Vocab by Christine Duncan

Have you ever noticed how many ancient words we use at Christmas time? They’re perfectly good words but we don’t use them much the rest of the year. We wish each other a Merry Christmas. I don’t think I wish anybody a merry anything else. We sing of tidings of great joy. I’m thinking that tidings is a word most kids don’t know the meaning of.
I see magazines talking about the getting ready for the festivities. Yeah, boy, that’s a word I use a great deal the rest of the year.
All of this is my round Robin Hood’s dell way of wondering: Why is it that all of these perfectly great ways of saying happy, or party have become associated only with Christmas?
We haven’t replaced them with anything much that I can see. Maybe as writers it’s a bit of a lesson. We don’t need to invent words (don’t even get me started on Ginormous and the like) but to use the words we have more extensively.
Writers are often told not to show off their extensive vocabulary. But really if we don’t some perfectly wonderful words fall out of fashion. There has to be some middle ground.