Three Christmas words you’re probably spelling incorrectly

‘Tis the season to be jolly, and the best way to keep writers, editors and other grammarians full of festive cheer at this time of year is to avoid glaring spelling mistakes.

Whether you’re writing your Christmas cards or planning a yuletide article, there are certain words that crop up in December that you don’t often use at other times in the year, so you might feel a bit rusty on how to spell them.

Here are three of the most common seasonal slip-ups:

1. Santa Claus

One of the most common pieces of Christmas confusion displayed by writers is the name of the jolly old soul himself.

Mr. Claus has no ‘E’ on the end of his name, but the misspelling ‘Santa Clause’ is seen regularly. To make it worse, it isn’t picked up by most spellchecks due to the existence of the 1993 film ‘The Santa Clause’, which is a pun title referring to a clause (or section of a contract) addressed in the film.

Remember, Santa doesn’t like people who are naughty, and there are exactly ‘nought Es’ in his name. Alternatively, just call him Father Christmas as we traditionally do in the UK.

2. Myrrh

If you are a wise man (or woman), make sure you are spelling this seasonal offering correctly.

It’s an unusual word of Semitic origin that contains no vowels. Used by the Ancient Egyptians as an embalming fluid, don’t let your writing die a death by misspelling it!

3. Sleigh

‘I’ before ‘E’, except after ‘C’ is what you may have heard at school, but there are so many exceptions to the rule, the government now says it’s “not worth teaching”.

‘Sleigh’ is one of a number of words that break the maxim and could lead you down a slippery slope of poor spelling.

As you can see, there are a few Christmas words that could catch you cold. If you want to shore up your spelling and overall writing, our Freelance Writing for Businesses diploma course can spell a great Christmas for you, not to mention a grammatically satisfying New Year.