diff --git a/doc/holidays/refresh b/doc/holidays/refresh
index 1c6c3ee3..db5b0564 100755
--- a/doc/holidays/refresh
+++ b/doc/holidays/refresh
@@ -70,7 +70,7 @@ def update_locales(locales, regions, years):
                     for line in lines.split('\n'):
                         if line:
                             j = json.loads(line)
-                            if j['region'] == '' or regions is None or len(regions) == 0 or j['region'] in regions:
+                            if not j['region'] or not regions or j['region'] in regions:
                                 day = j['date'].replace("-", "_")
                                 desc = j['description']
                                 fh.write("    {} = {}\n".format(day, desc))
@@ -104,7 +104,7 @@ if __name__ == "__main__":
     parser = argparse.ArgumentParser(
         description="Update holiday data files. Simply run 'refresh' to update all of them.")
     parser.add_argument('--locale', nargs='+', help='Specific locale to update.')
-    parser.add_argument('--region', nargs='+', help='Specific locale region to update.')
+    parser.add_argument('--region', nargs='+', help='Specific locale region to update.', default=[])
     parser.add_argument('--year', nargs='+', help='Specific year to fetch.', type=int, default=[])
     args = parser.parse_args()