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One of my customers in the UK is in the Easter holidays. I'd like to inform her that the package has been delivered from the warehouse to the designated address.

Could I write a greeting with "Hope you are enjoying the holidays."?

Thanks.

Kelly Liu
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  • @Ricky You missed out the kisses. Kelly should also note that the word recently doesn't mean what she thinks it does. Recent refers to the immediate past. Easter is not until next week-end. What you need to say, Kelly, is "Soon it will be the Easter holidays for my customer in the UK". – WS2 Apr 09 '17 at 07:33
  • Many UK schools etc. have already started their Easter holidays, which last for two or three weeks. "Hope you are enjoying the holidays" sounds fine to me (UK). – davidlol Apr 09 '17 at 07:40
  • I didn't realize that Easter was more than just one single holiday. What are the other ones called? – tchrist Apr 10 '17 at 03:49
  • @tchrist Seems to me that the plural is justified. In most Christian traditions, at least, there are three days of the Easter rituals — preceeded, of course, by Lent. – can-ned_food Apr 10 '17 at 16:07
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    @tchrist Palm Sunday, Maundy Thursday, Good Friday, and Easter Monday are all celebrated where I am (Southeastern USA). Holy Saturday is called Sabbatum Sanctum. the Great Sabbath, Black Saturday, Easter Eve, Joyous Saturday, the Saturday of Light, or even (ambiguously and incorrectly, I believe) Easter Saturday. – jejorda2 Apr 12 '17 at 13:39

1 Answers1

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Hope you are enjoying the holidays

is a polite and correct thing to write to someone in the UK at this time of year.

Strictly speaking, to be grammatically correct, every sentence should have a subject, and in this case the subject is "I" so the grammatically correct thing to say is

I hope you are enjoying the holidays

but it is quite usual to write "Hope you are well" rather than "I hope you are well" and so "Hope you are enjoying the holidays" is fine. This previous question relates to missing out the "I".

Why is the subject omitted in sentences like "Thought you'd never ask"?

You say your customer is in the Easter holidays. This probably means she works in a school or something associated with a school; or she may just be a mother who is enjoying having the children at home. This schedule shows that schools in Dorset, for example, have their Easter holidays this week and next week, but some areas start the Easter holidays earlier, or finish them later. There is no fixed definition of when the holidays are. Next year in Dorset they begin on Good Friday and include the next two weeks, and the following year they begin two weeks before Easter, and include Easter Monday. For many workers the Easter holidays may just be Good Friday to Easter Monday.

So it is correct to say that you hope your customer is enjoying the holidays.

If your customer had gone away, perhaps to stay in a hotel, then you could say you hope she is enjoying her holiday. We say "holidays" for a period of days or weeks in which normal work or education does not happen; but "holiday" for a single day, or for a period spent away from home for pleasure or relaxation.

In Northern Ireland, "July holidays" usually means July 12th and 13th.

The Oxford definition of holiday gives some example sentences which include "going on holiday" and "it was the school holidays".

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