Why put an X on "Christmas"?
By eljayo
@eljayo (1105)
Philippines
November 15, 2011 2:03am CST
Hi guys. Christmas is fast approaching. Time to decorate, buy gifts,plan gathering and etc. Christmas is a celebration of God's love for us that he gave Jesus Christ for our salvation. For so many years that I celebrated Christmas I noticed that "Christ" is replace by an X in the word Christmas by a lot of people. Why so this?where is teh essence of Christmas in Xmas word? Give to God what he deserves. Are we just tired of writing it what if God put an X on your name. How would you feel. Christmas is a time to be happy but let us not forget the true meaning and reason of its celebration which is Jesus Christ. So next time you put an X on your greeting of Merry Christmas think about it twice before doing it. :))
1 person likes this
9 responses
@HellsButcher27 (473)
• United States
15 Nov 11
Some people do it because they do not believe in "God". Maybe they are of a different religion. I am not trying to get into a religious discussion here, but I do not believe in "God" either. I am Atheist and sometimes when I type I put Xmas instead of Christmas because it is easier. I do say Merry Christmas even though I'm not religious. Some people just don't like putting "God" into everything. Other people could find it easier to say Xmas.
@HellsButcher27 (473)
• United States
16 Nov 11
For me Christmas isn't about "Jesus" or "God". It's about spending time with my family. That's the time of the year that my family comes together and we are all happy. When I was a kid I was in church because my parents went. I never learned anything and I just didn't like it. As I got older I started asking questioning preachers about "Jesus" and they just told me not to question him. I got tired of it and thought it was just BS so I quit going to church. I find Atheism the best for me because it suites me.
@chiyosan (30183)
• Philippines
16 Nov 11
this has been going on for a long time already! I have seen this way before. The Christ is replaced with an X and i believe there was a story behind this, indeed. I agree with you though, it does not make me feel comfortable to be seeing such as well. I know people does not mean anything bad by it, but i think they should be, at least sensitive to notice if something is "off"
@salonga (27775)
• Philippines
16 Nov 11
I never use X in writing Christmas. Christmas is all about Christ first and foremost and taking away the name of Christ in Christmas makes it senseless. Others could not even take time to write the word Christ so they opt to just write X which can never even match the blessedness of the name Christ.
@r3jcorp (1382)
• Philippines
16 Nov 11
I agree with you eljayo. I always put the name of Jesus Christ in every Christmas greetings that I send because I want them to recieve the most important gift of God, that is sending Jesus to redeem us from our sins. Anyway, it is the day that we commemorate the day Jesus was born so why do we need to write it with an X? Are we too tired to print the 6 letter word? Everyday, God is listening to all of our prayers and he never grow tired to all of our plea. I hope we just have the gratitude to remind that Christmas is a celebration of life of Jesus and the redemption of our life.
@Pushhyarag2000 (1416)
• India
15 Nov 11
Hello. I'm not a Christian but was drawn to this discussion by the title curious to know if there were some good answers. But most people so far suggest that the X is used by non believers. But I wonder why would the non believers play around with words like that. Are people suggesting that it could be out of contempt because they don't regard God? Could there have been another historic reason? I'm not offering an explanation myself but just flashed in my mind whether it is not signifying the crossthat Jesus was crucified on? May be naive and completely off the mark. Since I didn't see anything more plausible, I'm still wondering if some learned member provides a much more real answer.
Just my inquisitive point.
@baifernam (71)
• Philippines
16 Nov 11
Hello!
Before anything else, I would like to greet you an Advance Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year :)
About why they put an "X" on Christmas? Some Christians said that Xmas for Christmas is part of a move to secularize the holiday, to take the Christ out of Christmas, but this isn't really justified. They found out that "X" is comes from the word Chi, they write it into "X" which chi(X) is the abbreviation for Christ in Xmas. Thus, Xmas is not directly a way of secularizing the holiday, but since "X" is not Chi in English, we read the word as X-mas and see no connection with Christ.
@zralte (4178)
• India
15 Nov 11
I have been told that the 'X' in place of Christ has been put by non-believers. For Christian, we know Christ and we celebrate his birth on this day. For non-believers or those who are not Christians, as Christ is not known to them, they use 'X'.
The letter X has always been used to represent something unknown. Like X-Ray or using 'x' in mathematical equations.
That is my understanding anyway.
@gagagaohlala (294)
• Philippines
15 Nov 11
I believe it was the Greek letter "Chi" which is symbolized by X hence the Xmas than Christmas. I won't confirm that real but that's what I have read in a magazine before and I really do not believe that it was replaced there to offend Jesus Christ. But either way, it is what most people perceives it to be, that X-mas is like saying there is no Christ in Christmas so yah, I guess it would be more appropriate for everyone not to do abbreviations and just spell out the complete word itself.
Merry Christmas to you eljayo!
