You are on your way out to deliver a few small containers of Christmas goodies for various friends in town when you realize that you forgot to attach a card to the gifts. As the vehicle is warming up you quickly fill out the names and scribble Merry Xmas on the small gift tags. Unfortunately, some people might find using Xmas offensive and even anti-religious. The Montreal Gazette reported on December 8, 1977, that New Hampshire governor Meldrim Thomson sent out a press release saying that he wanted journalists to keep the "Christ" in Christmas, and not call it Xmas—which he called a pagan spelling of Christmas.
Dislike for the term Xmas may stem from a suspicion of attempting to sunder Christmas from Christ and make it a Winter holiday, as many religious leaders have bemoaned. Others are suspect of an attempt to change ancient things for modern, sleek, and pithy statements. Some believe a conspiracy undermined by advertisers and social media gurus to be politically acceptable in our age of correctness. Where did the term Xmas come from as a shortened form of Christmas?
Xmas seems to originate in the mid-1700s, mostly in personal letters. The poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge used it in a letter date December 31, 1801, "On Xmas day I breakfasted with Davy."
The English word “Christmas” is actually a shortened form of “Christ’s Mass,” implying a Eucharistic church service (Latin missa) in honour of Jesus Christ, especially associated with his birth. The word is recorded as Crīstesmæsse as early as 1038. Sometime after that an Anglo-Saxon monk, to save space on precious parchment paper, used the term XPmas. “XP” refers to Jesus Christ. It derives from the first two letters of the Greek word for Christ, Χριστος (Xpistos). The “X” is a form of the Greek letter Chi “Ch”, and the “P” is a form of the Greek letter Rho “r.” Throughout the ages the XP symbol, the Chi-Rho, has been used to represent Jesus Christ in Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox churches. Emperor Constantine the Great of Rome, during the early 4th century, created a military banner using X and P to symbolize the Christ who led him to victory over his enemies. In some churches today you might see the XP symbol carved onto religious statues, baptismal fonts, altars, etc.
In pop culture, during 2002 promotion of her new album ‘Stripped,’ Christina Aguilera cultivated a new image by adopting the name Xtina (the X used for Christ in her name), dyeing her hair black, and debuting several tattoos and piercings.
It would seem to me that those who disparage Xmas are unfamiliar with a long history of Christians using X in place of "Christ" for various purposes. And yet some Christians have no use for the term. Notable evangelist Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham, said in 2005 interview on CNN [something to that effect.]
There is even a conspiracy theory going around that Jewish people had introduced Santa Claus to suppress New Testament accounts of Jesus, and that the United Nations, at the behest of "world Jewry", had outlawed the name of Christ.
So, I would say it is okay to use either term, Christmas, or Xmas. However, using Christmas presents a clearer understanding of what the focus of the season really is, as there is confusion over the “X” in Xmas.
As you advance through these 12 days of Christmas, I wish you a Merry Xmas!
John would like to know if anyone has a sincere interest in a relevant word that he could possibly research for an upcoming column. If so, please send your requests to wordwisdom2021@gmail.com . Words will be selected according to relevance and research criteria. We cannot confirm that all words will be used.
The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author, and do not necessarily reflect the position of this publication.
