make merry vs celebrate

make merry and celebrate both are verbs.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
make merry	No	No	Yes	No
celebrate	No	No	Yes	No

As verbs, celebrate is a hypernym of make merry; that is, celebrate is a word with a broader meaning than make merry:

make merry: celebrate noisily, often indulging in drinking; engage in uproarious festivities
celebrate: have a celebration

Other hypernyms of make merry include fete.

make merry (verb)	celebrate (verb)
celebrate noisily, often indulging in drinking; engage in uproarious festivities	have a celebration
	behave as expected during of holidays or rites
	assign great social importance to