The Origins of "XMas!"

Over the last few weeks, as with every year, my Facebook news feed has become flooded with the angry postings of my devoted and well-intentioned -- albeit misinformed -- Christian friends railing against the atrocities of substituting the word "XMas" for their perceived-to-be-holier term "Christmas."  I generally shake my head, since I know more about the origins of the word XMas than my Christian friends apparently do.  But, since I believe that knowledge is the key to solving many problems, I've decided to tackle the issue in a blog this year in hopes that my news feed will be more XMas-friendly next year.

I'll be quoting excerpts from several other sites, but will include links back to the original articles for those wishing to read them in their entirety.

First, quotes from this article on the Christian Resource Institute's website The Voice:

"Some people seem to get worked up easily about things that are either largely irrelevant or incidental, or that they do not really understand. This seems to be the case with some religious folk when the topic is an aspect of Christianity that is personally important to them.

For example, around Christmas each year there are always those who loudly decry the use of the abbreviation "Xmas" as some kind of blasphemy against Christ and Christianity. This concern has been elevated recently with the public debates about manger scenes and the substitution of "holiday" for Christmas in stores and government venues. Among religious folks, the objection to Xmas is usually along the line that people have taken Christ out of Christmas and replaced him with an unknown (since the Greek letter chi, [C,c] which looks like the English letter x, is the symbol for an unknown quantity in mathematics).... 

"Abbreviations used as Christian symbols have a long history in the church. The letters of the word "Christ" in Greek, the language in which the New Testament was written, or various titles for Jesus early became symbols of Christ and Christianity. For example, the first two letters of the word Christ (cristoV, or as it would be written in older manuscripts, CRISTOS) are the Greek letters chi (c or C) and rho (r or R). These letters were used in the early church to create the chi-rho monogram (see Christian Symbols: Christmas Ornaments), a symbol that by the fourth century became part of the official battle standard of the emperor Constantine....

 "In any case, by the fifteenth century Xmas emerged as a widely used symbol for Christmas. In 1436 Johannes Gutenberg invented the printing press with moveable type. In the early days of printing typesetting was done by hand and was very tedious and expensive. As a result, abbreviations were common. In religious publications, the church began to use the abbreviation C, or simply X, for the word "Christ" to cut down on the cost of the books and pamphlets. From there, the abbreviation moved into general use in newspapers and other publications, and "Xmas" became an accepted way of printing "Christmas" (along with the abbreviations Xian and Xianity). Even Webster’s dictionary acknowledges that the abbreviation Xmas was in common use by the middle of the sixteenth century."

This is put more simply by this little bit of trivia found on a site called The History of Christmas:

"Xmas is an abbreviation for Christmas. It is derived from the word ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ, transliterated as Christos, which is Greek for Christ. Greek is the language in which the whole New Testament was written.

 Originally, Xmas was an abbreviation where the X represents the Greek letter chi, which is the first letter of Christ's name. However, because of the modern interpretations of the letter X, many people are unaware of this and assume that this abbreviation is meant to drop Christ from Christmas."

 And here's what Snopes.com has to say about this topic:

"Claim: 'Xmas' is a modern, disrespectful abbreviation of the word 'Christmas.'

Status: False

Origins: The abbreviation of 'Xmas' for 'Christmas' is neither modern nor disrespectful. The notion that is is a new and vulgar representation of the word 'Christmas' seems to stem from the erroneous belief that the letter 'X' is used to stand for the word 'Christ' because of its resemblance to a cross, or that the abbreviation was deliberately concocted “to take the 'Christ' out of Christmas.” Actually, this usage is nearly as old as Christianity itself, and its origins lie in the fact that the first letter in the Greek word for 'Christ' is 'chi,' and the Greek letter 'chi' is represented by a symbol similar to the letter 'X' in the modern Roman alphabet. Hence 'Xmas' is indeed perfectly legitimate abbreviation for the word 'Christmas' (just as “Xian' is also sometimes used as an abbreviation of the word 'Christian')."

To all my Christian friends -- or should I say Xian friends? -- please understand that the use of the word "XMas" is really not worth all the fuss and bother!  Long before King James was ever even thought of, centuries before the Bible was in any form that you would recognize as the Bible, early Christians were using a 'chi' to abbreviate for 'Christ.'  Think of it as religious shorthand!

About this time last year, I wrote a blog post on the ongoing "Merry Christmas" vs. "Happy Holidays" debate.  At the time, that post garnered no major attention, but a few weeks ago, someone commented on the shamefulness of "leaving Christ out of Christmas."  In my response to the commenter -- who posted anonymously, of course, as all detractors do -- I reminded him/her that Happy Holidays should be perfectly acceptable as well because of the many various holidays (both religious and civic) that are celebrated this time of year.

"Sarah Getz said...

I published the above comment, but want to state emphatically that this blog is NOT in any way written by a church, nor is this blog's author affiliated with ANY church or any sect or form of Christianity.

NEXT, I would like to point out that while Christmas is definitely named for Jesus, it does not mean that Christians and their churches have a monopoly on winter holidays. Perhaps this church recognized what many do not: that there ARE other holidays in December, and that it is OK to wish people happy celebrations of these other holidays! Hanukkah happens in December, and so do Kwanzaa and Yule. For some people, the first day of winter (Dec. 20 or 21) is a holiday. New Year's Eve finishes out the year and New Year's Day rides December's coattails, and those are both days that many celebrate as holidays. December also contains Rosa Parks Day, World Aids Day, Special Education Day, Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day, Nobel Prize Day, UNICEF's birthday, Bill of Rights Day, Pledge of Allegiance Day, & Universal Hour of Peace Day. With all of the holidays and other important days that happen from Thanksgiving until the end of the calendar year, I think Happy Holidays is a far more acceptable and more inclusive greeting! 

 (Posted November 30, 2011 11:20 AM)"

And so, in closing let me wish you all a Merry XMas and a season of very

Happy Holidays!