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“A Happy New Year”: How long are you allowed to say New Year’s wishes?

2023-01-04T16:11:00.066Z


New Year's wishes - at work, with friends or as small talk - not everyone you want to wish a happy new year meets early enough.


New Year's wishes - at work, with friends or as small talk - not everyone you want to wish a happy new year meets early enough.

Every year the same game - after the parties on New Year's Eve, New Year's greetings are on the agenda.

But how long can one wish a Happy New Year without it sounding funny?

New Year wishes: how long can I wish colleagues a happy new year?

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Toast at the turn of the year and wish each other a happy new year.

This is customary, but New Year's wishes can also be pronounced afterwards.

(icon picture)

© Katharina Mikhrin/Imago

Did you take time off over the turn of the year and your first day at work isn't until the second week of January?

Even then you can wish your colleagues a Happy New Year.

There is no rule of thumb for this, but there are a few etiquette rules that you can follow.

For example, you can wish friends, family or colleagues a Happy New Year by mid-January.

You can then change the wording and wish them “all the best”, for example.

The t-online

portal

recommends saying hello once more and always sending out good wishes if you haven't seen people yet - even if half of the month is over.

You should also plan the New Year's mail - business and private - so that it arrives by the middle of the month.

Don't miss anything: You can find everything to do with careers in the regular careers newsletter from our partner Merkur.de.

Happy New Year sounds trite?

Use other wording

While you may at some point automatically stop wishing each other a Happy New Year among colleagues, it can still make sense in other constellations to say the New Year's greeting.

If you feel uncomfortable because the new year is already two or three weeks old, you can make slight modifications.

For example, imagine that you only meet important business partners or customers a little later, then you have the following options for addressing the turn of the year:

  • "Hello Ms./Mr. XY, we haven't seen each other this year.

    I wish you happiness and success in the coming months.”

  • "Even if the year is already a few weeks old, I wish you all the best."

  • "I hope the new year has started well for you."

With these or similar variations, you make it clear that you know that the time for New Year's greetings is almost over, but you still found a friendly way to start a conversation.

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If you have a relaxed relationship among friends and colleagues, then you can take up an alleged faux pas, not having expressed any New Year's wishes, with a wink and a useful fact.

Let's say that in mid-January it occurs to you that you forgot New Year's wishes, then you can take up, for example, the Orthodox New Year.

This is celebrated according to the Julian calendar and falls on January 14th.

List of rubrics: © Katharina Mikhrin/Imago

Source: merkur

All life articles on 2023-01-04

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