Christmas and Xmas

Every year we get to this time where people advocate for “keeping Christ in Christmas” due to the use of “Xmas.” Many feel that using the letter “X” instead of “Christ” is a blasphemous way of crossing Christ out of the holiday and replacing him with the secular: reindeer, Santa, and snowmen. Using Xmas instead of Christmas used to really bother me so I began to research why this was done and here is what I have found.

The use of “Xmas” actually began with the church. Yes, the church! And there are very valid and good reasons for writing Xmas rather than Christmas. We need to understand our own church history though. The New Testament was written in Greek, which utilized the Greek alphabet (which was actually largely adapted from the Phoenician alphabet). Our own English actually utilizes the Anglo-Saxon alphabet, which is a descendant of the Roman alphabet, which is a descendant of the Greek alphabet. Trust me, we’re getting somewhere here.

The Romans were descendants of a tribe called the Latins who settled in the Italian peninsula. Also living in the Italian peninsula at this time were the Etruscans, and the Western Greeks. In about the 5^th century BC, the Latins began to adopt writing techniques from both these other people groups and developed a somewhat unique alphabet for themselves over the next few centuries as they borrowed words from Greek and developed letters to accommodate the new sounds.

But we’re not done yet, when the Anglo-Saxons were converted to Christianity in the sixth century AD, they too began to use the Roman alphabet, but made some changes of their own to accommodate their own heritage and culture; like introducing the letters “J” and “W.”

Now we come to the age of the printing press in the 15^th and 16^th centuries. During this time all typesetting was done by hand and was very tedious, time consuming, and expensive. Therefore, abbreviations became quite common. One of the abbreviations that was developed was the use of “Xmas” in place of Christmas. Now remember that the modern English alphabet we use today was developed over the last few millennium from the Greek. In the Greek, the letter “chi (pronounced kai)” or “c” is the ancestor of the English “X (pronounced ex)”. In Greek, chi is the first letter of the word Christ, or christos (cristoV). Block letters were also used in Greek, so christos could have also been written as CRISTOS.

Thus, in early religious publications, it became quite common to substitute “X” for “Christ” in Christmas. This abbreviation eventually moved out of the realm of just the church and became used in other general publications as an acceptable way of printing Christmas. Today, some may use it as a way of referring to the holiday of Christmas without having to pronounce “Christ.” And, honestly, that’s their choice. Christ didn’t come to make people comfortable, but uncomfortable. He came to turn things upside down which is why he first arrived as a baby, not an all-powerful king with legions of angels at his back. If Christmas makes people uncomfortable, then it demonstrates the continuing power of Christ in this world.

Personally, I write out the entire word, Christmas, each time even though it is more tedious than simply substituting the “X”. It reminds me that there is a purpose to this season beyond just shopping, decorating, giving, and receiving. This time is about remembering and preparing our hearts for the King who came to make us free, and reconcile us to God. So Merry Christmas to everyone out there, I wish you joy and excitement as you decorate, build snowmen, put presents under the tree, and spend time with loved ones. I wish you joy and hope as you remember your King who lives and reigns eternal and all powerful.