of cheer;For ’tis the season of delight,And it comes but once a year.”

It would be another—and more widely known—Christmas carol that helped solidify the holidays as ’tis the season’s dominant time of year.

It’s Jolly Time

In the mid-19th century, Welsh harpist John Thomas worked with Welsh poet Talhaiarn and Scottish lyricist Thomas Oliphant on a multi-volume series of classic Welsh songs. Thomas handled the musical arrangements; Talhaiarn wrote the Welsh lyrics; and Oliphant created an English version for each entry.

The second volume, released in 1862, featured “Nos Galan”—or “New Year’s Eve”—based on a Welsh tune that had been printed at least since the 1750s (and likely performed long before that). Aside from the title, Oliphant didn’t focus much on direct translations. While Talhaiarn’s first two lines meant “The best pleasure on New Year’s Eve/Is house and fire and a pleasant family,” Oliphant opted for “Deck the hall with boughs of holly/’Tis the season to be jolly.”

Although it wasn’t the first time “Nos Galan” had been paired with English lyrics, it marked the first occasion those lyrics included deck the hall—a phrase that eventually stuck (with an additional s at the end) as the song’s English title. Some of Oliphant’s original lines were dropped in later versions: “Fill the mead-cup, drain the barrel,” for example, was replaced with “Don we now our gay apparel.”

However, “’Tis the season to be jolly” never lost its popularity, even as ’tis itself began to sound more outdated. When “Deck the Halls” became a mainstay of American Christmas concerts in the early 20th century, it solidified the idea that ’tis the season could only refer to one thing: the Christmas season.

By the mid-19th century, ’tis the season had been adopted for everything from holiday marketing campaigns (“’Tis the Season to Be Giving Oomphies,” from 1946) to holiday public service announcements (“’Tis the Season For Food Poisoning,” from 1959).

That’s essentially where things stand now. At this moment, ’tis the season to protect your hearing, to switch to Verizon, and for employers to address soaring employee stress. And, naturally, to be jolly. Fa la la la la, etc.