
The holiday season is upon us. And the means many of you will start sending cards to old friends and far-flung family members. To save you the headache of wondering if you need an apostrophe when making your last name plural (hint: you don’t), let me share a few quick tips to help clear up the confusion and make writing and sending holiday cards a little easier.
If you’d rather skip all the examples, here is a quick graphic that summarizes everything.

First, let meet some people that will be helping us:
- Mr. Smith and his family
- Dr. Anthony and his family
- Mrs. Jones and her family
If you need to make your last name plural, you don’t add an apostrophe. That would make it the name possessive.
- Happy Holidays from the Smiths!
- Happy Hanukkah from the Anthonys!
- Merry Christmas from the Joneses!
For singular possession, add an apostrophe and an s.
- Mr. Smith’s holiday party is on Saturday.
- Dr. Anthony’s Hanukkah celebration is on Thursday.
- Mrs. Jones’s house is all decorated for Christmas.
For plural possession (to make your last name possessive), make it plural, and then add an apostrophe.
- The Smiths’ holiday party is on Saturday.
- The Anthonys’ Hanukkah celebration is on Thursday.
- The Joneses’ house is all decorated for Christmas.
Do you get tripped up when writing possessives during the holidays?
Connect with me on Facebook and let me know. 🙂
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I love this post! You’re going to save some people some embarrassment.