Times and service reduced in festive season (4)
I believe the answer is:
xmas
'festive season' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both related to time as well as being singular nouns.
Perhaps there's an association between them I don't understand?
'times and service reduced' is the wordplay.
'times' becomes 'x' (x resembles the multiplication or times sign).
'and' means one lot of letters go next to another.
'service' becomes 'mass' (religious service).
'reduced' means to remove the last letter.
'mass' with its final letter removed is 'mas'.
'x'+'mas'='XMAS'
'in' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for xmas that I've seen before include "Yule, Noel" , "Short for Christmas" , "Short celebration" , "Christmas (abbrev.)" , "December holiday..." .)