Merry Christmas

"Merry Christmas" in French is "joyeux Noël."  However, there are many ways to wish someone a merry Christmas in France.  “Bonnes fêtes” is one that means enjoy your festivities or parties, or, as John translates it, “party on.”  it literally means “good party.”  In French you can pretty much put “bon” or “good” in front of anything to wish someone a good anything.  “Bonjour” is good day.  “Bonne journée” is have a good day, although it literally means “good day.”  “Journée means day (the same as “jour” does) except that it implies a passage of time.  They have similar words for evening (“soir” and “soirée”) and year (“ans” and “année”).  If you want to greet someone “good evening,” you would say “bonsoir,” but if you wanted to wish someone to have a good evening you would say “bonne soirée.”  If you want to wish someone to have a merry Christmas, you can say “Bon Noël,” which simply means “good Christmas.”  Being the unassuming American that I am, I usually wish people “bonnes fêtes,” hoping they will party on during their days off, no matter what they worship or do.