🎊 Get ready for the new year

It’s the penultimate Friday of 2023, and with 2024 around the corner, you might be thinking about New Year’s resolutions. If one of them is to improve your writing, learning the finer points of writing the name of the first holiday of the year is a good place to start.

By this point in the holiday season, you might be apostrophe’d out. The punctuation mark makes its way onto many a holiday card ​when it shouldn’t​; you don’t need an apostrophe to make a last name plural. So it’s, “Love, the Smiths,” not, “Love, the Smith’s.”

Save those apostrophes for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day. And yes, it’s a singular year (not New Years’). And while those celebrations are capitalized, you should not capitalize “resolutions” or general references to the new year.

Use "New Year's," "New Year's Day," "New Year's Eve" and "happy New Year" when referring to the holiday. Lowercase general references: "He was looking forward to a fresh start in the new year." Also lowercase "resolutions" in "New Year's resolutions."

Even though it’s only the penultimate Friday of 2023, this is our last newsletter of the year. We’ll be back in your inbox on Friday, January 5. But you can still take advantage of a 10% discount on your Stylebot subscription anytime between now and December 31. New customers can sign up ​here​ and use code HOLIDAY2023 at checkout.

Have a wonderful holiday season!

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This post is adapted from Stylebot’s weekly writing tips newsletter. Subscribe here to get a writing tip in your inbox every Friday.

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