Christmas or Christmas Day (Old English: Crīstesmæsse, meaning “Christ‘s Mass“) is an annual festival commemorating the birth of Jesus Christ, observed most commonly on December 25 as a religious and cultural celebration among billions of people around the world. A feast central to the  Christian liturgical year, it is prepared for by the season of Advent or the Nativity Fast and initiates the season of Christmastide, which historically in the West lasts twelve days and culminates on Twelfth Night; in some traditions, Christmastide includes an Octave. Christmas Day is a public holiday in many of the world’s nations, is celebrated culturally by a large number of non-Christian people, and is an integral part of the holiday season.

The celebratory customs associated in various countries with Christmas have a mix of pre-Christian, Christian, and secular themes and origins. Popular modern customs of the holiday include gift giving, completing an Advent calendar  or  Advent wreath,  Christmas music  and caroling, lighting a  Christingle, an exchange of Christmas cards, church services, a special meal, and the display of various Christmas decorations, including Christmas trees, Christmas lights, nativity scenes,  garlands,  wreaths,  mistletoe, and holly. In addition, several closely related and often interchangeable figures, known as Santa Claus,  Father Christmas,  Saint Nicholas, and  Christkind, are associated with bringing gifts to children during the Christmas season and have their own body of traditions and lore. Because gift-giving and many other aspects of the Christmas festival involve heightened economic activity, the holiday has become a significant event and a key sales period for retailers and businesses. The economic impact of Christmas is a factor that has grown steadily over the past few centuries in many regions of the world.

While the month and date of Jesus’ birth are unknown, by the early-to-mid 4th century, the Western Christian Church  had placed Christmas on December 25, a date later adopted in the East. Today, most Christians celebrate Christmas on the date of December 25 in the Gregorian calendar, which is also the calendar in near-universal use in the secular world. However, some Eastern churches celebrate Christmas on the December 25 of the older Julian calendar, which currently corresponds to January 7 in the Gregorian calendar, the day after the Western Christian Church celebrates the Epiphany. This is not a disagreement over the date of Christmas as such, but rather a disagreement over which calendar should be used to determine the day that is December 25. The date of Christmas may have initially been chosen to correspond with the day exactly nine months after the day on which early Christians believed that Jesus was conceived, or with one or more ancient polytheistic  festivals that occurred near southern solstice  (i.e., the Roman winter solstice); a further  solar  connection has been suggested because of a biblical verse identifying Jesus as the “Sun of righteousness”.

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Veterans Day is an official United States public holiday, observed annually on November 11, that honors military veterans, that is, persons who served in the United States Armed Forces. It coincides with other holidays, including  Armistice Day and  Remembrance Day, celebrated in other countries that mark the anniversary of the end of  World War I; major hostilities of World War I were formally ended at the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month of 1918, when the Armistice with Germany went into effect. The United States previously observed Armistice Day. The U.S. holiday was renamed Veterans Day in 1954.

Veterans Day is not to be confused with Memorial Day; Veterans Day celebrates the service of all U.S. military veterans, while Memorial Day honors those who  died while in military service.

Mortgage rates are cooling off after sharply rising. But expect home prices to start slowing, and even dropping, in some of the most overheated markets in the country over the next couple of years.

With the average on the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage at 5.7%, some would-be buyers are spooked by the higher borrowing costs and are putting their plans on hold. A year ago, the rate was 2.72%.

The hesitation is starting to show up in proprietary data, Rick Palacios Jr., head of research at John Burns Real Estate Consulting, told MarketWatch. The company counts suppliers, builders and buyers (such as hedge funds) among their clients.

“The consensus is most forecasters … are anticipating prices to either flatten and/or go down next year, especially in a lot of these way overheated markets like Boise,” Palacios said.

Expect these declines to manifest more steeply in some parts of the country.

At a national level, he said he expected home prices to decline by mid-single digit percentages over the next two years. 

It’s not just him. Capital Economics’ Matthew Pointon also expects a “small fall” in home prices of around 5% on a year-over-year basis by 2023, he said.

Having looked closely at many of the markets, Palacios expects an even more “meaningful price decline” in some of the popular pandemic destinations.

In a tweet on Tuesday, Palacios highlighted how his research firm saw the rate of change in home prices slow in a hot market like Boise, Idaho, after the Federal Reserve hiked interest rates, sending mortgage rates up sharply.

“Boise is the poster child,” Palacios said, and, in his firm’s view, may see a decline in home prices as early as this year.

“Boise is the poster child,” Palacios said, and, in his firm’s view, may see a decline in home prices as early as this year.

Inventory is climbing, too. Realtor.com data from June noted a 18.7% increase in the number of new homes available for buyers — the “fastest yearly pace of all time,” the company said. The biggest jumps in listings were in markets like Raleigh and Charlotte in North Carolina and Nashville on a month-over-month basis.

“The U.S. housing market is at the beginning stages of the most significant contraction in activity since 2006,” Len Kiefer, deputy chief economist at Freddie Mac, said earlier this month.

The official data is telling a different story, though: The sale of new single-family homes last month, despite the higher mortgage rates, rose by 10.7% compared with the previous month, according to the Commerce Department.