Who Put The X in Christmas?

Christmas is arguably the most beloved holiday. It is celebrated worldwide and adults as well as children await the season and that special day with anticipation. Christians and atheists are united in love of Christmas. And what’s not to love? There are choirs singing hymns, children dashing through the snow to see Rudolph and Santa’s Elves are imbibing eggnog. The big guy himself is busy making toys for good little boys and girls who have dreams of sugarplums. Sales clerks are ringing up charge card sales and pocketing commissions. Evergreen trees are holding their needles with hope they will be chosen, chopped and decorated with tinsel and silver bells. Turkeys and the Christmas goose are wrapping their wrinkled necks with armor and praying to contract Avian Flu.

People are posting messages to forums, fighting in Target and picketing Wal-Mart because someone said Happy Holidays and the even more evil Merry Xmas! What is all the fuss about? Well, Christmas is about Christ, right? Some will pitch a big snowball at you for suggesting Jesus was born on any other day. But most folk agree this is the chosen day to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ, the Messiah. And they want to keep the word Christ in there to show respect and to honor Him. Others are in a rush or just not religious and shorten it to Merry Xmas. These are fighting words! Many a sacrilegious heathen has gone to jail or the hospital from defending or uttering the word Xmas.

But who put the X in Christmas? What started this war? It is not what is commonly believed. Some do use it to disassociate the holiday from Christ. But they are using His name when they do this. The convoluted past of X has much more history than most know. Retail devils did not invent it nor did godless greeting card companies.

X is the Greek letter “chi” and is the initial (first) letter of Χριστός . The Greek word Χριστός means Christ, translated Christos in the New Testament English. So X is a Christogram and has been used to represent the word Christ for centuries. A Christogram is a combination of letters that forms an abbreviation for the name Jesus Christ. The Catholic Church has used X for Christ throughout its long history with no disrespect intended. It is a translation letter and has been recorded as far back as the mid 1500s. The Oxford English Dictionary is documented as having the abbreviation in 1551. The King James Bible was not even completed until 1611. The abbreviation Xianity was used for Christianity. Scholars believe this was entered into language as early as 100 AD. Translators (scribes) copied Old Testament manuscripts and meant no disrespect. The only intent was to save time and space as every word was hand written on expensive parchment so they kept to the Greek.

“Mass” is an Old English word and was used in conjunction with Cristes, Christ’s Mass and was recorded as Christemasse in 1038. As time passed and the use of the English language grew, the word Christmas grew in popularity. When English colonists came to America in the early 1620s and brought the Bible with them, it contained the translation Christ. So Christmas came to America with the pilgrims and it has become the norm to say Christmas, not Xmas.

Some people indeed use Xmas to remove the Savior from the season. Others only wish to save time. None can argue that it is abused. In our culture everyone is seeking to save a moment or two and slang has gained accepted use in social media, texting, and speech. Xmas is used for commercial purposes and to acknowledge the holiday while maintaining separateness.

Xmas will never be found in a religious setting. You will never sing in a church and see it in your hymnal and it is not uttered or written in church teachings. The traditional, cultural and religious use of Christmas is always found in worship rituals.

I do not foresee a time when the word Christian will be replaced with Xtian or Christianity with Xtianity in our society of believers and Christ followers. Since our everyday language is far removed from the Greek and Old English King James, I will not use “thee”, “thou” or “Xmas”, but will continue with my tried and true you instead of thee, your in place of thine and Christmas shall never be forfeit to Xmas.

So when you meet me in the cold winter month of late December, please greet me with Merry Christmas and gift me not with eggnog and fruitcake.

Be well friend. Happy Easter........

Happy Xmas Kyoko, Happy Xmas Julian

John Lennon
So this is Xmas
And what have you done
Another year over
And a new one just begun
And so this is Xmas
I hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young

Yoko Ono
A very Merry Xmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear

John Lennon
And so this is Xmas (War is over)
For weak and for strong (if you want it)
For rich and the poor ones (War is over)
The world is so wrong (now)
And so happy Xmas
For black and for white
For yellow and red ones
Let's stop all the fight

Yoko Ono
A very Merry Xmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear

John Lennon
And so this is Xmas (War is over)
And what have we done (if you want it)
Another year over (now)
A new one just begun
And so happy Xmas
We hope you have fun
The near and the dear one
The old and the young

Yoko Ono
A very Merry Xmas
And a happy New Year
Let's hope it's a good one
Without any fear
War is over, if you want it
War is over now

Happy Xmas

© (Brenda Barnes), all rights reserved