Most Common Grammar Mistakes - Christmas Cards

Country Living's copy chief, Katie Bowlby, shares her tips for error-free Christmas cards.

If your last name is Johnson and you want to send a card from your family, simply add an "s": The Johnsons ("Merry Christmas from the Johnsons!"). Only use an apostrophe when you want to make a name possessive. ("From The Smith's" is always wrong, but "The party is at the Smiths' house" is correct.)

This gets tricky if the last name ends in the letter "s." To make a last name that ends in "s" plural, add "es" (so Reeves becomes Reeveses). The same applies to names ending in "z" (so Gonzalez becomes Gonzalezes). I often opt for "The Reeves Family" to avoid this not-so-pretty spelling.

Season's Greetings or Seasons Greetings? Season's Greetings is correct!

Go with Happy New Year, not Happy New Year's or Happy New Years (but New Year's Day and New Year's Eve are correct).

Proper nouns like "Christmas" should always be capitalized, but the word "merry" should only be capitalized if you're starting the line with the greeting "Merry Christmas." If "merry" falls in the middle of a sentence, it should not be capitalized.

Final tip: Always have a friend look over your card before you hit print! It's easy to miss mistakes in your own writing.