i think ppl are just tryin to cut off the fact that its suppose to be a religious holiday…but they cant change the name drastically so they subbed it with the X….as for the other words with x comin from different origins the x doesnt mean the same thing….;x

Thank you for that tidbit of information! As a devout Christian, I was offended with something, and I foolishly did not understand. It’s awesome to see how language has changed over the years, and I’m excited to see where it might take us. Merry Xmas!!

Nice thought chap… conclusion in the end went somewhere in an erratic way. but cheer up man.. continue writing great stuff

THIS IS SOMETHING THAT I IGNORED FOR SO MANY YEARS AND NOW I GOT THE MEANING OF IT , THANKS VERY MUCH FOR SUCH HELP

As interesting as this is it still doesn’t get to the fact that the actual holiday that is celebrated has nothing to do with Christ or his birth. This day is all about Usurping a traditional seasonal day of another culture, for shame for shame.

Ptwin is right. I talked with someone the other day about this. It’d be a great thought if we reverted to the Greek or Hebrew for every word or letter to find out word origin but our culture isn’t that intentional. Look at consistency. X in our culture (not Greek) also means to negate or remove. It’s a deliberate attempt to remove the name of Jesus from our culture. But, what should the body of Christ expect? He’s removed from government, schools, homes. The name of Jesus Christ is used more to express frustration through blasphemous indignation rather than held in reverence. 2 Timothy 3:5 talks about a corrupt, disillusioned generation “having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with them.” It’s an intentional rejection of His name. But the testimony is within the resolve of the individual. This does not deter me from blessing others. When a culture is bent on rejecting Him, that tells me I need to not be discouraged. I need to not walk as someone who “takes offense” at a world that rejects His name. The resolve on my lips will be “But as for me and my househol, we shall serve the Lord.” Have a very Merry (and God blessed) Christmas!

While this may be true, the meaning of language isn’t as dependent on history as the intentions of those who use it. The intention of those who substitute the X are usually such that they are trying to avoid writing the word “Christ.”

In these days where the name & concept of Christ is truly an offense –as He presciently told us would be the case, I’ll certainly say Merry Christmas (though I don’t celebrate Mass as such) whenever possible but not only find “Xmas” useful shorthand for lists and such but also in my sermon note-taking. “X” being the incalculable nature of God expressed in Christ i.e. “X = Love, X = Light, X = Life,” etc.

Very intresting, very intresting indeed

It may have been a acceptable way to spell Christmas hundreds of years ago, but that is no longer the case. People don’t use it out of respect now, they use it because they are too lazy to take the time to write out “Christmas”.

Like many other words (quick example-”gay”) it doesn’t mean what it originally did.

“As a devout Christian, I was offended with something, and I foolishly did not understand.”

That, my dear Robyn, is getting written down. Sheer comedic gold.

Although this might be the explanation that is proven to be true. The X takes out Christ out of Christmas. I still find it offensive and I rather keep my Christ in Christmas. X is a form or way of xing something out, therefore I will continue to write CHRISTmas.

My teacher once told me that you are taking “Chirst” out of Christmas by saying or writing XMas…so for over twenty years I have had difficulty with “XMas”. Thanks for the info.

To SEAMUSMAC – You sir are an idiot! Christ is the only reason for Christmas! That’s why it’s not called Oprah-mas or Obama-mas. No matter how hard you try to take Christ out of the lives of everyone who truly believes, you will fail. You sir should be the one who is ashamed.

MY B-DAY IS ON CHRISTMAS

I find your explanation fascinating. Thank you!

Good one! I like it! However, as you know, language changes over time, and what was once recognised as a Christogram (cool word!) no longer has that power I believe… Because I think it’s true that today the ‘x’ partially dismisses the Christ in Christ-mass… Sad – for “Jesus is the Reason for the Season” after all! I was sent a beautiful card with xmas on it, so I will repost your link on my wall, for her information.

Ever heard of the lady that complained about Christians ‘taking over’ Easter and Christmas! There is a lot that has been lost, yet still radicals of other faiths terrorize us as being Christians… I wonder what they would do if they knew most of the West is now faithless as to religion of any kind. Man is god, and money is our goal. Time to cease!

Just a quick editing note – the title of the article implies the use of “Xmas” is older than what is stated in the article itself. Just because “1,000 year old meaning” sounds impressive doesn’t mean you can say it if the word was “first used in the mid 1500s.” “500 year old meaning,” or “half-millennium old meaning” function just as well.

I still prefer to use the word Christmas and although the article is interesting, in present day people use “Xmas” to disconnect religious value to the Holy day. They don’t use the shortened version due to an understanding of the “X or chi” meaning. Therefore, I believe that all
Christians should use the full word, ‘Christmas’ especially since we live in a world that wants to take the name ‘Christ’ and ‘Jesus’ out of everything.
It’s the little things that count… yes, even a small word that we use.

Be blessed!

Reason and Shelly… I agree with you both!

Pedro! For shame! How dare you be so lazy as to shorten birthday to bday! Surely that is somehow a slight on our lord and saviour! Or something like that…

I’ll concede with some of the previous posters that SOME people’s intention in using Xmas is to remove Christ from the holiday. However, to assume that most people use it that way, or that it’s the general use of the word in today’s society is a mistake (and may I say, very pessimistic). Being Catholic and seeing the XP symbol used frequently, I’ve known of this abbreviation for many years. I believe most people use “Xmas” just to save time and effort, as any other abbreviation is used. Not as an intentional dig to our savior.

I still find the “X” a lazy way to take Christ out of Christmas.

whats so insulting? if your not catholic you shouldnt be offended…you dont have mass to put christ in front of….n FYI “Jesus” was jewish so wats with the christainty?…and how do you know he was born now?…no parent would have a newborn child in the freezing cold…and dressed in just in “swaddling cloth”?…this whole holiday isnt religious…its a facade to have a party in the winter…EGGNOG,Mistletoe,come on i doubt that was in a manger…and Jesus wont eat ham!!!! plus the gifts were given to him not to everybody so ppl should just donate to their chruches….right?…dont hate its just logical ppl…

@ Seamusmac & HAE: Please stop spreading hate. The holiday of Christmas is accepted by almost everyone nowadays as a double holiday, both Christian and pagan, both Christ and Santa Claus, both the manger and the tree. That’s the way it’s been for a long time now and it’s the way it’s likely to stay for many years to come, like it or leave it. It’s just wrong to promote one at the expense of the other. (Being a non-Christian myself, I’m happy just to celebrate the neutral side of the holiday.)

@ Robyn Rich: Congratulations! A little education is always a good thing. And a Merry Christmas to you!

@HAE: The original meaning of Xmas was to celebrate the Winter Solstice. When Constantine tried to convert the pagans to Christianity he allowed them to keep their Winter Solstice celebrations as a way to make acclimation to Christianity more appealing. Only after that was Winter Solstice changed to Christmas. No one knows for sure when Jesus was born so to think you are celebrating on his actual birth date just goes to show how little you know about your religion as well as history.

The historical reasoning here hardly trumps modern day intent which is to reject the name, “Christ”. Writing “X-mas” instead of “Christmas” goes along with the move towards saying “Happy Holidays” rather than “Merry Christmas” even though the word “holiday” is historically derived from the term “holy day”. Either way, as a Christian, I make it a point now to say “Merry Christmas”…without the “X”.

what is so insulting? if your not catholic you dont have a mass to put Christ in front of!!…n FYI “Jesus” was jewish whats with the christainty?…how do even know that he was born now?…i mean what parents would have a new born child in the freezing cold dressed just in swaddling cloth?….its not a regilious holiday its just a farcade to have a party in winter…eggnog and mistletoe and a fat man a tree with lights? not very regilious me….why dont you donate to your chruch instead of give gifts to each other? werent the gifts given to “Jesus” in the first place?…dont hate its just logical….

To Pedro – You don’t also happen to be RALPH from “The Simpsons” are you??!

I am disheartened that so many here would rather use their inference of people’s intentions to berate others as they self-righteously “celebrate” the birth of the Prince of Peace. These castigations reflect no goodwill toward men and are much farther from inspiring peace on earth than a Merry Xmas.

HAE? Learn some history before you go deriding other people. Crhist was actually born MUCH earlier in the year, not in what is currently known as December. But lacking a concrete date, the Catholic church, in a bid to stamp out paganism in the British Isles, arbitrarily assigned the date of December 25th for the holiday of Christmas, in order to absorb the various Pagan holidays which celebrated the winter solstice – (Yule, Saturnalia, Midwinter, etc.)

The exact date of Christ’s birth is still under much debate, but most scholars – both secular and religious – agree that it was NOWHERE near December.

The “reason for the season” was never about Christ himself, but subduing and stamping out competing religions.

Wow comments here show how retarded people want to remain. Google christian icons and you’ll see the very letters you’re now hating on as being “anti-X.” and December 25th is still a pagan holiday that Jesus probably hates you for celebrating.

Benji, You put it better than I ever could. If we did everything the way things were done in the 1500’s there are a lot of people out there who would be locked up for a really long time or wouldn’t be around to see CHRISTmas 2010. Thanks for the history lesson, but I don’t worship a X I worship risen Savior name Jesus Christ.

man i love commentary…especially yours pedro…happy bday to you! oops…meant happy ‘birth’day…didnt mean to take your ‘birth’ out of the day…

People tend to also forget that Jesus wasn’t even born in December, and the holiday was moved to coincide with the pre-christian Yule festivities. Same reason Easter includes stuff about rabbits and eggs. As for the Xmas/Christmas debate, you have as much right to keep insisting on writing out Christ every time as I have a right to not give a crap either way. Funny how someone trying to educate others just gets some people’s panties in a bunch. Go ahead, plug your ears, close your eyes and yell NO NO MY WAY MY WAY and refuse to listen to anyone else. Makes you feel much better doesn’t it? As for the more open minded among us, bravo.

To SEAMUSMAC – You must come from PLANET URANUS. We back here on Earth all know the meaning of the word “RELEVANCE” also…”for shame for shame??!”

All believers in Jesus Christ should be reverent enough to write His name rather than using an “X” .

Hae, why did you abuse SEAMUSMAC? Did is not Christlike behavior.let your words and actions draw people closer to Christ.

No seusmac is NOT an idiot, YOU SIR are an idiot. Christmas is inherently pagan. You didnt even read his post right. There’s evidence that Christ was not even born on christmas and that is probably Nimrod’s birthday.

The act of christmas trees are pagan, in Jeremiah 10:2-5, Pagan Babalyonians are described as putting up decorations on fir trees.
The date of christmas was the date of a pagan celebration and the the Romans changed the date to get mroe people to join christianity. They did this with a lot of christian things, and mixed paganism and christianity. Why change the chapel if you can just redecorate it? The old chapel goers will like it

In FACT almost all of the christmas traditions are pagan. Except for Saint Nikolas, but the current image of Santa Claus is DEFINETLY not christian.

Seamusmac and HAE,
I can see what both of you mean, and you are both a little right. They did put Christmas there to take out another religion’s holiday, but we also did it to make a time for Christ.

I love the explanation for this. Whoever wrote this, keep writing!

well pedro HAPPY FRICKEN BIRTHDAY!!!! that is all thank you

you lost the game ^_^

Thank you for clearing that up. Now, I don’t mind as much when I see X-mas but I’m still going to hate hearing it pronounced as ‘Merry Ex-mas’ from people.

i think that people stress over the holidays gee just go and get a gift card for goodness sake!!!! i mean now a days people are so picky!!

I, too, have trouble with Xmas – even though I know the origin. I have long abbreviated with the actual Greek chiro – it’s not hard to do: a capital ‘P’ with the ‘x’ across the vertical line. That way, I have shorthand that still keeps “Christ” in Christmas. Merry Christmas to all!

…and, I give the explanation to others as often as I get a chance.

I always wondered what the “-nog” in eggnog stood for.

Which just goes to show how irrelevant Christmas is, considering the Christ was born in the fall…not December… xD. Just the “christenization” of the pagan festival Saturnalia.

Some have said don’t take Christ out of Christmas. People often write Xmas because it is just plain quicker to write.

However Jesus came and died on the X (cross) for our sins, this is wonderful news for all who make Jesus Lord of their life.
So X_mas is good news.

To HAE: you sir are the idiot. You should do a little research before you spout off about what you do not know. SEAMUSMAC was absolutely correct when he stated that Christmas has nothing to do with the birth of Christ. You should read your bible and then read a dictionary.
The Roman Emperor Constantine in the fourth century used the already deeply rooted traditional celebrations surrounding Saturnalia (Dec 17th) and and birth date of the god Mithra (Dec 25th) as a genius political move to unify the non-Christians with the existing Christians. The 25th was chosen because it was already the date of the god Mithra, also known as “the Sun of Righteousness”.
Further proof, read Matthew chapter 2. It clearly identifies the fact that Jesus had already been born when the “astrologers” (people practicing something condemned by the bible) not wise men, visited him. Herod sent for all the “boys” to be killed two years of age and under because he knew about how old Jesus was. Also note who the “star” was sent by.

“Most people get all their exercise by jumping to conclusions.”

I already knew about the term X-mas, but it was great to see it again. Thanks so much! It’s great to see stuff like this on the Internet!

Very interesting!

I have never thought that using x-mas was taking the Christ out of Christmas, nor has it been posited as such in my education; perhaps that is a result of where I was raised and went to school. X-mas was merely a shorthand for Christmas. Nothing more, nothing sinister. However Christmas came about, I believe it to be a wonderful concept – a season of goodwill, joy, peace and love for all. Would that we could practice the concept for the entire year!

@ HAE- I hate to tell you that Seamusmac is correct. Christ was not really born on December 25. As a Christian, I will be the first to admit this information. Reread your Bible, and you will see. The holiday that is celebrated on December 25th may be said to be the anniversary of Christ’s birth, but in fact, it is based upon the Pagen celebration of the Winter Solstice. Didn’t you ever stop to think about why the traditional symbols for this holiday are a tree and a fat man? The traditions that are widespread today did not become so until about the middle ages, which I’m sure we can all agree was long after the birth of our Lord, Christ.

very interesting. thanks for sharing. I wasn’t sure what I thought about the whole Xmas versus Christmas, but that’s a pretty cool explanation that sounds pretty legit.

I always thought “X-mas” was unproper and rude, but now its not, thank you dictionary.com!

the christians in turn usurpped the time of year from those celebrating the solstice & saturnalia. the irony is now the greeks and italians are know as the biggest idiots–oops, christians–in the world.

eat, drink, be merry. but don’t say this folish crap is about a christian belief, for it is not.

I find that y’all(80%) are ignorant and so up tight about your own religious beleifs, that you can’t see you own nose in the matter. This is the time of year for harmony and peace. We all have our own beliefs and that is okay. This time of the year is when many people come together and celebrate what is truly important to them, wether it is a religious function, spending time with family or helping those in need. Argueing over something so frivolous as a letter. Grow up and think about things before you say them. If you want others to respect you, you need to respect them, too.

Er, Seamusmac was right. There’s nothing Christian about Christmas at all. Nowhere at all in the bible did it say that Christ was born on the 25th of December. He was actually born in March. Do your research people!

Now, isn’t that just par for the course…a believer in Christ calls another man an “idiot” because he doesn’t like what the other man said. Hae read so much into seamusmac’s words when Hae probably doesn’t even know seamusmac. No discussions, just anger and name-calling. No wonder we have wars! Somehow, I don’t think Christ would go along with that kind of behavior.

Look at how many people have commented that they believed the “X” in Xmas was crossing out Christ just because that is what they have been told by others all their life and since they don’t like how some people live, it just seems logical to them that this must be the meaning of the “X”. Hae is accusing seamusmac of trying to take Christ out of the lives of those that “truly believe”. Did he even stop to ask seamusmac to explain his comment. So few have bothered to even check out the knowledge behind this practice, they just believe what someone told them as the truth.

Yes interesting as it is..more interesting is the fact that Jesus never existed…a man made myth….the cross was taken from pagan culture and is actually to do with the seasons, zodiac etc… zeitgeist the movie explains it all… if you wanna believe in something…believe in yourself..not some made up rubbish used to extract money from people and control people… it is also interesting to note that people who still foolishly believe that a man called Jesus was nailed to a cross, would happily do the same to those who speak the truth…

No, Hae, you’re the only one here who is showing a lack of intelligence. Yule was celebrated for hundreds of years BCE by cultures much older. Besides, if Christ were to see the hatred that is spouted in his name, he’d be very disappointed especially by people like you.

It truly is sad that those who profess to follow a man of peace only wish to cause war. If you believed in him as you claim, you’d not insult people or shame them. I will pray to the gods whom the holiday actually represents that you will see the light eventually.

Interesting info! Thanks! (Also, thanks for getting the religious fanatics all worked up; they amuse me

Thank you for the explanation of that. I personally write ‘Xmas’ for shorthand purposes on my notes, etc..but when writing it in a message or letter I always put ‘Christ’ in it. The way it is spelled by some will not take away the true meaning of Christmas for my family and I. It is a day to celebrate the birth of Jesus Christ. THAT fact will never change. The holiday does not exist without Him in it.

I hope most know Holiday means Holy Day, if not that would be good. Noel I believe is transliterated, so knowing more may be helpful. Any thing more to know about Joy, Peace, Good tidings, caroling, Felis Nav da, Christmahonaquansica- my sons say it every year, ornaments

Actually, HAE, SEAMUSMAC is correct. December 25th was originally celebrated by Romans…who observed Juvenalia, a feast honoring the children of Rome. Members of the upper classes of Roman society also celebrated the birthday of Mithra, the god of the Unconquerable Sun, on December 25th. It was believed that Mithra, an infant god, was born of a rock. For some Romans, Mithra’s birthday was the most sacred day of the year. The concept of Christ being ‘born’ on December 25th, and taking on the symbolism of being the ’sun’, which was translated into son, s-o-n, was taken from this holiday. It was a way for the Church to keep the ‘pagan’ holiday, which none of the people were anxious to give up. The first Pope, Julius the First, decided that rather than ‘fight’ the custom of giving gifts during this ritual holiday, the Church would instead declare December 25th as the day when the man (and political zealot) known as Jesus Christ was born. That birthday was in fact, in late April. The ‘nativity’ is actually a bastardization of the Isis/Osiris/Horus story (which is Egyptian), and the paintings of “Madonna and Christ” were copies of Egyptian artwork depicting Isis and Horus, her son with Osiris. Given that every ’story’ in the Bible is a ‘retelling’ of ancient Sumerian, Babylonian, and Egyptian myths, it’s no surprise to learn that Christmas was also ‘hijacked’. So, who is the idiot now?

To HAE: Ah, sit, still thy wrathful tongue. FYI: Almost every historian agrees the Christ was born sometime in the Spring so, technically we should be celebrating Christmas in March or April. The early church was no slouch at marketing. Rather than try and destroy the traditions of the countless cultures they overtook, they simply usurped their existing festivals and warped their meanings into something more to the church’s liking. Virtually every culture has (or had) a mid-winter celebration of some kind. The most prominent victim of the church’s subversion is the Winter Solstice festivals of the Britons and the Celts which oddly enough correlates very nicely with the present-day timing of Christmas. Happy Solstice!

benji rocks. You believe the etymology of the word xmas is rooted in something from the 1500’s,whatever. I have been studying the Bible and several biblical and extrabiblical texts, yet I haven’t run across anybody using the word “xmas”. This really is a fairly new thing, circa 1960’s-70’s. Using the word doesn’t bother me at all, in fact I will purposely talk to anybody about Christ, not X. But if I do get to Greece, I will talk to them about the Christos who was and is and is to come. Thank you for the valued information that you bring forth each day. May you be blessed.

wow this is a very interresting article merry christmas

I don’t like the way people leave out the word Christ in Christmas. The abbreviation of xmas is just disrespectful to the lord.

Merrry CHRISTmas everyone!
Abby landders

I was so offended by Xmas. I was apalled that people could take away Christ in the holiday for him to shorten things up a bit and not offend other religions in advertising. However, I see now that it does still show the true meaning. Fascinating! I wonder how you came by this?

Please excuse me for posting religious debate on a word-etymology forum.

I do appreciate the fact that people defend their beliefs, opinions, and religious teachings. But it seems to me that several people here (and many other places) get angry at others for stealing Christmas away from it’s “true origin.” In the process, harsh words are exchanged and people propagate hatred in the name of “being right”–whether it’s for Christ or for proper history, science, etc. How silly. I understand that the church stole someone else’s tradition to celebrate it’s own doctrine. That is simply history. What I do not understand is why people are still angry about this. If it were not for the Christian church, we, as North Americans, would not be celebrating Christmas anyway. If you don’t believe Christ died for you sins, don’t celebrate Christ. You can still spend the holiday with your family (by the way, “holiday” comes from “Holy Day”, and would not exist if not for religion). Please, lets not get offended by taking the the Christ out of Christmas, or by putting Christ where he doesn’t belong. Those who want Christ in their mass will have it, and those who do not want Christ cannot be forced into believing it. And dear HAE, please be careful. Do you really expect to show people the love of Christ by telling them that they are idiots?

As to the word itself, that’s quite neat! It’s definitely a conversation starter.

I am happy to read this about the x in christmas.

It is just a way to shorten it and no one should be offensive because we aren’t cuttingg out christ. THANK YOU

This is interesting and although I will still continue to use “Christ”mas, it just goes to show that while the world may try to erase Him, Christ eternal will always triumph! His Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom, and His dominion endures throughout all generations. (Psalm 145:13)

No matter how, I will still chose to use Christmas. How can we cross Christ out of Christmas? Christmas is all about Christ and that’s why we celebrate it. Even the information of the article might be true, but think about it. If we continue using Xmas for the future, then how about the nest generation? They will forget and even don’t know who Christ is cos they only know Xmas but never get to know about Christmas. Have a blessed Christmas.

Interesting article, but I agree with the point that we now use X as a way to replace part of a word or to truncate it, like xment for treatment. No one who writes xment means Christment. So while the history of X as explained makes me feel somewaht better about its use several hundred years ago, I think it’s current use in the English language is not so innocent. So despite its historical use, for such a sacred word as Christmas, I prefer to write the entire word out.

Seamusmac, you’re wrong. Christmas has nothing whatsoever to do with the long-dead feast of the Saturnalia. It celebrates the Incarnation (God taking on human flesh). The Saturnalia had nothing to do with that. Apart from occuring at similar times of the year there’s no actual connection.

And as for the notion that the use of the Greek letter Chi somehow takes the ‘Christ’ out of Christmas, that is nonsense I think. Far better Christians than us have used it for hundreds of years.

Seamusmac, since you seem uneducated or falsely educated on the subject, let me educate you. Christians have celebrated Jesus-related holidays for centuries. Unfortunately, the Catholic Church decided to incorporate pagan elements into their worship to appeal to the neighboring pagans. They created a holiday which merged the Jesus-related holidays with the celebration of the winter festival. This is what we call Christmas. It is not a usurping of a pagan holiday, it is a violation of Christian tradition. Ever since it’s conception, there has been ongoing controversy about it. Whether you choose to celebrate it or how you choose to celebrate it is up to you, but please do the research before you bash it.

i thinks its seems like ok info but its just the letter x i do not think that it has history sorry

Scott you seem to be religiously minded. But what people miss when they decide to be religious is that God has standards, but they do not know what those are. It is not about being right, it is about the facts. Exodus 20: 2-5 details how God feels about anything else creeping into his original way of worship. Allowing extra customs into Christianity is like adding a drop of poison into a glass of water. Will you still drink it? If you know anything about biblical history, you would know what happened to the Isrealites when they allowed the surrounding nations to taint their form of worship. Ask yourself, why would God change his standards? Because everybody started thinking different? The origins of a celebration are extremely important if you truly believe that God has standards.

2Timothy 4:3,4 sums up how religions would treat God’s originalteachings.

Know your bible if you are going to weigh in from a religious point of view.

Cool I didn’t know that!!!!!☺☻☺☻☺

I think that THIS is a way to “cover” the fact that people these days want to cover the CHRIST in Christmas! FACE THE TRUTH! Christ is our LORD! Come to think about it, the actual holiday that we celebrate was brought about by the Catholics, and Christ wasn’t really born on December 25…Some studies show that he was born on the Jewish holiday of Sukkot. It is the feast of Tabernacles (or the feast of dwelling, for “to tabernacle” means to dwell with). Since Christ was named Emmanuel (God with us) this also means, God dwells with us, or God TABERNACLES with us. I read this in Bible class ^^. I DON’T CARE WHAT PEOPLE THINK! XMAS is still offending to me! Why add an X, huh? Why not say CHRISTMAS!? The world is no longer in fire for Jesus Christ. His name is very important…That is why people “delete” His name from areas, because His name is the power! Maybe it IS true that the X means Christ, but why use an X to cut out 6 letters from a holiday? Think about it…may God put on our hearts to search ourselves…

Yeah, people should relax. No one cares what you think or believe anyway.

This article is very interesting. Thank you for opening my eyes to more views on the word “Xmas” it is definitely something that I have been pondering about lately.

Now, about my opinion: A mon avie, everyone has their own beliefs. I, as a Mormon, definitely have an extremely strong belief that Christ is truly the center of our Christmas and I enjoy writing CHRISTmas on papers. However, we do have boxes in our attic that say Xmas on them. This is not because we are sacrilegious any way, but rather because my mom didn’t have to write so much. I don’t believe we can say Xmas is stricly use it as a way to cross out Christ, although I’m sure some people may do. I don’t believe we can say that people strictly use it as a waya to shorten the word Christmas, either. Just like some people use the internet for pornography or other defiling things while others use it for church and educational or other uplifting purposes, it is a tool (or word) placed in our hands for us to use as we choose.

As a Christian, I believe it’s kind of ridiculous for me to get offended by something so broad with so many different purposes. I just think that it would be a waste of my time to be completely distracted and enraptured by the use of Xmas.

Oh! and Merry Christmas to all those who wish it! God Bless!

whether I choose to continue writing Christ or now use the “X” without guilt, thank you for providing me with an opportunity to be less judgmental.

I believe what most say is true. saying xmas is pretty… hmmm, just, bleh. say Merry Christmas! jeez. adding six more letters isnt going to take any time away from your life!

look,
just to prove my point, instead of saying merry xmas (which sounds pretty retarted when you say it aloud, by the way), i WISH YOU ALL A VERY MERRY, lOVE FILLED CHRISTMAS! (:

Wow! This has been a captivating dialogue. As a Christian I’ve known for years that Christ had nothing to do with the pagan holiday celebrated on December 25th. After much soul-searching I’ve stopped celebrating Christmas but I celebrate Christ daily. It is fact that Church appropriated that day to compete for souls, and that Christ was most likely born in the spring. It would serve Christians better if we would stop using lies to teach truth. Just let Dec 25th be a secular holiday. No need to include Christ in something that originated before him and is contrary to his identity. Rather, just live the Christ you love! Now Hannukah! It’s so ironic that most Christians totally ignore Hannukah and Christ actually observed it because he was Jewish by genealogy. I’m proud to say I serve a Jewish Messiah!! And I call him by his name Yahshua!

So many people get offended by things they don’t fully understand. I think this is such an insight to such a simple abbreviation. What other things are out there that we judge before knowing…hmmm!

nice to have my facts strait now thanks!!!!

This is far from the entire story. It goes back much farther than 1500 – back to the beginning of the Church. Constantine didn’t convert himself or Rome out of faith, but for reasons of population control. Christianity was gaining more and more in popularity, and religious violence was on the rise. Therefore he decided to ‘meld’ Christianity with his own belief – Chronos. (his ‘conversion was purely for show). X is indeed chi in Greek, but the symbol X with the P inside, or Chi-Rho, does not stand for Christ, but for Chronos. Although the Church does not use this pagan X in the word Christmas, it does use it in the Chi-Rho symbol for Christ – merely another vestige of Christianity’s pagan origins.

Just as the christians of Rome and Celtic Briton usurped existing traditions and warped them for their own design, so did Victorian Britain, inventing the likes of christmas cards. But is that also the same today where traditional values have been swamped by pure commercialism? What do the kids today expect from christmas if not presents and chocolates. And what of the majority of adults if not for a few days holiday and indulgence in food and drink? So as history evolves and traditions and religions fall from grace what better way to celebrate the winter solstice than to forget past wrong-doings, enjoy the moment and hope for peace in the future.

Happy xmas.

Pedro,

Happy Birthday to you on December 25th. I think a lot of people also forget that they have proven that Jesus was not born on the date but several months later.
One of my best friends, she used to be my Manager at AT&T, BD is also on December 25th. We always threw her a BD Party also as the company used to feed us Christmas and Thanksgiving since all the restaurants around our office were closed. We are only given 30″ to eat and finish other personal things before having to get back to taking phone calls. Most people don’t realize that an Operator ‘never’ gets off Christmas. Thanksgiving is possible but rare. Pat was a Mrs. Claus if I’ve ever met one. She was always kind, caring and very giving. She wrote us still after moving to another town to say what she and the family had been up to.

Personally, I have and always will detest x-mas. I rather like the U.K.’s version where they celebrate Christ’s BD on Dec 25th and Dec 26th is Boxing Day when people normally exchange gifts with each other.

For me personally I don’t do gifts. I’d rather the money that I can spare go to one of my charities. I usually go purchase the ingredients for 2 full family dinners and then take them over to one of my favorite people in the world home. She has 13 freezers to hold all the food she takes in. She mainly tries to feed the elderly and families with very young ones. She’s even adopted our ’skid row hotels’ about 5yrs ago and they all come together at one spot and eat the meal together. Evelyn is not doing well these last two years because of strokes and such but her daughter and everyone that loves her keeps her “Community Outreach Program” going. Until about 10yrs ago she’d even leave her garage unlocked so you could drop off food after you got off work as Reno is a 24 hour town. Then some kids decided to rob her one night. Since then she’s had to lock the garage door up so we can’t put our food away on the shelves. The refrigerated stuff we don’t worry about too much with our nights in the 20’s. So if she’s left one of the U-Haul Trailers unlocked we put our things in there or leave them out on one of the long tables in the driveway. Most of my friends have trouble with this idea but to me it’s the only one that makes sense to me. If I can feed two families (b/c I bought the Turkeys during Thanksgiving sales when they are almost free) and then get the rest of the fixings like butter, flour, canned pumpkin, potatoes and such then I can feel good about helping Evelyn make her quota of helping others 365 days a year. Main thing is those 2 days in November and December, she feeds approximately 5,000-6,000 families each day.

The year my husband died, 2 weeks after Christmas all I heard all year from my family is that I ‘had’ to get rid of his things. I told them I would at Christmas and not before. I could have taken my husband 15 cashmere sweaters to goodwill but I wanted Evelyn to hand them out to people she knew needed them and would appreciate them for what they were. I don’t have much but money really doesn’t mean anything to me. I’d rather give someone something that they would appreciate even if it has been worn before.

Around here places won’t even take toys unless they are boxed and unopened. Chuck had over 100 different computer games that I got together, labeled on what type of system they would work on, Age Appropriation and made sure all the Pamphlets were with them. Some of us don’t have brand new computers and such and can still enjoy playing older games.
When her daughter came over with some friends to pick up everything she couldn’t believe all the work I’d done (they came to p/u my 28″ TV as my Dad had purchased me a new one several months prior). It still worked and there was no way for me to transport it to her house so daughter grabbed a couple of male friends to come help her get into her car along with all my other things.
We always think about just tossing things we don’t use any longer away but if it’s clean and works fine why not donate it to someone that can distribute it to someone else that would love it. Not everything we have belongs in the garbage. Nice things can be recycled to others w/o them having to go into a store and purchase them when we’ve given them to those stores free.This year Evelyn will also be getting 2 full sets of flatware.

So Pedro enjoy your day as it was meant to be. Hopefully someone also gives you a half-year BD party also. My parents rarely had money when I was young. I always felt I got half my presents on Christmas and the others 4wks later on my BD. Seems so silly to me now. I’m just thankful I’ve gotten my friends and family out of getting me ‘required’ presents. If you have the money while you’re walking down the street and something catches your fancy, buy it then and give it to them the next time you see that person. It will mean much more to them.

I’m glad to know why the ‘x’ is used at least as I’d always thought a ‘+’ sign should have been used instead substituting for a Cross.

May Peace Always be with YOU Pedro,

Karen & Twister(my Service Dog) in Reno

Does it rlly matter tht much? As long as we all get the point of Christmas and y we celebrate it, thts all tht counts (and as long as we get the gifts! LOL) Merry early CHRISTmas or “Xmas” (whatevr u wnt)!

Yes, I learned the fact in the 7th or 8th grade: “X” can also symbolize “Christ”, as “X” resembles the Greek letter Chi in form. (I taught myself the Greek alphabet for scientific and electronic use one or two years later, though I did not learn its pronunciation until years later.)

It amazes me that so many can hastily pervert innocent amphiboly and dual application into malevolence and sacrilege. This reflects an adverse mindset and personality trait which everyone should eschew—particularly religious people. (Cf. “Judge not, that ye be not judged”, Matthew 7:1, “Judge not according to appearance, but judge righteous judgment”, John 7:24, and “Thou hypocrite, cast out first the beam out of thine own eye; and then shalt thou see clearly to cast out the mote out of thy brother’s eye”, Matthew 7:5.)

“It’s a deliberate attempt to remove the name of Jesus from our culture” one commentator opined. I respond “Whose deliberate attempt?” Some imaginary windmill or chimera? Certainly not everyone’s! Another opined “The X takes out Christ out of Christmas.” Is the Christian messiah a mere word, erasable with the pencil’s opposite end?

The orthographical sequence “hell” means “light-[colored]” in German but “Gehenna” or profanity in English. No one should be scandalized if a German were to say “light brown” (hell Braun). Likewise, no one should be scandalized if one person used “Xmas” efficiently to mean Christ’s mass, while another used it to mean X-rated celebration. To pretend telepathy from anyone’s external, verbal forms should be worse than scandalous; it should be downright embarrassing! As others told me days ago here, “Get a life!”; do something useful.

Now most will see this as too technical and arcane, but the Roman alphabet’s X and the Greek alphabet’s X, while /formally/ similar, are /functionally/ disparate. First, in Latin “X” is pronounced ks (two phones or speech sounds), but in post-ancient Greek, it is pronounced “ch” or “kh”: the unvoiced, fortis dorsal-velar fricative. Second, modern computer character sets “clothe” different digital codes with characters based upon their function, not their forms. (Computer codes are invisible sequences of bits, electrical or magnetic “ons” and “off”. Different characters sets and fonts metaphorically “clothe” the invisible codes with different characters.)

Thus, the ASCII code X (88) is clothed with the Roman character X (ks), the UniCode code decimal 935 (hexadecimal 3A7) is clothed with the Greek letter Χ (kh), and the mathematical symbol Greek Chi is represented in UniCode with decimal 120510 (hexadecimal 1D6BE). Check it for yourself at HTTP://WWW.UniCode.org/charts/PDF/U0370.pdf and at HTTP://WWW.UniCode.org/charts/PDF/U1D400.pdf.

Or, make more productive use of your finite time.

it sould not be called x mas it shuld be called xxx-mas

That’s ya’lls opinion!!!

Using ‘x’ in Christmas is lazy; another example of the dumbing down of our society.

this is very unbeliveble x mas is a very bad thing x mas is taking christ out of christmas it just a thing brought up by the devil.christmas is about christs birth this person whoever started this x mas thing should be ashamed of him or her self ecspacillay because im 12 and i even can understand the true meaning of christmas God bless you and have a very good christmas

OMG! i never understood the meaning of Xmas! to me it felt like a offensive way to say Christmas, but now thanx to you guys i now know the true meaning! YAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAYYYYYYYYYYY!!!!

I don’t think that was even the question–

The abbeviation is/would be X’mas, not Xmas.

And it wouldn’t be more-acceptible than C’mas….

Another source might be the letter-name, XP Khufu Cheops Suphis head sup….

could u stop putting smiley faces?! =( =) =D

wow, that is something very useful information. i could definitly use “X” and justify that it is legal to use…amazing!

Me- not right, you should do the same, not the “do as i say not as i do” thing and read a bible. so sthu.
and Seamusac- sthu. i bet a lot that you didn’t read even half of Hae’s response. really, do you listen to the word christmas? CHRIST. MAS(s)
seriously, its so maddening that they call it xmas… it reminds me of
h-e-double-hockeysticks and so i think ray’s right. thnx guys!

This blog is a perfect example of rational people enjoying a bit of lost information as well as a peek into the minds of the religious nutjobs.

People of different generations see common things differently. People from diverse cultural backgrounds see common things differently.

Whether you celebrate the holiday season as a religios observance or cultural experience you can choose to do so in a positive light. Christians are not the only religion that marks this time of year on their calendar. The common theme worldwide is that we come together to celebrate our blessings and assist those less fortunate.

If you would like to read into conspiracy theories or be paranoid about retail companies lowering morality I say have at it. Hats off to all those rational enough to enjoy this time of year and participate in the fun.

Just remember… just because you are paranoid it does not necessarily mean they are not out to get you!

wow…i couldnt have imagined these comments getting any better from earlier in the day but dang…they sure did…awesome!

this is so cool, now i can use “X” for Christmas abbreviation without thinking that i could offend someone or my beliefs, it is actually a legal term, amazing!

I’m Greek and I never knew about this. Now that I know, I will tell everyone I know that it is a true and real representation of “christmas” only in Greek!

That was quiet elementary, even my 4 years old niece knew that. Of course he inherit her brilliant mind to his uncle which is ME.I predict when she grew up her IQ would be 140 which is needless to say 11points lower than my IQ.
for those of you who said this was insightful, nice and informative, Where the heck have you been all your life???? STOOOPIIIIID people!!!

I’m surprised more people haven’t taken issue with the “mass” part of “Christmas.” Even if the X does take the Christ out of Christmas, you still have a reference to a religious service–which is not even celebrated by most Protestants.

Dave, i just wanted to let you know that i will be praying for you.(i hope that any other christians on here will too) i hope that God touches your heart and you come to know Him. Merry christmas

Nice article but I will still use the word CHRISTMAS… People who writes XMAS are LAZY people…

I believe that many people use this abbreviated term in lieu of using “Christ” within Christmas for their particular beliefs. This does not bother me at all, let people do what they want. This is America, you can believe in anything you like as long as your not physically hurting anyone. This does not fall under physically hurting anyone. Those are my two cents.

First, I would like to point out that I am a Christian, and I appreciate all your views even if I do not personally agree with them.
Now, I believe that while some people put the x to take out Christ, others know what it means and are not trying to offend anyone! It depends on the person.
Next, Christmas is a Christian holiday. Many early converts celebrated a pagan holiday devoted to Jupiter on the 25th of December, so the early church decided to celebrate our Lord’s birthday then so the people wouldn’t miss their old holiday too much.
Christmas may be highly commercialized, and it may have started as a pagan ritual, but today it is indeed a CHRISTIAN celebration, although no person successfully raised in the church actually believes it to be when Jesus was born. That is a common misconception.

people only use xmas cos its faster t txt and type … no one actually says xmas everyone still says christmas…we’re a lazy generation is all

I believe X is another way to say X out Christ and just make it X’mas. Christmas wouldn’t be the same without Christ in it. Saying X’mas isn’t right. Merry Christmas!

it’s funny to read that “Christ” is Jesus’ name. What then of King Cyrus who in the last verse of Isaiah 44 through chapter 45 was God’s “anointed” which is messiah from Hebrew and christ from Greek. No one is taking Jesus’ name out of Xmas because Christ isn’t His name… it’s His title. The ‘mas part is just shortened for mass and I’m sure a lot of you arguing this are not even catholic or stepping foot into an actual “Christ-mas.”

Umm – do not mean to offend any one – However for all you people who are ‘devout Christians’ – can you find any reference to Christmas in the Bible? There is ONE, vague referenct to His birth (which probably was in the fall). The reason Jesus came to earth was to serve as a propitiatory sacrifice for all mankind, to serve as a ransom for our sins. December 25 was the Roman Saturnaila (sp), an orgy of horrific proportions. The tree was Druid; other items are also pagan in origin.
His (Jesus) birth was not important – his sacrifice on a torture stake was the validation of God’s rule. Please think for yourself.

I hope that everyone will agree that it is not was is written on paper by the Greeks or anyone else.Advertised in a commercial or displayed for all to see. It is truly what is in your heart that counts.It is not for you me or anyone else to JUDGE.If it means something to you to write CHRISTmas than write it!If you want to short hand it to x-mas than do so.CHRIST doesn’t see your handwritting he see’s what is inside your SOUL.We as CHRISTIANS should know better than to discredit others no matter thier beleif.We are all children of the LORD.We all need to act as such.

i always read the comments more than the article. comments people r hilarious they crack me up btw im muslim but this is all very interesting

It’s interesting to know this, but the fact is that almost no one actually attributes the “X” to some old language’s letter. We don’t speak Greek, we speak English, and in English, the Savior’s title is spelled “Christ”, not “X”.

As for “Xpian” and “Xtian”? Never once heard of them. Ever.

Funny…….we call Christmas caroling “Christmas” caroling, Christmas shopping “Christmas” shopping, Christmas party “Christmas” party, Christmas play “Christmas” play, Christmas songs “Christmas” songs, Christmas holiday “Christmas” holiday……but we want to call Christmas day, the day recogized by Christians in celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ, “Xmas”….. Interesting….. No course in Greek history is going to justify the injustice or explain away the goal, which is to remove Jesus Christ, the reason for Christmas, from Christmas.

I went to a private Catholic girls grammar and academic high schools, and no one scorned the X in Xmas. We were taught its Greek meaning. In fact, I would venture to say that we may have been taught that the X represented the cross, a wooden structure to which Jesus Christ was nailed, his limp skeletal body left to hang. I don’t think I imagined that explanation, although it may have come from another Catholic source…

No matter what we call Christmas, it’s the act of worship that matters. To some, it’s just a time to spend money on worthless items to show people we ‘care’ about them. It’s just an obligation to them, not an act of true worship, which is what Jesus called us to do. Jesus called us to love Him and God ALL of the time, not just once a year. It’s a nice time of year to decorate and remember and have set aside family time, but that’s NOT what Jesus died for! If the disciples had just sat around celebrating the birth of Jesus, we would not have the history we do. We would not know the love that Jesus taught. We are called to soemthing much greater than debating with the ones we are supposed to love. In my first grade class, we were taught where joy comes from. First by loving Jesus, Others, and then Yourself. When we truely love Jesus out of Agape love (look it up), we abandon our own selfish desires and work towards a commited, selfless, and lovefull life. So this Christmas, speak kindly to your brothers and enimies. Give freely to strangers, and remember to carry on this tradition from day to day. Read your Bible and realize that your time here on earth can be more than dispute and hurt. You have the ability to change someones life. “To the world you may be just one person, but to one person you may be the world.”

Love Izzy

BTW, Merry Xmas from us Catholic girls in San Francisco!

looool, its amazing how people will say stuff like they were offended and yet they really didn’t understand. Just goes to show how narrow-minded people tend to be.. and how gullible too. But then i guess i shouldn’t really be that shocked. How easily these same people blindly follow a bunch of people that blindly follow. Making such a fuss over a holiday that really has no intrinsic meaning, but placing false meaning to the holiday to justify its superficial existence. to celebrate the birth of Christ…. hahaha. you call Jesus Christ your God, but look how your “God” has limitations. so much so that he was born and died. you can’t deny those limitations, because you celebrate them. hahaha. Jesus Christ was a creation. every creation has to have a creator to stipulate the terms of its existence.. doesn’t really make sense, does it? Its amazing that you get so blindsided by worshipping a creation that you forget there was a whole lot of other people and things before this creation that you call “God” even existed…food for thought.

no one cares if its X-mas or Christmas

hahaha… and look how you brainwash the poor 12 year olds too. i feel sorry for you, alana

I thought it was a rotated cross.

Wow! Good discussion, love to see the passion in people. This gives me a lot to reflect upon and be thankful for. May everyone have a peaceful, safe, and blessed holiday.

I STILL WON’T SIGN CHRIST’S NAME WITH AN “x”

“Me” wrote “Herod sent for all the ‘boys’ to be killed two years of age and under because he knew about how old Jesus was.”

This is absolute rubbish. Not only did Herod have no idea who the supposed infant Jesus was, there is zero historical evidence for any such “slaughter of the young boys of Bethelehem” ever taking place. If a Roman puppet-king had ordered a wide-scale massacre like this, it would’ve been recorded by Roman historians, and/or Roman critics. Josephus, the Jewish-Roman historian, recoded many other atrocities of Herod, but makes no mention of this one.

There is likewise zero contemporaneous evidence for the existence of “Jesus of Nazareth” or “Jesus, the son of Joseph”. Not one contemporary historian mentions him even once. There were, at the time, dozens of so-called “messiahs” in Palestine, and more than a few were named “Jesus”. But again, we have no contemporaneous mention in any extrabiblical source of THIS particular claimed person existing.

Finally, the earliest mention of Jesus was by Paul of Tarsus who never met Jesus and wrote of him 20-30 years after Jesus’ supposed death. And the author of the earliest Gospel — Mark, who wrote it about 40 years after the supposed death of Jesus and relied almost entirely on Paul’s writings — likewise never even met him. Even most serious Biblical scholars admit this.

And yet some people today still base their lives around this collection of fables! The Roman historian Suetonius wrote that, when Julius Caesar died, his spirit was seen ascending to heaven. How is that any less credible than the posthumous claims about Jesus?!

> I think ppl are just tryin to cut off the fact that its suppose to be a
> religious holiday…but they cant change the name drastically so they
> subbed it with the X….as for the other words with x comin from different
> origins the x doesnt mean the same thing….;x
That’s true

OMG THIS IS Y I DONT LIKE X-MAS STOP FREAKING OUT
like seriously and LOL over Obama-mas nice.

…wow ppl are really serious about this devil x thing
lighten up

Merry Xmas! Merry Xmas! Merry Xmas! Merry Xmas! Merry Xmas! Merry Xmas! Merry Xmas! Merry Xmas! Merry Xmas! Merry Xmas! Merry Xmas! Merry Xmas! Merry Xmas! Merry Xmas! Merry Xmas! Merry Xmas! Merry Xmas! Merry Xmas! Merry Xmas! Merry Xmas! Merry Xmas! Merry Xmas! Merry Xmas! Merry Xmas! Merry Xmas! Merry Xmas! Merry Xmas! Merry Xmas! Merry Xmas! Merry Xmas! Merry Xmas! Merry Xmas! Merry Xmas! Merry Xmas! Merry Xmas! Merry Xmas!

Love,
A Happy Xtian who doesn’t believe he’s taking Christ away from anything.

I thought it was supposed to be like a “cross” like what they pwn’d Jesus on.

Anna!:) What were you “trying” to say????

dear Dave
Jesus is there and he is real! Look around you we didn’t evolve fron apes. Go camping and step out side on a nise morning and breath in a deap breath of fresh moutian air. I know this although I am only 16. we are ALL children of god and Jesus is mine and yur brother. I am no scoaler but I know this to be true.

To address the X-mas v.s christmas thing I will say I think that Merry Christmas is funner to say thanMerry X-mas.:) Do what you want.

Good information. I learned growing up that Xmas was used in informal places where it would be disrespectful to write out Christmas. Ads for example. Good to know the real story. Strange to see that some people have the exact opposite idea, and think that printing Xmas in a profane usage is disrespectful.

Robert, there is mention of Jesus in mathue, luke and jhon. look in Revolations. He is there. Jesus is not a fictious characher! LOOK IT UP. How can you not belive! P.S I am not yelling just capitalizing on what I have to say. Merry christmas

If you had the opportunity to address Jesus Christ as “Jesus Christ” he would have had no idea to whom you were talking. That person was know to himself, his family and others as something much more like Yeshua bin Yusef. Yes, he was a wog. Not the brown haired, blue-eyed fantasy of the various and sundry churches of famous corruption. He wasn’t even much like most Jews today. In fact he would have looked like one of those nasty Palestinians Americans love to hate. He was an Ay-rab, no less. Hypocrites. You will get yours. You had your warning in the Bible you profess to love so much.

the world long have been debating about christmas and its shortened form x-mas, but do the world care that the so called bithrday of the MESSIAH,is not christmas day, it is a fact that the historian,scholars really DO NOT KNOW THE PRECISE DAY OF THE MESSIAH’S BIRTH, and because of that they took december 25 as THE MESSIAH’S NATAL DAL, well in fact it is really coincide with the heatens birthday, NIMROD , AND MITRA, a SOROWASTER SUN WORSHIPPER, the heatens really are successful removing the MESSIAH OUT THE PICTURE, and even HIS HOLY NAME, the letter Jdoes not exist in the latter 15th century, the develpoment of letter will teach us, not until the later 16th century fron a cursived i, it was derived, INRI in the cross sign for name stand as IESO NASARENUS REX IOUDAREUM, SEE THE CLEARER PICTURE THE NAME JESUS DO NOT EXIST FROM THAT TIME, BECAUSE IT IS A FUSION OF TWO HEALING GODS ;IE + ZEUS = IESOOS, WITH THE EMERGENCE OF LETTER J,IN ON THE 17TH CENTURY THEY SUCCESSFULLY CHANGE IESUS FROM JESUS, DO NOT BELIEVE ME, DO A RESEARCH

Reply to Robert: Rubbish? Really? Check out respected historian (who also lived in the first century) Tacitus; Tacitus wrote: “Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus [Christ], from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus.”
I was merely establishing a timeline (according to bible accounts) to support the fact that the 25th could not have been the date of Christ’s birth. I don’t think I said there was a document stating all of these things in detail besides the bible. And according to the bible, Herod did know of this child’s existence, it was written in their own prophetic history, that’s why people where in expectation of the Messiah. The earliest mention of the Messiah was obviously in the Hebrew scriptures. The law covenant was referred to as the “tutor leading to Christ” not to mention the prophetic parallels (Check out Daniel 9:25,26 Genesis 49:10).Also, can’t imagine that during the short time Christ was actively preaching, his disciples were asking for pit-stops to jot a few things down for posterity. If he was not a real person, then why were so many people trying to be a Messiah after his death? Political reasons. Obviously the Jews were looking for a physical leader and would not accept what he was truly there for. I am not debating historical accounts, (which are often skewed to the leader in power’s liking)I am merely trying to put a little truth into a very clouded tradition.

Wow what a serious history lesson. That said, bagels were invented by Jews but even people who hates Jews eat them now! Einstein made his nuclear discovery and was soon disappointed when he realized what it would TURN OUT TO BE. Point being, all things are open to interpretation and so even if Christmas was invented to bulldoze Pagan holidays, it is NOW known and celebrated, uniformly, as a Christian holiday. And obviously, lots of other people celebrate CHRISTMAS as only a Santa/seasonal holiday. Good for them, that’s the beauty of the world – difference. No one is really right or wrong, who is anyone to be the judge of that?

Anyway, origins are just that, where something originates from. Current interpretations, practices and customs are what’s happening now. It is what it is people!

@ MtW, that’s what I’m talkin about! Haha! Way to stay positive

Wow, a lot of you really don’t know your history, especially religious history! It is a common myth that Christmas was placed to purposely block out the winter solstice. The date of Christmas was actually based on the faulty math of early theologians, who used the Bible to first guess when Christ would have been conceived and then his birth and presentation at the temple. In fact, before there was a set feast for Christmas, The Nativity of the Lord was celebrated in different parts of the Old World at very different times – in spring, winter, summer, and fall. Many times there seemed to be no real reason for their chosen date other than mere preference. Dec. 25th was finally decided upon by Church theologians after much arguing, and an early pope (I forgot who, I’m sorry) declared that Christmas had nothing to do with the winter solstice – the Son has nothing to do with the sun. Today, theologians agree that Christ was probably born in early March, and died on the cross (and was subsequently resurrected) in early April. (P.S. I found this information at the Catholic Encyclopedia website. I hope I paraphrased it right.)

You are more likely to find evidence that early Christian feasts fell near Jewish holidays – the reason being to help Jewish converts and early Christians (who had to first convert to Judaism, then Christianity).

Santa Claus is based on a real person, St. Nicholas, who was the bishop of Myra (in present-day Turkey) in the 300s.

The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the Christians who think that everything is an attack on their religion…
Anyway who actually celebrates Christmas for religious purposes now?
its become an American holiday which means its another excuse to take a day off and to buy presents for people.
Im not Christian or religious for that matter and I write out the word Christmas instead of Xmas because I think Christmas looks and sounds better than Xmas.
Anyway Christmas has very little to do with Jesus Christ at all
And now some Christian fanatic will say im committing libel against Jesus Christ and how im going to go to hell
if there really is a hell…. well sucks for me

We should grateful that there are words that can be spelled with an ‘X’.

Now, Just imagine a world with no ‘L’–!

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA….

I find it amusing, too, that so many people get angry that Christmas coincidentally falls on a date very similar to an ancient pagan festival. So what? Last year, Chinese New Year fell on St. Valentine’s Day. Should I be mad, then, that someone else’s birthday falls on the same day as mine?

And if Christianity is simply foolishness, then why not paganism? It is after all the worship of nature and has its own deities. Science easily disproves many pagan beliefs – far more easily than it supposedly would to Christian beliefs.

Robert, I feel very sorry for you. Look around, do you think anything else besides the Holy One, God, could do all this? Evolution makes no sense. These fools believe that a cell, which is a living being in itself, simply crawled out of a mud hole, turned into a frog, which turned into a gorilla, which finally became a man. Nonsense. And the “Big Bang”? There is no proof of that, scientists are just trying to cover up the truth. They say that when there is an archelogical dig, there is a fossil on one level of the earth, and then another a few more feet down. If you actually researched, you would find out that this is a lie. As the scientists go down, there is nothing, and suddenly there are thousands of fossils all in one place, which is proof that the Flood actually existed. Also, what do the letters B.C and A.D stand for? Before Christ, and Anno Domini (in the year of our Lord.) Isn’t that proof enough?
People love Christmas, but they only like the presents. If you ever bring Jesus up in one conversation, non-Christians around you say it’s blasphmony, and yet they are fine with making sick jokes that have to do with the sins of other, swearing, and disgusting things that should never be talked about. I am just as bad as these people, but I know that I can only be saved by repenting of my sins and asking Jesus Christ for forgiveness, which is the only way to get to heaven.

Christmas is a crypto-composite of thousands of old religions and pagan beliefs all mixed up together.

For instance, the Christmas tree has roots in old Germanic beliefs; unrelated to Christianity of course. It’s something to do with the worship of Apollo.

Santa’s slay is connected up with Woden/Odin and the giving of gifts is certainly not Christian.

Mistletoe is another, probably druidic, old tradition and the eating of a large meal was an ancient tradition (appropriated by Christian invaders)which is connected with beseeching the sun to return (you can well imagine the relevance of the replacement ‘the Son’ here!)

All in all, the general spirituality of Christmas is deeply rooted in all kinds of histories and so shouldn’t be shunned by anti-Christian people who think it uniquely Christian.

For those who say it isn’t Jesus’ birthday anyway, we all know this, even if it was recorded correctly as Dec 25th, we are now using the Julian calendar and three months was perportedly removed when Pope Julian changed the calander to the current one as it was out of sync with the weather.
And, It may not be the actual birthday of Christ, but, it is “a day put aside” for the celebration of his birth and existence, like man has done to create so many holidays since, eg. Independence Day, Australia Day, The Queen’s Birthday, or whatever day your country celebrates something with a holiday, it has been set aside as special. So this is why Christmas is on the 25th December, and also because, as Jen said, the Pope of the day gave the pagans the day to celebrate to bring them into the church. Interesting how Popes change so much, another eg., Friday 13th is only unlucky if you are a Knight of the Templar, look that one up, another Papal edict. Too much controversy, respect others rights to believe in that which they wish, and world peace would be good.
I myself am often heard to say “I may be an agnostic but I haven’t made up my mind yet” Everyone have a safe and happy Festive Season. Janet B

Gilligan, The Christ’s name was Jesus, not Christ.

James Meyer, there is no point knowing a word and it’s meaning without knowing the etymology of the word as it is brought from another language the original meaning is important to the word, we may not speak Greek, but if something is taken from a Greek word, we have to respect the Greek meaning of the adaption of the word into the Enlish language. Almost all words in the Enlish language have been taken from another language. Remember, the history of the English is it seems the coming together of many different nations as each one tried to conquer England, thus, the introduction of many words into a language which was formed long ago, do we no today use adages in our speach, yes, which is how most of the words of the English language were formed. Etymology is a very important thing, and very foremost in the forming of the English language and that which we understand each word to mean.

Heavens I wish I could spell!

Namvet – Well said, hear hear!

To confused, lol, isn’t nog an old measure of alcohol. LOL

Pontius Pilate was the X-terminator.

Confused, I found it : – “nog, the British slang for strong ale” and eggnog was originally from Britain and of an egg base drink with ale in it. So there ya go mate.

And,—- I would just like to thank God, Jesus and Microsoft, Steve Jobs, etc etc for the internet as without it, we would still be very limited to how much of all this knowlege is out there and now readily available at one’s fingertips.

Oh, and Merry Christmas – X Mas

But, I usually say, Have a Happy and Safe Holiday Season.

It’s downright comical to see the ludicrous arguments about the suppposed birthday of an imaginary friend.

Christ is a myth, just like the roughly two dozen other virgin born, savior gods before him. Brush up on history folks.

Superstitious leaders of society 1600 years ago supplanted the Pagan Winter Solstice celebrations, in title only, to reflect their latest religious fad – christinsanity. The only thing “christian” about it is the mass for christ which is all the word means in the first place. It is only in the last 100 years that christinsane folks have really started the big push to claim the holiday as their own.

The Winter Solstice – as well as the Summer Solstice and the Vernal and Autumnal Equinoxes – are natural events that have been celebrated for at least 10,000 years as they were extremely important events in the lives of people who lived in such a close relationship to the planet and the seasons.

We should be celebrating the things that bring us to together as people who are a part of this planet. The natural events of the Earth’s seasons have always been at the heart of these celebrations and should be the focus once again.

thanks for providing such information,very glad to know all these things,please continue the process of teaching

Well c’mon, lets have some more comments, it’s only a day old then.

Thank you for explaining Xmas. It is one of those things I knew but had forgotten. Xmas, might be put to use by those arguing to keep Christ in Christmas –write it with a Greek X.

Hi all,

I live in England and went to a Church of England primary school. I remember being told xmas (x-mas, as I was shown) was a marketing term used for non Christian reasons as it was insulting to the Christian faith for Christmas to be used for non Christian purposes.

Its good to know that it potentially does have a Christian back ground to it.

I am not a Christian or of any religion and am not well educated in the other religions or the significance of the dates used. However as a non religious person I just find it so wonderful that people of all creeds seem to come together for the ‘season of good will’.

Merry Christmas to the Christians. Seasons greetings to those who are not. And have a great day who ever you are.

Not sure if this has been mentioned in any of the other comments, but rather than just being a replacement for the word ‘Christ’ could the use of the letter ‘X’ not be euphemistical? There are dozens of examples of times when we use other words to avoid having to say ‘God’ and other words that are believed to be sacred and I think this is likely one of them.

The Straight Dope had a very good article about this, too:

Dear Straight Dope:

Every December one hears of the need to “put ‘Christ’ back in Christmas”, but never a word about “putting ‘X’ back in Xmas.” So just how did the term “Xmas” come to be used in place of “Christmas”?
— D. Galvin, Phoenix, AZ

Well, that letter may look like an “X” and walk like an “X” and quack like an “X,” but it isn’t an “X.” That’s the Greek letter “chi” which is pronounced about like “ch” was in Old English … which is to say, about how it’s pronounced in German today, or in a few imported words, like “Christ” or “Christmas,” for example.

“X” (as in chi) was used as an abbreviation for Christ from early times, perhaps initially as a camouflage for the religion. It was the first letter of the word Christos (meaning “the anointed one,” e.g., the Messiah) and fortuitously was cross-shaped, so there seemed to be some symbolism or double meaning. It’s been used as a scholarly and not-so-scholarly abbreviation since.

— Mac

Interesting article, and comments, to say the least. We should look at the X as it is used in todays society…it means just what it looks like, an X is a has been, Examples X-con, an X-officianodo, X- seems to denote someone or something that once was.. It really has no place in the word Christmas…but as someone stated it shouldne matter to those who are firm in their believe of Christianity, no one should be able to sway Christians by placeing an X in place of Christ. Even though the above explanation makes sense, it doesnt take away from the fact that in today society,there are those including our president who believe using the word Christ or his teachings, or the bible quotes, as being offensive..thats why folks are offended. This country was founded on the Faith in God, and now for the politically correct…we are pushing God out of the picture…there you have the word Xmas…a way to take Christ out of our modern day lives..all we can hope for is those of us who believe, to just keep the faith and let the non believers have their Xmas… Merry Christmas everyone..and a better new year..

If a person is to claim to be Christian, then he would definitely be a student of the Bible. He would also want to have a relationship with his Creator. If he cared one bit about his relationship with his Creator, he would learn about him and his standards and how he wants to be worshipped, he would not establish his own way of belief. The Bible is God’s word and by studying it we uncover much truth that for many years may have been hidden from us because of Satan’s influence on the world. If you believe the Bible is the Word of God, then you must accept the existence of Satan, Jesus did. We know that Jesus was not born on Dec. 25th. The Bible clearly states that the shepherds were out in their fields with their flocks. It is unlikely they would be out there in the rainy and cold months of Dec./Jan. Jesus himself was baptized when he was about 30 years old. He began his ministry after his baptism and that ministry lasted 3 1/2 years until his death in the spring. So if Jesus died in the spring and you count back 33 1/2 years you will see that he was born in the early fall. The Bible at John 4:23,24 states that God is looking for worshippers who will worship in in spirit and truth. If Jesus was not born on Dec. 25th, then that is an untruth. None of the early Christians ever celebrated his birth, yet the only command given in the scriptures was that his death was to be commemorated and that was something the early Christians did each year. Also, in the Law, the first and foremost commandment that God gave was that you would have no other Gods before my face. God was a God expecting exclusive devotion. If the celebrations around Christmas are related to the worship of false Gods, then we are truly offending God by participating in them. It is like spiritual adultery. This is why it is so important for people to know this information, because our lives depend on getting to know God and his Son and his purpose for us. Jesus himself said to “flee from idolatry” and the two greatest commandments of all were to “love God with your whole heart, mind and strength, and to love your neighbor as yourself. If you love God you won’t hurt him, if you love your neighbor you will give to them all year if in need, and more importantly you will be obedient to God, and you will strive to do his will. Loving your neighbor means sharing life giving knowledge with them. This is all that some here wanted to do. We do not want to instill hate, but we want to educate. Interestingly also, when the astrologers were looking for Jesus to give him gifts, they found him in a house and he was a young child, he was not a small infant. King Herod was alerted to his existence when the “star” led the astrologers first to him, then to the child. The astrologers had to be told to leave and go home a different direction so as not to inform Herod of the child’s location, and Joseph was also told to move to Egypt. If as a Christian we trust that the Bible is God’s word we will believe it when it says that Herod went to Bethlehem and destroyed all the little boys under the age of 2. How sad that was. Under Satan’s influence many have been blinded, yet knowledge of God’s word is eye-opening and Satan does not like it when we have our eyes opened, he would love to keep as many as he can from learning these truths. What will we do? Next time someone comes to your door, let them help you to understand God’s word, it will be eye-opening. Much peace to you all.

Deb Burton says “Ever heard of the lady that complained about Christians ‘taking over’ Easter and Christmas!”. Well she was right. The holiday at this time of year was a respectable pagan celibration of the winter solstice long before the Christian faith got hold of it.

BTW, I’m an atheist but I do respect other’s beliefs, including all religions. I usually abrieviate Christmas to Xmas, not through disrespect but through simple laziness. I’ve always taken X to be a legitimate abrieviation of Christ (or cross).

Also, the inverted cross was once a symbol of St. Peter. “In Roman Catholicism the Petrine Cross is not seen as Satanic in any way. However, an inverted crucifix (a Latin cross with an artistic depiction of the crucified body of Christ upon it) is seen as immensely disrespectful, and could be used to represent Satanic forces.” ~ Wikipedia, ‘Cross of St. Peter.’ True, Wikipedia is not the most reliable source, but it is accessible and I’ve seen this in many other places as well. The reasoning behind it is that St. Peter requested to be crucified head-downwards. It wasn’t used as anything anti-Christian until much more recently.

@Tombo & @MtW I agree with both of you….I’m confused and would like some help on this, where in the Bible does it say that Jesus was born on Dec.25? I don’t believe in Christmas But I am a Christian. People say “well your only 17 you don’t know nothing” but you see that’s what makes me upset, see I choose what religion I wanted to be my mom is a Baptist and I’m Apostolic, and many people come to me and ask me how come I don’t believe in Christmas and I’m a Christian? Well being a Christian doesn’t just mean you have to believe in Christmas (and you really don’t) but its about serving God and doing his will so that one day we will meet him and the pearly gates of Heaven shall open and we walk down the streets of gold…….Now i read my Bible and I still have yet to see it maybe I’ve over looked it or maybe not…but if I did may someone help me with this because I’m not quite getting this!!!

>**BUTTER**<

Ben, Sky, Jesus Christ may not have been born on December 25, but we choose to celebrate Him then and particularly thank Him for sending His son down to earth to die for your sins. Giving gifts is a reminder of the three wise men who visited Baby Jesus and gave him gifts.
“And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for him in the inn.” -Luke 2:7.
“And the angel said to them, ‘Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of a great joy that will be for all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.’ And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, ‘Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”-Luke 2:10-14.

I NEVER EVEN KNEW THAT!!! HOW AMAZING!!! i STILL PREFER “CHRISTMAS” THOUGH!! NO OFFENCE, EVERYONE!!!

THAT IS VERY COOL! I NEVER KNEW THAT! COOL, BUTTER! I’M A CHRISTAIN TOO! IT’S NICE KNOWING SOMEBODY WITH THE SAME RELIGION, ISN’T IT? THAT IS VERY COOL!

Thanks, Scott.

Excuse me, nero?

Actually, HAE, SEAMUSMAC is correct. Read the Bible description of Jesus’ birth. Doesn’t say when he was born. But there are clues to dismiss that he was born in December, for example Luke 2:8. It says that there were ’shepherds living out of doors and keeping watches in the night over their flocks’. In December in that region, they have really cold winters, coupled by snow. It wouldn’t make sense that shepherds were living outside, then, would it? Google “Was Jesus born December 25″ and you’ll find that Christmas is actually a pagan holiday, meant to attract the pagan’s into becoming Christians.

[...] THIS IS ‘CHRISTMAS’” where X marks the spot — of the difference between mythology and historical fact. — And [...]

weel x mas my favrate holiday! ☻

Butter your right no one, including Christians, should claim that Jesus was born on Dec. 25th because the Bible itself tells us that December 25th is an unlikely date for His birth.

Incredible food for thought in these comments, but disturbing the number of non-Christian ones. Agreed that Dec. 25 might as well be a secular governmental and bank holiday. Whether Jesus (Yehshua) really did come, did propetiate for our sins, did defeat death, raise the dead to life, open the blinded eye, did all these other things too numerous to mention, that is the real point to be made. Did he? He did say he would be standing at the door, knocking. Go open it and see. He’s standing there now, waiting. He’s faithful to show himself to seekers.

i would like to be brief to idk how dare you to to talk something that you have no idea of what you are talking about do you think that every bory has borne with silk sheets and silver spoon and plate read educate your self and then you will learn that there are places in the world were mothers do not have not even milk in there bodies to feed a child and chris came to this world poor and not reach even do he was the king of heaven and earth.thank you.

despite the christian influence contained in “xmas,” i think most christians will still want to keep the “christ” in “christmas.” cool article though on the etymology of the shortened version of “christmas.”

The holiday you celebrate as Christmas was instituted to replace a Roman festival, Saturnalia, to honor the God Saturn. It has no direct historical relevance to Jesus Christ or even to Christianity. Why do we give gifts at Christmas? Because the Romans gave gifts. Why do we hang wreaths, drink, and be merry? Same deal. Good will toward all? That was the theme of Saturnalia. The real irony within this spattering of religious comments is that these Christians think they know *everything* about Christmas, now that we’ve been shown the meaning of ‘X’. Clearly, you have so, so much more to discover. If you don’t believe me, Google “the origin of Christmas,” and read ANY of the results.

just so its known most of all the “holidays” are based on religion …
if you were trying to paganize “christmas” santa means saint which to my knowledge is found only in christianity, and all the previous celebrations on the date of 25th December were to a deity,more religion…and all people believe in something thats human nature i have yet to meet someone that was an unbeliever…even atheist BELIEVE not to believe(ironic in my opinion) and Jesus did live…not every thing recorded has been unearthed…hence archeologist…and not every religion has all the facts right alot of stories were orally passed before the enlighted decided to write it down…and the whole X thing is simply a mix up when trying to translate one langugae in to another…like i doubt his name was even Jesus snice he was a jew and thus his name would be armenian the language of land then he was not
“ay-rab” (@Camillus O’Byrne) snice his parents took him to the temple for dedcation…a jewish place for jewish traditions….its all every simple pagans converted to christianity so alot of paganism is embedded in to their traditions….GET IT?!!!

Jen, and others, including Butter, no, the Bible never says precisely when Jesus was born. Spring seems most likely, if the shepherds (of Luke) were out watching their flocks for the lambs being born. Why then December 25? For one, it removed Christmas from colliding with Easter. It was also an interpretation from John’s statement “he must increase, and I must decrease”, symbolically interpreted to correspond with the length of the day. (No modern scholar would get away with this, but such playing around with the meaning was common in those days.) But it’s remembering and celebrating the idea of God-with-us, God taking on human form, that’s more important than the actual details. How old was Jesus? Luke says he was “about 30″–but John has some indications he was in his late 40s. As for the Xmas and such–it never bothered me either way, since I’ve seen enough Xp symbols (Chi-rho) to understand the origin.

@louis paiz i meant no harm and i do know what im talking about ive read more then just the BIBLE…and i know much about being poor…im actually under the poverty line….but it just seems logical that if he was going to be gifted with frankincense and myrrh etc…then he would have more then a swaddling cloth in the frigid winter….i mean wouldnt his parents lend him their own wraps or something..him being a newborn and all…but if he were born in a milder season the swaddling cloth would do…i was actually helping your “cause”….use logic more often then just what ppl preach at you and your faith might be stronger….but again thats just my opinion….

Some comments here add a lot of thoughtful ideas to this discussion. Others are so set in their own ways and/or bent on attacking or ridiculing those with different ideas.

Christmas is many things for many people. It wouldn’t be what it is today if not for the secular customs which are blended in with the religious. Historically it once was a solemn mass of quiet reflection and worship. It was later a time for wild merry-making and excess. Then it settled into something in between. Though individuals may shift it more to either side, to each their own. Yes, it has grown more and more commercialized over the years, but why should that stop anyone from celebrating it in their own way, just my opinion.

I think it’s silly and paranoid to jump into a panic or offense whenever a symbol stands in for name, or to try to guess what people’s thoughts are. I believe for the most part, those who are adverse to Christmas or Christianity just simply won’t bother with it all, not just substitute an X in the word. There probably are far fewer people “cutting out” Christ by using “Xmas” than those that simply prefer a short-hand way to write it on all those boxes of decorations, for example. I’ve personally only see it in print – I’ve never heard anyone (that I remember) wishing me a “Merry X-mas” verbally.

Also I agree with the idea that Christians should celebrate the Jewish holidays as well, it’s an interesting concept. I know about how Christianity evolved and how the early followers wanted to set themselves apart from Judaism, but it seems like a nice idea to return to the holidays that Jesus and his apostles themselves observed.

Peace & Merry Christmas/Merry Xmas to whomever wishes it.

“Tell ya what” wrote “Robert, there is mention of Jesus in mathue, luke and jhon. look in Revolations. He is there. Jesus is not a fictious characher! LOOK IT UP.”

First, learn to spell. There are six pretty serious clangers just in the clip I copied here!

Second, OF COURSE there’s mention of Jesus in the New Testament — it was written by those who were members of his cult! But did you know that there were far more Jewish and early Christian scriptures that were previously considered canonical than ended up in the Bible we have today? For example, one Pope in the 12th century burned 24 cartloads of sacred Jewish and Christian scriptures because they didn’t agree with what he wanted Catholics to believe at that time. How do you know that he didn’t burn the most important parts? Maybe Jesus explicitly said that women should be equals or that women should be priests too, that we should accept gay people, or who knows what? We’ll never know what was left out, but Christians today still think they have the complete picture.

Third, all of the mentions of Jesus in the NT were written after Jesus’ supposed lifetime, by people who never met him. How accurate would you think a history of say, Julius Caesar would be if it was written by people who never met him and long after his death? At least we have contemporary accounts, sculptures, etc., of Caesar. NONE of Jesus.

Fourth, why don’t YOU “look it up” in say Homer’s “Iliad” and “Odyssey”, which claims that Zeus, Apollo and the other Greek Gods are real. Hesiod, Heroditus and other ancient Greeks wrote of their Gods as if they actually existed too. What does THAT prove? -that Zeus is real? Of course not. This is called “circular reasoning”, saying that the proof for something’s existence is in a book that claims it. By that “logic”, all of the Hindu Gods must be real too, since they were written about thousands of years ago in the Mahabharata and Ramayana. Do YOU believe that? Is Ganesh real? If not, why not?

ILoveJesus wrote “Robert, I feel very sorry for you. Look around, do you think anything else besides the Holy One, God, could do all this?”

(Laughs and shakes head) “Could do all this” what? Create viruses, pathogenic bacteria, mosquitos, sharks, stars that go supernova and fry all of the planets around them? Because you can’t just give your god credit for the good stuff; if your god created this universe, he also has to take credit for the bad. You can’t have it both ways.

Second, EVERY religion believes that THEIR god or gods created the world or the universe. And EVERY ONE of them had exactly the same “proof” as your religion does: which is to say “none”. There is ZERO more evidence for the Elohim creating the universe than there is for say, Zeus or Marduk.

And I’m sure that in India today, millions of people think “Look around, do you think anything else besides Brahma could do all this?” Just as 4,000 years ago, the ancient Egyptians would’ve thought “Look around, do you think anything else besides Atum could do all this?” Or the way that those in Central Africa would’ve said “Look around, do you think anything else besides Mbomba could do all this?” It proves NOTHING but people’s willingness to believe fairy tales.

“Evolution makes no sense. These fools believe that a cell, which is a living being in itself, simply crawled out of a mud hole, turned into a frog, which turned into a gorilla, which finally became a man. Nonsense. And the ‘Big Bang’? There is no proof of that, scientists are just trying to cover up the truth. They say that when there is an archelogical dig, there is a fossil on one level of the earth, and then another a few more feet down. If you actually researched, you would find out that this is a lie. As the scientists go down, there is nothing, and suddenly there are thousands of fossils all in one place, which is proof that the Flood actually existed.”

This notion is always worth a good, long laugh. First, because you clearly don’t understand the premise of evolution if you believe that scientists think that any creature decided to turn into something else. You’re utterly ignorant of the process. Second, because we have very good evidence of the “big bang” because astronomers can actually see galaxies accelerating away from a central area. And third, because it’s simply idiotic to accuse “science” of being some vast conspiracy to “cover up the truth”. Why should they?! What’s in it for them? And if you’re going to throw out geology, archaeology and astronomy — all of which support evolution as real — you’re also going to have to throw out physics, medicine, and the science that produces computers, jets, etc., since they ALL rely upon the very same principles of the scientific method. You can’t have it both ways. Either ALL science is part of this supposed global conspiracy, or none of it is. If that’s the case, you should burn your computer, refuse all medical treatment and go back to living in a cave, since you don’t want to be corrupted by those evil scientists and their satanic plot!

“Also, what do the letters B.C and A.D stand for? Before Christ, and Anno Domini (in the year of our Lord.) Isn’t that proof enough?”

Oh, man — If I didn’t know better, I’d think that you were a comic! “AD” and “BC” were terms that were come up with in the 6th century by…CHRISTIANS. Who did you THINK made them up? Hindus?! That’s no more “proof” of anything than saying that the days of our week (Sun-day, Moon-day, Tiw’s-day — after Tiw, the Pagan god of war, Woden’s-day — named after the Norse god Woden, Thor’s-day, Freya’s-day, and Saturn’s-day) prove THOSE gods’ existence. Or, for that matter, that the names of our months (named after the god Janus, the Roman Pagan festival of Februa, the god Mars, the goddess Maia, the goddess Juno, the deified Julius Caesar, and the deified Caesar Augustus) prove the existence of THOSE gods.

You’re clearly out of your depth here. Give up while you’re behind.

Feliz Navidad Y Prospero Ano!! Wow can’t we all get along and get Ready to Open up gifts and bring in the New Year!!

Good Grief a little bit of solid info gets turned into a peeing contest. Will some of you just lighten up? Hiding behind your computer and playing “composition cop” or “let’s take something out of context cops and make it into something it isn’t (cops)…good grief lighten up (ok I’m sorry…I just quoted Charlie Brown and I’m sure one of the know it all’s on here have called their attorney to sue me. Sorry Charlie (oh wait there’s a tuna company that…oh nevermind… Anyway to you negative posters…what you post says more about you than it does anyone else (as opposed to what’s in your heart but you can’t get around what’s in black and white). This was an interesting article. The whole “American Idol”/ “Dancing with tjhe Stars”/ Reality show mentality has crept into real life. Everyone thinks it’s ok to tell everyone else off and take each other’s inventory especially online so again, what you post says more about you than it does anyone else. Lighten up…Christmas or not..Thanks for sharing “author”! PS. I’m gonna continue to post “Christmas” even if whatever site allows a set number of characters or no matter how pressed for time I am…

I’ve frankly never understood why X-mas was an issue, and I come from a Catholic family. Although I’m not a practicing Catholic anymore the hype and controversy that always surrounds the “X” this time of year is in the scheme of things so completely laughable, and this article’s information gives us reason to keep on laughing at those who make a fuss. Because let’s face it, there are those who make a fuss on BOTH sides of the court. Non-Christians who have a particular disdain for Christianity may use the “X” when they write X-mas to demote its value, and so what? Is such a trivial statement, a word, A WORD! going to aide in the defacing of their lord and savior in the grand scheme? Come on… or rather, X-MON! I don’t get how certain Christian’s in present day can say, “well there has been a culture shift and words mean different things”… so that means deny the “X” its own history? That is signing yourself up for ignorance. And what is the Bible all about anyways, true Christianity…. it constantly is reminding you NOT TO FORGET, to never forget the true meaning of things…. Hello?

“Me” wrote “Reply to Robert: Rubbish? Really? Check out respected historian (who also lived in the first century) Tacitus; Tacitus wrote: ‘Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called Christians by the populace. Christus [Christ], from whom the name had its origin, suffered the extreme penalty during the reign of Tiberius at the hands of one of our procurators, Pontius Pilatus’.”

And WHEN did Tacitus write his “Annals”? Between 107 and 117 CE: 77-87 years AFTER Jesus supposedly died. So what’s your point? This does nothing to contradict my assertion that we have no contemporaneous account of Jesus. ALL that this suggests is that by 107 CE, the cult of Jesus was becoming known enough to merit a paragraph in a history book.

Also, scholars are increasingly dubious about the earliest surviving copies we have of the Annals being accurate to Tacitus’ hand. This is complicated by the fact that the oldest surviving copies are Latin copies made by Christian scribes. For example, in the passage you cite, the texts call them “Chrestians” (NOT “Christians”) which is Greek for “those who are good or useful”. They mistake Pilate’s rank, calling him a Procurator (he was a Prefect); a mistake Tacitus was unlikely to have made. Also, the copies refer to Jesus as “Christ” (a title meaning “the anointed one”), something that an Imperial writer would never have done (it would be like an official historian of the US calling David Koresh “the messiah”). It’s very likely that the mentions of Jesus in Tacitus’ “Annals” are later interpolations made by Christian scribes. This was EXTREMELY common with Roman texts that were copied again and again over the centuries.

Finally, the passage in later copies of the Annals is almost word-for-word the same as was written in the 4th century “Chronicles” of Sulpicius Severus, a Christian writer (and fabulist). THAT is the likely source for it appearing in those later copies of Tacitus’ Annals.

Tom wrote “Whether Jesus (Yehshua) really did come, did propetiate for our sins, did defeat death, raise the dead to life, open the blinded eye, did all these other things too numerous to mention, that is the real point to be made. Did he? He did say he would be standing at the door, knocking. Go open it and see. He’s standing there now, waiting. He’s faithful to show himself to seekers.”

Krishna really was born in 3228 BCE, he grew up with cow herders, when he was old enough, he returned to Mathura and killed his evil uncle Kansa, he married 16,108 wives and 16,100 more maidens, brought peace to warring factions, and created yoga. Krishna lives today and is inviting us to be truthful and compassionate. Surely you believe all this, since it says so in the Mahabharata; it must be true!

Now, how compelling do you find THOSE claims?

I think a lot of people have good points; personally, I don’t think that it is a problem to write “xmas” instead of “christmas”. Many people have pointed out that christmas did not start out as a christian holiday. They’re right. It began as a pagan holiday (winter solstice, in some places; the birth of the sun in others) and it was from the latter that the catholics got the idea for christmas, the birth of the son. My family celebrates christmas, but as a pagan holiday, not His birthday. Shouldn’t we celebrate His birth (and death) every Sunday, the day He set aside for us to worship Him?

If we didn’t have X’mas, we wouldn’t have X-files… would we?

(Or should that be spelled, X-philes…. Heh.)

You know…the bible has been re-written, books left out, edited, and re-edited thousands of times and simply put it’s an unreliable source of solid proof of anything. Furthermore NONE of us were alive when Jesus was born so while all the speculations and versions of history found in various sources are conceivable, none of us actually know the answer.

By the way, Jesus is just a Prophet, like the 11 others, so be careful not to WORSHIP him (as Christianity improperly trains you to do) as this is blasphemy against God.

Happy Holidays!?!!???

@Rick-
Be careful, I understand that you are devoted to your faith, but the broad sweeping generalizations you make are far too extreme and your facts are blatantly incorrect. You say “there are those including our president who believe using the word Christ or his teachings, or the bible quotes, as being offensive.” The notion that Obama is anti-Christianity is (I’m sorry) borne of pure ignorance. Obama is a practicing, church-going Christian and he has never had any qualms about admitting it publicly. As for your accusation that he believes quoting the bible to be offensive, you’re wrong again- look up the speech he made at the Pentagon Memorial on 9/11 of this year: “For Scripture teaches us to ‘get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.’” That would be Obama publicly quoting Ephasians 4:31. If you do some research, you will find a number of instances in which he discusses his faith in his speeches.
I believe the passion many people have about their faith can be a glorious thing, but too often that passion clouds reason, causing people to make judgements before first knowing all the facts, and subsequently lash out at others due to misunderstanding. Religious devotion should lead people to view the world with wisdom, perspective, and humility; it should never inspire ignorance or blind hatred.

December 25th was chosen as a Christian holiday because the people were still celebrating the winter Solstice and essentially Saturnalia. Christians co-opted and essentially killed those pagan holidays. War on Christmas, right.

To those who are offended at those of us who are not devout ‘Christians’:
Please look at why we are not. If the ‘Christians’ lived more like Christ, (and I thought I read somewhere in the Bible they are supposed to) then the rest of us would want to. Just a thought from a non-religious person.

MtW- by saying Xmas you ARE taking Christ out of it x-( . shame on you x-(

Jesus was never a “creation.” He humbled himself and died to save us simple humans from sin. It was not the nails that held him there, but His love for me.

And although Jesus’ death was vital to our being saved, and His rising again conquered death, without His birth, He never could have lived as a human among us.

And it’s a good thing if you can’t understand it. God doesn’t belong in a box of our measly comprehension.

@benji
There is no need to capitalise the ‘M’ in merry Christmas. Jesus!

A merry Xbox and a happy two beers to everyone!

Interesting article, however, I don’t believe that celebrating the birth of Jesus on December 25 is appropriate. Annō Dominī means “In the year of the Lord” and BC means “Before Christ”, the ending of one era and beginning of another era with the birth of Christ being the dividing point. Therefore, Christ’s birth was the 1st day of the 1st month of the 1st year of the new era. Happy New Era, Happy New Year!!!

I would like to add a short comment: I am not Christian so I have always assumed the X in Xmas was a clever way of incorporating the sign of the Cross.

Haha i think that the real reason people say xmas is when your texting or emailing or something like that, it’s alot shorter!

Everybody in this entire blog is missing the point (except for lara54)

-if you are going to be Christian, you better know why. Christ set up ONE way of worship and any deviation of that is a slap in his face.

-so, what Christmas or Xmas is now (warm and fuzzy, or religious) doesn’t matter, if it is tainted by outside influences, it is not acceptable.

you all don’t really care, which is the downfall of humanity…arrogance, stubbornness and the propagation of misinformation.

One think I really find irritating about blogs is that someone can blabber complete falsehoods as fact and people believe it. I guess if you don’t want to do your own research, then blogs are the place to be.

I would like to know about the holiday of Ramandan,if possible please

As a Muslim, I read the article in good will, as I find it interesting to understand about other religion and culture. It never occur to me that some people would be offended with the word Xmas, so now I would ensure that I use the full spelling in greetings I send to my friends celebrating the occasion.

But what I did not expect was the heated debates (and some name-calling too) following the article. I acknowledge that everyone has own opinion and we should just agree to disagree.

As for whether Jesus really existed or not, well, I do believe he did, according to my religion. But again, I respect the belief that he didn’t too.

I never really understood why people abbreviated it that way (I was mutual about it), and I used it if I didn’t have room. When Christians, Catholics, whatever religions that believe in Christ argued with me that “Xmas is wrong! It’s sinful!” and so on, I didn’t have a good argument.

I now do. Thank you, Dictionary.com. You have saved me…again.

wow… This is Really awesome… That someone knows this History of XMAS..
hahahaa… I really Like this site…
Two Thumbs up for this site and for the creator of this…
May this site be Prolonged and stay for many thousands of centuries…

i though that the x would represent the mystry factor of christmas in terms of presents making un-religous christmas very matiralistic

“X” means the “unknown” in mathematics.
When you replace the word christ by X that means the unknown God.
Please always write the whole world Christmas.
Merry Christmas to you all.

I still don’t buy it. This in todays society is another way to remove Christ from our vocabulary. I don’t care what they did in the beginning it is what they are doing today that matters.

MANY HAVE BEEN SAID, FACTUAL EVIDENCES, SCRIPTURALLY, HISTORICALLY, WITH DUE RESPECT TO ALL WHO CONVEY THEIR MESSAGES, ALL OF US WERE VICTIMS OF A HOAX, THE ISSUE IS CLEAR IT IS NOT THE X LETTER, BUT THE TRUE NAME OF THE MESSIAH THAT ONCE WALK THE EARTH, “YAHUSHUA” MEANING YAH IS SALVATION, SHUA=SALVATION, WE ARE PRESENTING THE TRUTH AND HOLD NO GRUDGES TO ANY BELIEFS, I AM NOT A JEW, ONCE A CHRISTIAN A LAYMAN A CATHECIST, BUT READ THE SCRIPTURES THAT SAID “SEEK THE TRUTH AND YOU SHALL FIND IT” PLS. DO NOT STOP ON THE THINGS THAT WE ONLY LIKE TO HEAR BUT ALSO FOR THOSE THINGS WE DO NOT WANT TO HEAR BECAUSE WE THINK OF IT AS FOOLISHNESS, IT IS NOT ABOUT CONVINCING, IT IS ABOUT HOW YOU FACE THE ‘TRUTH’ , AND A CHOICE TO MAKE IF WE WILL LIVE IN A BITTER TRUTH OR SWEET LIE…PLAYING SAFE AND BEING IN THE MIDDLE NOT COLD NOR HOT IS IN ITS EVIL WAYS, ACCORDING TO THE HOLY SCRIPTURES, MERELY A SCAPEGOAT OF COWARDLY UNCERTAIN BEING; TRUTH CAN BE RESPECTFULLY SERVED EVEN THOUGH IT IS UNPLEASANT TO OTHERS, THAN COMOUPLAGING AS UNBIAS AND RESPECTFUL AND BE THE HINDRANCE TO TRUTH !

Thanks dictionary.com, for clearing that out for a lot of people.

actually third eye, xmas was moved to the 25th to take the place of saturnalia which was a pagan holiday far before xmas.

jesus live with mary and joseph untill the age of therty years. if he begun his public life when he was therty and his public life was three then he was thertythree years old when he died . he was thertythree years old. thank you very much

so xmas is acceptable!!! but i think and some think that the letter x is the meaning or should i say symbolizes UNKNOWN… and i am trying to believe that is acceptable…

I have no problem taking Christ out of Christmas since I don’t believe any of those superstitions. I think a better way to represent the day is to call the it Giftmas. It is truer to the moment and has a similar ring to it. And, since the day isn’t any more or less holy than any other, we should call the entire season Hollydays for the decorations.

I always thought the “X” stood for “extreme”, as in, we’re having an “extreme” Christmas sale

very intresting n thoughtful…

I know that the words to “What Child is This?” were put to the tune called “Greensleeves,” but why was it called “Greensleeves?”

ok, this is my problem with this. I don’t get why people are trying to make a huge deal about this. All of the people here at duke think that the x doesn’t matter, so i don’t think we need to disclose the meaning of christmas, thats my two cents.

Benji:

Well said and explained. Keeping Christ in Christmas is indeed a blessing in itself. God Bless you and have a very Merry Christmas.

Ole Ed

Simple, the X is the sign for cross. Cross is Christ. We will not be offended.

I really believe that many are reading too deep into this. Life is too short and there are other things in the world more salient. Please relax and just enjoy the explanation. I too am a Christian and often use “xmas” when texting because I am only allowed a certain number of characters…not because I am too lazy; however, that does not change my belief, religion, love for Christ, etc. OMGoodness…PLEASE RELAX. Yes, everyone has a right to their opinion, but, let’s just love on each other and enjoy life. No wonder we have so many issues in the world. Live, love, laugh, and be happy.

@Pedro…happy birthday

God bless you and merry Christmas and happy new year.

GOOD VERY INTERESTING AND INFORMATIVE .
THANKS

1st thing 1st- is the 25th of dec the Loads birthday?
where in any version of any Bible dose it say this?
Christmas is NOT Jesus’s Burthday we do not know when
it is,
sould’nt we celabrate our Lord everyday and give our selves to him as a gift as he give to us, the 25th of Dec big deal I dont celabrate it as the Lords Brithday to us its santa and ho ho ho. We thats my wife and I praise the Lord everyday all day for everything, I m not a bible thumper by any means,I m a sinner like all the rest and then some,

I have never been offened by the term Xmas but I did know the origin of the “x” as I learned it in Catholic School. I really don’t think that people are intentionally leaving out the “Christ”. If they want to do that, they revert to “Happy Holidays” and make it all inclusive and less religious, certainly. Even though I celebrate Christmas, I have many friends that are Jewish, Muslim or non-religious altogether and I am reluctant to say Merry Christmas to someone who’s religious leaning I don’t know. I do this out of respect for other faiths. Chritians are not the only ones that celebrate this time of year. We don’t “own” December. Let’s all have a little more tolerance and good will to all, afterall, isn’t that a Christian premise. Do you think Christ would have been offended or would he say this is a good time of year to be better people and help those in need and be more friendly and loving with one another. Is that so bad?

Your explanation of the term XMAS is interesting historically and lexicologically.
What interested me even more was the reaction of the many Christians who responded so defensively. 
As usual, the cry was that everyone who isn’t a Christian must be trying to destroy their religion instead of the fact that we just want to have a right to our own set of beliefs which are just as important to us as theirs is to them. I have, for many years, used the term Happy Holidays to let loved ones and other friends know I wish them to have a wonderful Happy New Year and Christmas, or Chanukkah or Kwanzaa or whatever their chosen celebration off the season is. (i.e. Holidays)
Regardless of your beliefs, listen to the meaning of the wish and accept the spirit of friendship and well meaning, regardless of the phrase (i.e. ignore the paranoia) and move on in you day with a new warmth in your heart.

If you find it offensive, you’re an oversensitive idiot.

Now go screw your bloody holiday and give me a break.

Up until a year ago, i found it very offensive.
Then I heard what the true meaning really was, HOWEVER most people use the x as an excuse to write it faster, plus I figure taking the extra second to writre out hios name is well worth it considering all that He has done for me.

The first two letters in the Greek spelling of Christos (pronounced KREES-TOSE) are chi and rho. There is another Christian symbol, or at least a Catholic one, called the Chi-Rho (as in KEE-ROW). It is a kind of stylized anagram with the two Greek letters combined and you can find it dotting the landscape of Catholic iconology: missals, bibles, hymnals, stained glass windows, and artwork in general.

In statistics, there is a Chi-Square distribution and a Chi-Square statistical test. For some reason, this chi is pronounced KYE, not KEE. Does anyone know how or why this got named the way it did? I’d like to know.

Unbelievable!

I was a christian and I don’t find the X in x-mas wrong or anything. Even when I was A CHRISTIAN it never really bothered me.

Christ was born around the 29th of September, and died around the 4th of April.

Most biblical scholars believe Christ was born in autumn, not December. The timing of the Christmas celebration was purposely selected by church leaders early on to coincide with the ancient (and pagan) mid-winter celebrations. The correct term for all late December celebrations is “Merry Solstice”. (BTW, I am a Christian.)

That’s very interesting but because most people don’t know this I prefer the term Christmas and Christian. Some know what the “X” stands for, but virtually EVERYONE knows what the “Christ” stands for. Thanks for the info.

i would like to know why do people hurt their children? I am a 17 year old girl and my father is a drunk and he has been beating me since I was 13 years old. He would never try to do anything sexual to me but he hurts me by calling me names like you’re worthless, you’re stupid,i wish your mom would of went through with killing you before you were born, no body wants you,and so on. I was once a christian but I am a non-believer now because if there iis a god where is he? Where was he when I was on the ground begging my dad to please stop hitin me or to stop slapin me? Where was he when my dad gave me a black eye, or when he busted myu lip? I rest my case. If there is a god then where was he when my dad was doing those things to me?HUH? Where is he? I’ll tell you he aint real!!!!!!!!!!!!! If god is real then why are people,women,men,children,girls, and boys being hurt? I have learned to accept who my father is and what he does to me and at 18 I will be gone to collage, but I will never, NEVER forgive that man for what he has put me through. I also know that has nothing to do with this blog but I just really wanted to say that.

i use Xmas, cuz i cant spell, and thats only cuz im dislexic, not cuz im stupid. i didnt no it would offend people to use it i just thought it was an abrvation. And Jesus was born April 6th if anyone wanted to know just read the book of mormon, it explains alot of stuff. Have a nice christmas/xmas

I can see a lot of Christians offended by the use of X… are they similarly offended by the fact that in the word “Christmas” the name of Christ is not pronounced as in Christ (for obvious reasons that have to do with the history of English). Seriously, you are being a little paranoid.

To Seamusmac: thanks for starting off the history lesson. To the “Christians” who are praying for those of us who aren’t: thanks but no thanks. You need to remember that you share the planet with a whole lot of other people who don’t share your beliefs, ‘K? Just walk the walk, it’s the best advertising you can do and speaking for myself I don’t see a whole lot of it. To everyone carrying on about celebrating Dec 25th one way or the other: a lot of what we take for granted as “the right way” to do this is less than 200 years old. When Queen Victoria married Prince Albert, he brought the custom of decorating evergreen trees with him from Germany. The orgy of present-giving isn’t very old either, and a Greek-American I knew explained that the legend of St. Nicholas traces back to an actual wealthy man who would visit the homes of poor unmarried women at night and toss a bag of coins through their windows, so that they’d have dowries and be able to get married. And yes, the early Church co-opted a pagan festival, which is no big surprise if you know anything about European history. An awful lot of pagan gods were “transformed” into saints. Excavations under “Xtian” (!) shrines often show that there was a pagan temple there first, and maybe something older under that. So can everyone relax and have some eggnog? And you “Xtians”, if your God is so narrow-minded that there’s only one way to get to him, he’s not any God I’d want to know. I mean, come on, you’re a really great person but you live on an island somewhere and the missionaries never get to you. You’re not “saved”? That’s messed up.

“They ain’t makin’ Jews like Jesus anymore”–Kinky Friedman

Happy Saturnalia, everyone!

They take the “Christ” out of Christmas, Santa is a anagram for satan…it’s no coincidence those damn illuminati’s are taking over.

Well…Jesus most likely was not born in the winter. Facts conclude that it was most likely Spring time. And that he was not an infant by the time the “Wise Men” arrived, but probably a toddler.

It is interseting that HAE uses the names of African Americn’s (“not Oprah-mas or Obama-mass”) as his bad examples. Let’s see if we can guess the missing letter in HAE’s screen name.

Greedy Stuffmas everyone!

What a bunch of bibble thumpers.

Oh, nonsense. Various texts place the rumored existence of Jesus of Nazareth from early December through April.

As christianity is wont to do, it appropriated an pre-existing holiday. This time of “Yule,” a pagan holiday based upon winter solstice. As primitive cultures do during the shortest, and coldest, days of the year, people spend time at home, visiting, sharing nourishment.

“Christmas,” “Xmas,” “Yule” and all the other solstice holidays celebrate family. Don’t get your god fantasies involved.

Really? Its got to take a special kind of person to take offense to X-mas. So X = christ, huh? Bleh. Don’t care. Sure I don’t like that “Christmas” is suppose to be a religious holiday but guess what? Sure isn’t very religious anymore.

Here’s a theory, make two different holidays for the same day.
Christmas(X-mas) for the bible thumpers
and
Winter-een-mas for the fun people

One last thing.
@HAE
To HAE,
Piss off you judgemental bigot, not everyone celebrates Xmas(Christmas)((Winter-een-mas)) due to christ, a lot of people likely don’t give half a crap about what the holiday is about. No one should be ashamed of how they celebrate anything and YOU shouldn’t be pushing your loud-mouth opinions into the ears of people. People like you bug the living HELL out of me and are likely the reason why people PUSH christ out of Xmas. I hope you’re happy and you freeze this HOLIDAY season.

The meaning of your communication is the response that you get. If you write X and the response is love, then that is what you communicated. If you write X and receive hate, same argument applies. Let us, as communicators, take responsibility for the states we arouse in others and, as receivers of information, for how we interpret others’ communication.

If someone says to me, “I hate you” and I interpret that as meaning, “I do not understand your positive intentions”, then no-one can ever communicate hate to me (at least in this way). Similarly, if I write Merry X mas and the response I get is one of indignation, then my response has to change to convey the message of love in a way that is congruent with the listener’s perceptions.

Yes, the onus is on me, whichever side of the conversation I am on, to do or interpret as necessary to a) get what I want and b) not allow others to push my buttons.

The longest night, the Winter Solstice, falls on the 21st of December. After that, the days get longer, metaphorically, that has been interpreted as the birth of light and a number of religions have used it to symbolize en-light-enment. The ‘pagan’ festivals/rituals often referred to include Mitraism and Zoroastrianism, both of which drew (and draw) heavily on astronomical (not necessarily astrological) events to demarcate special events within their calendars. In the first 20 years of Christianity, the solar calendar and the Christian calendar fell out of sync by four days because leap years were not accounted for by the Christians who were not as informed about astronomy as the ‘pagans’ (who, incidentally were (are) also monotheists) – hence December 21st. Julius and Augustus moved the months around, so that ‘Dec’ meaning ten, as in decimal, was the tenth month and is now the twelfth month, but here I am referring to the day being changed from the 21st to the 25th.

Since us humans cannot hibernate in winter (or at least we do not, although some people, such as shamans might be able to , it makes sense to me for celebrations to be organized to coincide with what might otherwise be depressing periods. And the further away from the equator one gets, the more conducive to mental health such practice becomes. It also makes sense for these celebrations to be in remembrance of something that is revered.*

Why is it that some people have no problems in accepting that people can celebrate their birthdays on the same day, but feel uncomfortable with the idea that different people can celebrate the birth of Christ and other symbols of enlightenment on the same day? The use of the word ‘other’ is not meant to imply that Christ is merely a symbol, however, I could not think of a way of improving on the phrase and so decided to include this disclaimer instead.

* Recently I was in the south of India, which incidentally, is close enough to the equator for there not to be much seasonal variation in temperature or daylight. There, I observed a festival celebrating their ancestors. I thought it was an admirable tradition that we would do well to mimic. Just a few minutes, or hours, to contemplate what our ancestors have done for us and how our actions might be thought of by our descendants. How about doing that on the Autumnal Equinox (there are already plenty of celebrations around the Spring Equinox) when, a) the length of day and night are equal and b) there is the greatest rate of change in day length and c) it is the turning point between the days getting longer and the days getting shorter and, d) it could symbolize the fact that the current generations are at the midpoint (by definition) between their forebears and descendents.

PS. Coming back to the article that inspired all these responses (for which I thank you all), I always thought of the X as a ‘cross’ which is both symbolic of Christ and also sounds similar.

does anyone else think its funny that a gross amount of people who have commented here cannot spell?…on a website that promotes it no less…

Thanks, Rather Not! I think you hit the nail on the head.

If X is the reason for the season. One would have to ask themselves why celebrate the XMAS in December asX (Christ) was not born in the month anyway… “I’ma just sayin”

Hundreds of years ago a LOT of things were twisted by the prevailing powers
Baptizing babies.(Those who died before baptism were shunted to Limbo and then Limbo was discontinued) Not baptizing but sprinkling. I think the X in Xmas is just laziness. Our language has always been subject to lazy tongues & minds. It’s a fluid thing. I still want to make the effort to spell it out & I think others ought to also.

Does it really matter by which name He is called or exactly when He was born or what His clothes looked like – the point being that He came into this world the lowliest of the low so that there was no question that He was a man when he died for our sins, and there was no question He was God on Easter morning:

As Isaiah said:…. For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given: and the government shall be upon his shoulder: and his name shall be called Wonderful, Counselor, The Might God, The Everlasting Father, The Prince of Peace….

As Luke said:…Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David, a Savior, which is Christ the Lord….

So…Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men…

Christmas IS the celebration of Christ’s birth. Whether he was born on that day or not..does it matter? The whole purpose is to celebrate his birth, what he gave to mankind. Let us not belittle or degrade this sacred memory and belief by “shortcutting” His name to X, no matter what ancient writings say. Here today and now, let us remember Him as the CHRIST and share love and joy of this season with all we meet…all the time. Have a Wonderful Christmas Season everyone. For no matter what ideals, religion or persuasion, Love and forgiveness as taught by Christ, is the way to live.

To HAE (Dec 13, 2010 at 12:34 pm)
Look at you, ha ha, calling someone else an idiot when you are the one with the glaring lack of historical knowledge. (See my other posts)
And so closed minded (what a surprise, eh?, for many of the hard religious) and reading so much more insidious content into SEAMUSMAC comment than what’s actually there (also typical). At least you call him ’sir’.

To Third Aye (Dec 14, 2010 at 10:25 am)
If you could learn to spell and use punctuation, you might come off as less dim. But this nonsensical statement doesn’t help that assessment: “..even atheist BELIEVE not to believe..”. Tho (-purposeful misspelling, I’m trying to purge English of the ridiculous ‘ough’, pornounced SIX different ways!) some of what you say definitely is on target, e.g. that much paganism is mixed into Xianity.
I’m so tired of hearing people describe atheism as another form of ‘religion’. IT’S NOT! Why? BY DEFINITION!: atheists do not believe in a supernatural and/or superhuman entity or deity, divine or otherwise, that created the Universe, or in control of human destiny. I ask you, is the practice of applying deductive reasoning and hypothesis to observed phenomena, evidence, or lack thereof, part of the definition of ‘religion’? Everybody does that ’science’ (that’s right folks, that’s all science is!) every waking minute of every day. It does not entail ‘faith’ in something that has little if any REAL evidence. (I specify ‘REAL’ becoz there seem to be so many of the religious who seem not to know what actual ‘evidence’ means.)
And as far as saying or asking anything about ‘God’, it’s meanigless unless you first define what you mean by ‘God’, which, being an ABSTRACT CONCEPT, is widely open to individual interpretation. I.e. if you ask me if I believe in ‘God’, and I say ‘yes’, you really have no idea what I mean unless you ask me what my definition of ‘God’ is. And, believe me, if you pursue the question and press for more and more detail in the definition, the more befuddled most people get! Unless that person understands that a personal ‘God’ is WITHIN you, and fits your beliefs of what’s best for you (which hopefully is what’s best for us all)… Or, unless you’re a Pantheist, like me, in which case ALL (the Universe) IS God, not merely made by ‘God’… There is no seperation: All Is One.

To bmonk (Dec 14, 2010 at 10:38 am)
I’m surprised: You seem quite knowledgeable but you fail to mention the primary reason Xmas is celebrated at the end of December: To ‘usurp’, as one responder put it, and replace a much longer standing and important ‘pagan’ celebration, based on astronomical observation of the Winter Solstice, i.e. the return of Light! You can imagine the fear instilled in early humans as they first observed the gradual waning of sunlight, day by day, the lifeblood of the Earth, and the joy that would ensue at the point they observed it returning again!
For me, that is the true celebration at the end of December, the Winter Solstice, Return of Light! (..especially poignant, as I’m solar heated!)

The great religious philosopher, Jesus of Nazareth, can have Easter (at the timing of the original ‘pagan’ celebration of the Vernal Equinox, the return of Life in Spring, after the ‘dead’ of Winter!), which is, as stated, deemed to be the actual time of his birth, anyway.

LOL fundie morons.

I hope we use X instead of Christ, and that it’s done to take the religious meaning out of a holiday that is becoming secular. If everyone celebrates the same day, it should have a way to include those who don’t believe in sky fairies.

To Derp (December 15, 2010 at 10:33 am)
Lol.. That’s great! ..bunch of ‘BiBBle’ thumpers.. ha ha ha!
How about: A tower of Babel thumpers!

‘Derp’s a funny name too, where’d you get it?

Cheers!

Bill D. (December 15, 2010 at 10:11 am)
Lol.. Good one!

Cheers

To My lips are shut. (December 15, 2010 at 9:36 am)
Dear girl, YOU NEED TO GET OUTSIDE HELP! SERIOUSLY! like start with a counselor at school, or maybe better, there are places and help for domestic violence victims everywhere. YOU NEED TO FIND ONE… If you don’t get help, this could seriously mess you up for life. Do you know about the Loveline radio program with Dr Drew? They could definitly lead you to good help. Where’s your Mom in all of this? or other relatives?
Please GET HELP!
Wishing you the BEST in finding your way thru!

To My lips are shut. (December 15, 2010 at 9:36 am)

The ‘real’ ‘God’ is WITHIN all of us… In some, very hard to find or uncover, but in many, right there ready and waiting to give all the help and love and respect you deserve… They really are not that hard to find. Please follow the advice in my previous post.
I sure hope you read these and find the courage to act. YOU MUST DO IT to save yourself… Don’t let the fear stop you.

HAE, I think what Seamusmac was referring to is the fact that Christ wasn’t actually born on December 25th. He was born on September 28th or 29th, but the 25th of December was selected as the day to celebrate His birth because it coincided with a pagan holiday, and the church thought it would be easier to get the pagans to celebrate Christ’s birthday if it was observed on a day they already celebrated. Research shows that Christ was, however, conceived on December 25th, and at His conception, the Holy Spirit came to dwell among us, as evidenced by the fact that when Mary visited John the Baptist’s mother that same day, the baby John leaped in his mother’s womb when he felt the presence of the Holy Spirit. So if God came to dwell among us on December 25th, I think that is reason enough to celebrate!

Very informative. I never thought there’s a good reason behind the “X” in Christmas. I grew up thinking the “X” in X-mas was derived from “Criss Cross” X+. A child’s innocence.

I’m willing to bet that most people use “xmas” because it’s an abbreviation, and it takes less time to write than “Christmas”. That’s certainly why I use it. It also takes up less space on a sign/card.

Nobody is trying to take Christ out of Christmas- what we call Christmas is a mish-mash of various cultural and religious festivals, not all of which are Christian.

The Yuletide was pagan, after all.

Merry X-Mas! Doesn’t matter how you say it, as long as you DO!

It’s so amazing that one movie, “zeitgeist” can completely halt a 2000 year old religion that has had millions of adherents. Now if they can only make a version of that movie for the other religion that bombs everyone.

Did any one know that Jesus’ birthday isn’t actually on the 25, of December, no one knows his true birthday, just check out the History channel’s doccumentary on the history of Christmas.

@READ THIS, did you read any of the comments before you posted that?

CHRISTMAS CHRISTMAS TIME FOR CHEER~ it snowed today in where i’m living

@Tombo & @MtW I agree with both of you….I’m confused and would like some help on this, where in the Bible does it say that Jesus was born on Dec.25? I don’t believe in Christmas But I am a Christian. People say “well your only 17 you don’t know nothing” but you see that’s what makes me upset, see I choose what religion I wanted to be my mom is a Baptist and I’m Apostolic, and many people come to me and ask me how come I don’t believe in Christmas and I’m a Christian? Well being a Christian doesn’t just mean you have to believe in Christmas (and you really don’t) but its about serving God and doing his will so that one day we will meet him and the pearly gates of Heaven shall open and we walk down the streets of gold…….Now i read my Bible and I still have yet to see it maybe I’ve over looked it or maybe not…but if I did may someone help me with this because I’m not quite getting this!!!

BUTTER

@Rickedy Rick (Dec 16, 2010 at 7:21am)
Xtianity completely halted?? What planet are you living on?? Unfortunately for us on planet Earth the majority so-called ‘Christians’, who are far from actually practicing the supposed teachings of Jesus (e.g. how many of those ‘Christians’ started, let happen, or supported wars? How many of the greedy wealthy on Earth claim to be ‘Christians’? How many of the rightwing ‘Christians’ in our own WEALTHIEST country don’t won’t to provide healthcare to their poorer, disadvantaged countrymen) are far from being halted.
On the other hand, fortunately the true Xtians, the likes of Mother Terresa, are also not halted. (I except those ‘true’ Xtians who believe they must PUSH their religion on innocent primitive cultures, and actually, I seriously question whether that was part of Jesus’s teachings.)

And, about that “other religion that bombs everyone”, the VAST MAJORITY of Muslims do not want to harm others; they just want to live their lives in peace, like the vast majority of all humans do. As in most cases of violence, it is instigated by a small minority, usually with personal vendettas or self serving goals. (Can you really blame some of them, whose families were massacred by invading Western powers? Or who are continually oppressed by, e.g., the Israeli ‘new gestapo’?) and use their skewed religious beliefs as an excuse.

@Vicki (Dec 15, 2010 at 8:58pm)
Tho the 1st part of what you say is true (re Xmas being placed at the Winter Solstice, and stated many times before on this blog… I suggest you read some previous comments), except for your dates of Jesus’s birth: it is actually not known, but the historical consensus is that it was prob in Spring… But could you please enlighten us how the hell there could be any “research” showing the time of his conception, and “the ‘fact’ that Mary visited John the Baptist’s mother that same day,..”, when there is no viable historical record re Jesus, at least until he was grownup, and likely not before he started ’stirring things up’ in those outreaches of the Roman Empire??

Robyn Rich, here’s another titbit of information for you: The word is titbit. Tidbit was invented by prudes that thought tit was somehow rude. Ornithology is a problem for these people.

What I find offensive is that some people think we’re only allowed a Christian celebration or none at all, in defiance of the fact that there have always been midwinter festivals, everywhere. Even, “It was originally such and such a celebration before the church stole it,” doesn’t tell the whole story. It was many different celebrations.

If Christmas must forever be a Christian celebration because of the name, then Easter is forever a pagan fertility rite because it’s named after the goddess Oestre! And of course many clergymen insist that Easter more important than Christmas. Out and out liars even pretend to like it more

The name of almost every day and date in the calendar had religious origins. Today is Thursday; therefore we must pay tribute to Thor! Or I’ll be offended! Failure to acknowledge Thor is sending society into moral freefall.

This IS a very interesting article. I thought the change was a modern thing, and slightly annoying, because it relies on referring to a cross as a criss. If it’s shorthand for Crisscrossmas, that could make sense…

Anyway, Merry Cosmos, everybody! Whatever your religious persuasions, don’t forget to keep looking up. Don’t forget to stand in awe!

Now you must excuse me because it’s dark this time of year, and I must find a log that will burn for twelve days

Seriously, I have only ever used “Xmas” as a short hand in this digital age and never have even considered the fact that it would “remove christ.” The fact that someone is referring to to the “-mas” aspect at all should be a “win” for those so offended. If one was to purposely secularize the season we would say “Happy Holidays” … which to most rational people should also be welcomed. I feel some are way to up tight and have found most of the arguments here rather silly. My religious beliefs are irrelevant to the linguistic argument; although, for those hell bent on the subject I do identify as Christian … just a reasonable one. For those Still up in arms over this, I suggest you go back to fighting your counter-war on the “war on Christmas” (/Sarcasm) … seriously … get a life, have you nothing else to do?

My family from NZ always used the Merry Xmas in the cards they sent. My American family found that offensive. I never have found this phrase offending and use Merry Christmas or Merry Xmas as the mood hits me. I knew X meant Chi also as I was a member of Chi Alpha in college.

For those who think Christmas was scheduled in December to usurp the pagan holiday, two words: YOU’RE WRONG.
The first Christians were Jewish converts, right? They cared not one whit what the pagans believed; that’s one of the reasons Jews have been persecuted for millenia. They believed that one died on the same date as one was either born or conceived. They knew the date of Jesus’ death and its relation to the Passover, and counted 9 months around from there. Hence December 25.
The fact that it fell so close to the winter solstice and pagan holiday was just convenience, not origin.

Yep, already knew that.

Wow, our educational system must really be lacking. Do they not teach history anymore? People here are hilarious.

Well @Heather…I would have to disagree with you…Because I can’t remember what the guys name is….But he is the reason why there is a “Christmas” and all the rest of these men made holidays anyways…You see everyday to me is “Christmas” because why do we only take time to recognize Christ on 1 day? You should celebrate his birth everyday b/c w/out him there would be no us!!!!! HAPPY HOLIDAYS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR

>BUTTER<

great topic for a discussion. (I’m wondering why people post off topic crap when there is an OBVIOUS topic. I couldn’t care less if it snowed where you live! join a weather related group or visit the weather channel.)
anyway, yes. X mas. the way I know it goes like this.
beginning centuries ago Jews were (AGAIN and STILL) being forced to leave their homes b/c of an edict by a king and/or a czar.
most of these shtetl dwellers were not literate. (literacy has little to do w/ intelligence) when they came through Ellis Island there were documents to sign. being illiterate the Jews were not able to write their names (and their last names were not even ‘invented’ until the late 1,500 when the Jews were forced to PAY for a name. (Jacob son, Cohen (expensive!!), Gold, Fein, Burg, etc.)
the ‘X’ was a symbol used widely to represent christianity. and the Jews sisn’t want that affiliation so they signed with a ‘loop’ or a circle w/ lines crossing over at the top. this symbol is also known as a ‘kike’ — ergo, ‘Kikes.’
I have used xtain for MANY years although I have used G-d even longer.
- shalom xx

Heather,

Your suggestion is interesting, however, does it not seem a little strange that His most devout followers would use the Jewish dating system you described for a Christ that they vehemently defended as risen? To track 9 mos. from the passover, would it not be affirming his place in the grave? Where did you obtain this info?

Your thoughts, thanks!

Axial tilt is the reason for the season!

To all my religious brethren!

For shame! For you are taking “Jesus” out of “Jesuschristmas”!

Merry Jesuschristmas to you all!

Wait! “Jesus” wasn’t the way Jesus pronounced his own name. His name was pronounced something close to Yeshua. If your name was Bill and I continued to call you Bart, it might annoy you right? And if you were the son of God, you might be a little more than annoyed.

So, to be safe (I don’t want to spend an eternity in Hell):

Merry Yeshuachristmas to one and all!!

Oh, and to those who pronounce Christmas like “Krissmas”, for shame!! For you are taking the “t” out of Christ!! And the long “i” sound.

So, please, for Christ’s sake, pronounce it properly, ok?

To Xtopher then why do christians pronouce the selves as Kristian with our the long “i” like you suggest we all do!!

Amazing if Muslims are offended by a cartoon of their religious/political mascot then we who believe and live the Ten Commandments are just supposed to ignore an “X” replacing Christ in Christmas.
How about all those doing so: work on the 25th of December every year especially all the bureaucrats!
Then how about those who insult Christ and us: have no celebrations, gifts, especially do not take advantage of those of us who do celebrate and give thanks..spreading the joy of Christmas and giving…
In other words use the X in your existence…leave Christ and Christmas out of your everything…the world will be a much better place..

Hey, everybody, MERRY CHRISTMAS to all of U! And a HAPPY New Year!

@Xtopher hun to let me school you in on something Jesus has many names…king of kings, lord of lords, alpha and omega, Yahweh, Jehovah, Hosanna, Christ, Jehovah shalom, prince of peace, Lord and many many more… See get my point? I’m not trying to be rude or nothing but I had to point that out! And in the bible were does it say that Dec.25 is Jesus’ birthday? Because think about it the lord was born where? In Jerusalem. And in Jerusalem it was hot. So why why would they have Xmas in Dec.? And if I can remember correctly GOD SAY’S IN THE BIBLE DO NOT DECORATE THY TREE WITH SILVIER AND GOLD….So what does that hint to you GOD doesn’t want us celebrating it why? Because it is a man made holiday…And this comment might not go up but it needs to because people need to know… Well I’m going to get out of here yall have a blessed day and plz feel free to comment!!!!!!!!!!

>BUTTER<

I’ve always wondered this.

LOOK UP SATURNALIA. its the origin of christmas.

It sounds like a lot of people project their emotions onto others, and read other peoples’ intentions quite readily, even out of context. Are you really so insecure in your faith that you can’t handle the idea of someone abbreviating Christmas as Xmas? Really? Even when its been done historically by Christians?

It’s like being offended by some ants crawling around on a crucifix. Really? What’s there to be offended by? Things like this just seem to be such petty, trivial things to get worked up about…

“They’re taking Christ out of Christmas!” Really? So what you’re saying is that you’re upset that you can’t make *them* say “Christmas”, right? Being upset because someone else won’t do what you want seems somewhat futile to me… again, why get all worked up about what other people do? Remember, “speck in their eye, beam in your own” and all that. Oh yeah, and “turn the other cheek”, too….

I intentionally use Xmas, Xtian, Xtianity, etc sometimes just to see if someone reacts… it gives me an opportunity to either teach them about the history of their faith or a chance to see their true self, ie if they get testy and refuse to be reasonable. It can be a good judge of character.

Thanks for the article. I find the reactions and comments to be as educational as the article itself. *grin*

It’s hard to believe we all speak (close to) the same language! We misunderstand each other so much. I am so tired of everyone trying to be right. My old friend says, I’d rather be right than God. From browsing through these comments, I can say he’s not the only one! It heartbreaking.

@Robert….in otha words history isnt real.we should jus throw out the calander n out with da Holocaust…that was jus some imaginary event of 6million + missing ppl they jus didnt exsit in da first place…and for all we know all the glorious stories about the founding fathers are jus made up too…i mean lik if GW wuld take solidiers accross a frozen river so gallantly….your not real in furtehr generations snice only your family knows you and no else.n who knows if your family will also forget u as well…after all its not lik ur som all powerful deity…i mean if no one in further generations read this blog your just a lie that your family made up? did i get your meaning right?…

@FYI – Really? There are hundreds of thousands of pieces of evidence proving that the Holocaust occurred… not the least being people who experienced that horror! There are hundreds of pieces of evidence proving George Washington’s existence, not the least being his own handwritten letters and diaries. Are all stories about our founding fathers true? Perhaps not all. If stories about our founding fathers may not be true, even in light of hundreds (if not thousands) of pieces of evidence, then therefore stories about Jesus must be even more suspect, since we have no contemporary historical evidence of his existence! In other words, we have things that people have said about him decades later… but nothing from his own lifetime!

So following what you’ve just said, in trying to refute Robert, is tacitly admitting that he’s right… thank you! *rolling eyes*

A truly hilarious thread of comments and misunderstandings. Way back in 1658 the English philosopher Sir Thomas Browne wrote of the sacred decussation that is the letter X-

We shall not call in the Hebrew Tenupha, or ceremony of their Oblations, waved by the Priest unto the four quarters of the world, after the form of a cross; as in the peace-offerings. And if it were clearly made out what is remarkably delivered from the Traditions of the Rabbins, that as the Oil was poured coronaly or circularly upon the head of Kings, so the High-Priest was anointed decussatively or in the form of a X; though it could not escape a typical thought of Christ, from mystical considerators; yet being the conceit is Hebrew, we should rather expect its verification from Analogy in that language, then to confine the same unto the unconcerned Letters of Greece, or make it out by the characters of Cadmus or Palamedes.

I thought X was supposed to be a cross, like in road signs where they have, for example, “Duck Xing”. I thought that the cross signified christ.

Ever wondered why Xmas is so offensive to christians. Because they are “X” -ing the Christ in Christmas.

This is all very simple. Xmas is an alternative holiday named after Jesus X.

I don’t understand what the problem is, either; anyone writing Xmas is avoiding committing blasphemy… :-S

Jesus wasn’t prescient in an “omnipotent” sense, saying that his name would become taboo; he probably saw all of the old prophets’ names becoming taboo, that people were shunning or murdering adherents to the old religions and figured it would happen to him, in time. I bet it would have surprised him that it took as long as it did.

Wow, this is really interesting and to me is enlightening at once! I am not a christian, but a respect to people who believes in it i’ve been “happy christmas-ing” they who celebrate. The interesting thing is i never expect seeing people become so angry about this ‘x’ in christmas..

The enlightening part to me is that i’ve been taking ‘Xmas’ just because of: probably ‘laziness’ and ‘rushing’ when i am to write ‘Christmas’, and ignorance of what might be the reason/history/intention of ‘Xmas’ usage! So, regardless people opinion about my past ignorance, i would say those who think that saying ‘Xmas’ has nothing to do with ‘religious/deep opinion’ trully got the point.

Anyhow, flashing back to the past when I sometimes wrote ‘Xmas’ I found this posting really helps me to be more cultured. Not only i gain more knowledge about this interesting ‘x’ usage, but also i can now be more careful in using word ‘Xmas’..

Another point is: I understand what SEAMOLEC talked about..as I also understand why some people get so angry about SEAMOLEC’s comment. What i can say is we don’t need any anger, hatred, and emotional reaction toward this..let’s use ‘cool head’ than ‘heart’, like what Greeks says ‘heart is the sit of the emotional’. Also, regarding to controversy about ‘the december 25th’ and ‘god issue’..you guys would probably find some videos of carl sagan (scientist) are really interesting at least to broaden your horizons.. Peace to all!

I am a believer in God and a Christian. I believe that while yes Jesus is the original purpose of Christmas, He is not the only reason for it. Jesus came to Earth so that the human race could be shown mercy and so we could go to Heaven. He taught that humans should be kind, merciful, and generous to one another. I believe we should honor Christmas by doing what Jesus always wanted: being kind to one another.

You brainwashed people make me want to vomit on your bibles.

I think that if one is automatically distrustful and suspicious of people, then you will see what you expect to see…my devout Christian grandmother used “Xmas” as a form of abbreviation, nothing more.

Phoebe, your kindness is an inspiration to all people, regardless of their faith.

“X” can also mean “emptiness” or “nothing”. Example: Scientists 5 years ago tried to make Pluto “Planet X” because it’s no longer a planet (or so i’ve heard. I could be wrong.)

I write Xmas pretty often on boxes, for shorthand, texting, etc. I am not Christian, but I am not trying to avoid the “Christ” in Christmas. Give me a break. Lol. I mean, laugh out loud…sorry.

I have never spoken to anyone who deliberately writes X-mas to remove Christ from Christmas. It’s usually viewed as an culturally-acceptable way to shorten the word. I suppose we should do V-tine Day or T-giving. (Come to think of it–why don’t we just do C-mas?)

Considering Jesus was named just that why don’t we call it Jesusmas? Confused 9th grader here so don’t slaughter me with “Your so stupid!” or “FAIL!’, I just wanna knnow.

I’m 81 years old now. As a child I was taught the Jesus was born on Christmas Day (December 25).. I still believe that. I was tuaght that Jesue died on the cross for all of us… I still believe that. I was taught that Jesus rose from the dead and decended into heaven on Easter…I still believe that. I was taught that when I die Jesus will meet me and escort me to my place in heaven…I still believe that. I was also taught that Jesus will introduce me to our Heavenly Father and I shall be in His house for all eternity. I still believe that.
I have believed all these things and I will continue to believe them the rest of my life. My beliefs are my faith and have guided me all my life. I believe I have lived a full and happy life because of my beliefs.
For those people who do not believe as I do, I sincerely ask Jesus to come into their lives and give them happiness also and to bless them with FAITH. Without faith, what does one have to look forward to after this earth life is over. May God and Jesus bless all of us.

…Wow. So many people have commented, and I’m adding to that number. I’m sort of afraid to say anything, but you guys are all so sharp, and some of you are really smart; knowing these things I never even thought about. I’ve used Xmas before on a homemade card because there wasn’t enough room, and even after Dictionary’s explanation I’m kind of ashamed. Go on with your bickering, consoling, insulting, and fact-giving, everyone; don’t mind me.

it depends on what context you use “x” .if you are using Greek that`s ok.i personally use Christ .dont take Christ out of Christmas

In my religion class, I was taught that since X=Chi=Christ, then X is okay to use and I use it.

A crucial and interesting topic indeed! For me, we shouldn’t omit the Name of the Anointed One of God. It’s too precious and powerful! Let us all believe in Jesus Christ, the Name above all names! Keep the faith guys! God bless us all! He is our refuge and strength in the end times!

Faith is the abandonment of reason. Penicillin wasn’t discovered by the application of faith, it was discovered by the application of reason. Ditto every useful thing, from Agriculture to Democracy to Mathematics to Zeolites, that humanity has ever used to bootstrap ourselves up out of the muck and take control of our own destiny. We invented them with reason. Faith, on the other hand, brought us the Inquisition (Christianity), the Fatwa (Islam), death by stoning (Judaism), and Sati (Hinduism). I’ll take reason, thanks.

Aaahh, my favorite part of the day… reading the back and forth debates on this website. Hee Hee Hee what fun! Truly awesome! My coffee always tastes better with a healthy serving of self-righteousness, with some ignorance on the side. Thank you all:)

Janet B. Sadly you appear to have made a similar error to some of the christians on this site. You thanked Microsoft and Steve Jobs. What about ARPANET and America’s own Department of Defence. You forgot to thank people who predated Microsoft’s and Mr Jobs’ involvement in the Internet

Happy Birthday Pedro!!!!!!

oh and I forgot…….EGGNOG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

:(@;):P

I once heard on a radio station many years ago, that the reason that X-mas was used instead of Christmas, was that the Jewish store keepers were offended by the word Christmas. They started to write X-mas on their store windows as an act of protest.
Please do not throw a Bible at me or call me a Jew hater. I know what is in the Bible and I do not have any Problems with people of other religious faiths. Even an idiot knows that Jesus was raised as a Jewish man himself.
The subject here is NOT religion, it is the origin of a word. If you have a different opinion as me, I can live with that. Just as I can live the fact that many people are allowed to have their own convictions.

I don’t care I still hate the work “Xmas”.

@Christian
because we just do!

@Robert
me too

It may have had a meaning at one point, but nowadays people use it to avoid saying the word Christ. Some other religions call Christians X-ians, because they’re offended by Christ.
It’s not the origin of the word that offends devout Christians. It’s the way people use it today.

hahaha, i love that Yeshua was actually brought up then overlooked. That is correct, in the hebrew language (that jesus spoke mind you) Jesus is pronounced Yeshua. that is where we get the name Joshua from, as an homage to Jesus. based on that logic alone we could argue this and that ’til our fingers get carpal tunnel, but i don’t see the point. i don’t see why so many christians have to vehemently defend their faith and claim to be offended by a letter that is not only greek in origin but also a shorthand homage to them, but hey, everyone’s a critic. also, it’s both amusing and annoying to read “omg you need jesus in your life” when someone posts an opposing view. as i recall, the crusaders said something along the same lines when they were slaughtering thousands of people in a holy war they started with the muslims. why? because for both faiths their holy prophet (jesus and mohammed) both came from Jerusalem. which of course has sparred a war spanning a thousand years.

but i digress. i remember writing “merry xmas” on christmas cards when i was a little kid, and no one had a problem with it.

so chill out.

now I need a new letter to offend those self-righteous Bible-thumpers.
how about Moistmas?

I’m glad I’m not religious. I just don’t have time to get into a frenzied-offended panic about a letter of the alphabet.

Setting transliteration mumblings aside, it is clear that this was all done by Christmas card makers seeking to squeeze the last drop of profit out of Christmas. Observe that substituting “X” for “Christ” obviously uses less ink, while the price of the card remains unchanged. As surely as there is claimed to be an “X” in “Christmas” they pile up their profits with seeming innocence based on “transliteration” tomfoolery rather than watching the CEO’s paycheck. Misdirection again while purporting to be wise. Χριστός may well be koine Greek for Christ, but we don’t buy Christmas cards in koine Greek, we buy them in American English.

The writer is obviously a modern High School graduate with a 24 letter alphabet.

This article is fantastic I love reading back and forth banter between religious nuts and anti-religious nuts LOL. Thought I’ll admit I tend to side with the latter, I usually don’t agree with their methods.

I know Chris Wickers(not me) already said it but I have to re-quote this gem…

“As a devout Christian, I was offended with something, and I foolishly did not understand.” – Robyn Rich

I found this really funny, but its nice to see a Christian that can self reflect. I am finding more and more religious people that are reasonable and flexible these days… No more inquisition! I bet she felt more peaceful after letting go of the offense she had towards the term Xmas.

As for the topic of the article… Very interesting I did not know this.

Personally I find the whole holiday a little offensive. Every business owner in sight trying to question the love I have for my friends and family, trying to guilt me into going beyond my means to give them presents.

I think people deserve presents all year long, if someone you care about needs/wants something and you have the means to get it for them, then you should!

As for the religious side of it, I’m not bothered by those that think its a pagan holiday or those that think its Christian. To be totally honest its both, everyone celebrates a little different, just because you eat ham and Jesus didn’t who cares?

If you want to use Christmas/Xmas as a way to celebrate the birth of a guy who followed a different religion than you… Go ahead. If you want to celebrate a fat guy and an ugly tree, be my guest. Hey! You like spinning a wooden top and lighting candles? You can do that too!

But whatever you do, don’t judge people based on how or which holidays they celebrate. It’s possible they don’t do it JUST to offend YOU. I think(hope) one day Christians/Catholics, Jews(is that offensive? I cant remember…), Muslims, and Atheists alike can all sit down and celebrate different ideas together. (If I missed your religion, I’m sorry, you’re still invited to my party.)

i wonder what the x stands for in xbox?

Some say Christ, some say X, either way they’re just words to me. When will people start celebrating Satan-mas?!?

do the christian populace not know that christmas was acually stolen?? yea the day dec. 25 was a day known to farmers as a day to hope for spring. but then an overly christian man demanded that that be the day christ is celebrated

this is interesting but i why should someone belive in it,
i just think god is a fake, a small lie that a lot of people now think is real.

And people are trying to take it out still today…

That’s why you see “Happy Holidays” instead of “Merry Christmas”.

But they still are having problems. “Holiday” comes from “Holy Day”.

What are they going to come up with next?

I Only Use Xmas When I am Running Out Of Time Or Space. I Always Capitalize All Letters Of The Word GOD.

I agree with the argument that this was not a move toward historical reverence. Some marketing guy years ago realized it wouldn’t offend non-Christians, and make the holiday okay for them to observe as Santa Day. No one one in the world has any idea of it’s historical significance. And frankly, as it’s been pointed out, the date was a pagan festival, anyway.

My wife was a Jew..loved her. Many of them celebrate Christmas because even they know their “holidays” suck. My wife sang in the Catholic choir because she loved the music. Even they don’t used the word Xmas. They call it Christmas. Xmas is a shopping word disguised as some kind of reverent tribute to Christ. Why don’t we rename Passover as..well, I don’t feel like spending any more time on this..so make up your own word. One for Ramadan, too, while you’re at it. Just be sure you make holidays more “palatable” in Israel and the Arab world, too.

so its not cause when emboar twice it can make an X?

SO ITSNOT CAUSE WHEN EMBOAR USES V-GENERATE TWICE IT CAN MAKE AN X LIKE SHAPE?

It i language snobbery to consider Xmas as somehow inferior – especially in the age of texts where just about everything is abbreviated. The cross was the old-fashioned way of writing Christ AND those who could not write had to sign a document with a cross, derived from the same origin.

cooolll!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I agree Christmas would have been harder to spell xmas is short. Much too often other words in English are incorrectly spelled or spelled in old English. Travelling (in British spelling) is incorrect in the United States. Here it’s spelled traveling. Yes gay is another word for happy. There is a Christmas song that has these lyrics Dawn we now our gay apparal. Deck The Halls. Sorry if spelled wrong. Gay in other terms is referred as two same gender individuals whom end up possibly marrying or are close friends or relations.

So many Trolls. I thought it was kind of nice to learn the origin of Xmas, though I really become annoyed by seeing and hearing it around Christmas time. To me, Christmas should be a respectful time of year, therefore, Christmas should be spelled out completely, even if they could not fit the entire word on the card. Also, please, people. This is a dictionary website. SPELL THE WORDS OUT. I DO NOT UNDERSTAND TEXT TALK AND I AM PRETTY SURE IT IRRITATES OTHERS TO SIT THERE AND TRY TO DECIPHER YOUR MESSAGE. thank you

very cool website, just learned about.

As you well know, most folks do not read the dictionary. While your explanation might be technically correct, it still does not acknowledge the morphing of meanings our society will apply to words over time. As an example, consider the word: gay. What it was once commonly used as, has forever been changed, morphed, hi-jacked, whatever-you-want-to-throw-in-here, to describe the transformation by our society. So, nice try, but, I don’t think so. Our society today will still see this for what they think it is, not what it once was. For that, I am just sad; not gay.

Christmas is not even a Christian Holiday and Jesus was not born on Dec. 25. It is a Pagan Holiday called Yule which is part of the winter solstice celebration. The Christians took their God and Replaced the Pagan God and now the Christians are upset because people are taking Jesus out of a Holiday where he never belonged in the first place.

Even though I’m a Christian “idiot”, I’ll try not to be “folish”, nero.

Barred-Coded-ed, it’s not at all that people are trying to do away with the fact Christmas is religious holidays, something called ‘Christ’s mass’ can never be something other that religious, neither can ‘x mass’ because even in the context of people who saying Xmas to avoid saying Christ, it’s still a ‘mass’

They are trying to observe the fact that this is not ‘the’ winter holiday, but the winter holidays, the celebration of midwinter is important for the vast majority of people, it is a religious celebration for a great deal of religions, and a time of fun and games for non-religious people, it’s not taking Christ out of Christmas, it’s putting the yule back into yuletide.

I read this article because it sounded interesting, which it was. It dispelled some of the myths I learned about using “Xmas” instead of “Christmas”. I still write Christmas when communicating with others, and only use “Xmas” if I’m writing a quick note to myself, just because it’s quicker. I always say “Christmas” instead of “Xmas”, primarily because the latter is so unmelodious. That said, I have to make my own comments about what I’ve been reading in this long, long list of comments. Some are subjective, and some just address my pet peeves.

1. When you decide to write comments about an article, blog, or other type of posting, please, please, please try to check your spelling, punctuation, grammar, etc. When I read a comment about how smart someone is, or where they’re trying to present themselves as überintelligent, the point is completely lost when the spelling is horrendous. Some of the comments are so poorly written that I can’t even figure out what the person is trying to say. Anyone can have a typo or two, but if you proofread your comment before you hit the “Submit Comment” button, you won’t sound so stupid. And, to have a statement filled with misspellings when you’re on the Dictionary.com page is just plain. This is obviously in my pet peeves category.

2. When did we become so disrespectful of each other? I felt anger, as many of you did, when reading some of the more opinionated comments, especially those that insulted my beliefs, but everyone is entitled to their own beliefs. What I find so amazing is that some of you who call others, i.e. Catholics, narrow-minded, are the most narrow-minded of all. You don’t have to agree with my belief system, and you may not understand it, but you have no right to call me names and insult me because of your disagreement and lack of understanding.

3. This may sound a lot like item #2 (above), but when did we become so rude? I have a stepson, an 11-year-old, and one of the things that I love so much in him is that he tries not to be rude or insulting to others. Sometimes we into conversations about why people act the way they do, and I always try to be a Devil’s Advocate for him, so that he can get an idea of how other people think and act. This is one of the things I learned when I was a child; before you condemn someone else for their actions or words, try to take a walk in their shoes. It prevents him from becoming narrow-minded, and lets him know that each of us has an opinion that’s based on what we’ve been taught, or what we’ve experienced. This prevents us from verbally attacking other people just because we disagree.

4. How can religion be the source of such vitriol? And no, I’m not historically ignorant; most wars were the result of, to various extents, people who let their belief in the divine become a source of hatred. Someday we will learn from George Santayana, who said, “Those who do not remember history are condemned to repeat it.” Aren’t most religions based on love and respect for others, and were designed to create a cohesive community?

5. If you really take the time to learn about the beliefs of other cultures and religions, you will realize that many of their stories are very similar, especially their stories of creation. Just the names have been changed, to protect their cultures.

6. No matter what your belief system, most of us will celebrate something during this season. You can celebrate Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, Let’s Make a Deal Day, Visit the Zoo Day, or National Whiner’s Day. (See http://familycrafts.about.com/library/spdays/bldecdayslong.htm.) Maybe we can all get over our differences, the commercialization, the demand for bigger and more expensive toys, and who’s right vs. who’s wrong. Smile at someone in the store, hold a door open for someone, say thank you, look at the stars, take a deep breath, and thank your higher power (or Mother Nature) for giving us another beautiful day. Be thankful that we live in a country where we can, for now, express our opinions without being censored or punished.

7. From me to all of you, Merry Christmas!

I’m quite fascinated by the comments which, essentially, say:

“I didn’t know that, but it doesn’t matter, because I still want to be offended.”

If YOU keep Him in your heart, does it matter whether someone else keeps Him in their stores?

Or would you rather feel hate and anger and resentment instead of going to the food pantry and volunteering to help?

Christmas starts with with “Christ” for a reason. Though the abbreviation has religious meaning, it is not the same as writing the word Christmas out as a reminder that Christ came to earth as a human and though he was perfect, he took the punishment that each and every person deserves so that those who put their trust in Him may live with Him forever in heaven instead of being eternally judged.
MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!

The Date of Christmas
The idea to celebrate Christmas on December 25 originated in the 4th century. The Catholic Church wanted to eclipse the festivities of a rival pagan religion that threatened Christianity’s existence. The Romans celebrated the birthday of their sun god, Mithras during this time of year. Although it was not popular, or even proper, to celebrate people’s birthdays in those times, church leaders decided that in order to compete with the pagan celebration they would themselves order a festival in celebration of the birth of Jesus Christ. Although the actual season of Jesus’ birth is thought to be in the spring, the date of December 25 was chosen as the official birthday celebration as Christ’s Mass so that it would compete head on with the rival pagan celebration. Christmas was slow to catch on in America. The early colonists considered it a pagan ritual. The celebration of Christmas was even banned by law in Massachusetts in colonial days.

I still dont like X. They are mixing Greek (X) and English (mas). Either say completely in Greek. When most people converse and understand in English, say it in English. As simple as that . Merry Christmas to all and God bless you all.

people are just dead paranoid about the matter. this is not the standards of what we believe, it is what we live for..

[...] Merry Christmas! Like this:LikeBe the first to like this post. 24 Dec This entry was published on December [...]

Christmas Humbug!

Ahem, Atheist here. I say Christmas all the time! Even though i don’t believe in God (I do think this Jesus guy was real) i understand that this holiday was originally made to show people the joy in life I think people have ruined the true meaning of Christmas by putting Santa into the picture. ‘Hey lets just our little brats even more by giving them presents then letting “Santa” give them even more!’ Um, no, not cool. I may not me some “Holy religious girl” but i do understand you guys are freaking out over nothing! Not everyone believes in the same thing. You Christians are supposed to be super nice people! Let other people think what they want

Oops, i meant ‘hey let’s just just spoil our little brats even more by giving them presents then letting “Santa”give the even more’. Sorry about the error!

I’m with Lulu on this one. It’s Christmas and always will be Christmas.

Although I’d have to throw in the point that the holiday was pretty much stolen from the pagans of the time. Santa is a refined version of Odin really.

Re: Robyn Rich (top). — Really? (Nice fiction; actually, poorly written fiction.)

Thank you for the wonderful information that you have given us! My mother and I believed that the the X stood for took Christ out of Christmas…Now we understand that it means Christ and we will remember that forever! Happy XMAS!

Anyone who does NOT believe that Christmas is the birth of Christ Jesus, then why do you even celebrate it? Is it because its about give me, give me and new toys for yourself? Would you celebrate EVERY religious holiday? Probably not. Don’t even acknowledge CHRISTmas if you don’t believe the true meaning.

[...] people like him who think that “XMAS” is an offensive secularization of Christmas. It’s not. And please, someone do us a favor and ask Bill-O about Christianity’s War on Winter [...]

Only Protestants find the X offensive.Us Catholics know what it means and always have.We never left the old Traditions,so we aren’t offended.Knowledge is Power and Peace of Mind.Merry Xmas!

No i disagree to use ‘Xmas”. is not meaningful at all. it must be Christmas. We have to share that and it responsible to do something in this world. The next generation must learn to use Christmas not Xmas. Because is Jesus Christ Birthday …. and is Christ.. the word Christ is important

[...] according to Dictionary.com, use of the word Xmas can be traced back as far as the 1500s.  Long before department stores [...]

Fascinating. Thank you all for your contributions. We celebrate Xmas even tho we r atheists. Brought up Catholic, love the tree and the presents and the giving. The lights are fun too. Great gathering for winter solstice. It’s fun to see people open gifts, receive food, gather around. Who cares why exactly. To each his/her own. For us, it’s a time of reflection, appreciation, giving, surprises, celebration of life. We love Easter and Halloween too. Holidaze are great. They all borrowed from more ancient traditions. And Christ, he was probably a nice enough fellow, but bet he’d be shocked that people worship him and be blown away about what his followers wrote about him. Try that trick today and you’d be in the looney bin. Although, gotta hand it to Joseph Smith!! Whew, he pulled off a lu-lu!! Happy Holidaze!!! Eat, drink and be merry. For whatever reason you like.

And it’s dang well NOT Jesus’s BDay!! Sheesh. And even if it was…what’s the big deal, why get all worked up because someone who lived thousands of years ago and has been seriously misrepresented thru the ages, had a BDay? Celebrate your BDay and your kids and your dog (god spelled backwards. Did you know Jesus had a dog named Susej?). Just because someone told you something and lots of people said it for a very long time, doesn’t make it right, true or relevant. If it’s important to you to write Jesus’s full name, then do it. Jesus Christmas. Harry Johnsonmas. Sally Mercalmas. Have a happy something and remember to give to others. Give hugs, give kind words, give foregiveness, give food, give things that make them laugh and smile and rejoice.

My grandparents,parents and myself use XMAS. They were christians as I am,too I was always told it meant Christmas. The X is not taking christ out. Back in the olden days when a christian was killed, other christians would mark the spot with an X because it meant christ. Regardless of the birth of christ,christians celebrate his birth on DEC 25th. On that day I wish him a HAPPY BIRTHDAY! CHRIST doesn’t care when we celebrate his birth,just as long as we do.

and of course…. all these people miss the point of HISTORY. Its sadly a trend among “christians” these days. I love how they simply refuse to see the truth, regardless of the history or science involved. Yay ignorance. >.< sigh.

All I can say is, wow. And how very sad it makes me to read the comments posted here.
I don’t feel it makes any difference who we are, what we believe, or what we practice. Isn’t what counts is that we are all part of the human race. Someone was just trying to point out the use of X. Not for us to be mean, name call, or ridicule each other for what or what we do not believe in.

It is not Jesus Christs birthday – if you’re going to base your beliefs on a stuffy old religion that’s too ludicrous to make sense, then you’re as thick as a plank and as stupid as Paris Hilton.

Now that I know this tidbit of information… I will ensure that no matter what – I say Happy Holidays instead of the other term, since I’m not stupid enough to believe in an idiotic deity whose existence can’t be proved.

Oi VeY!
Da twavesty I hath reading here of all the little details, for crying out flavin! I thought It was a pagan holiday for to celebrate the winter solstice which is why we decorate the tanenbaum and hope we make it through the winter! Then we use rings for getting married, (also pagan). and the christian borrow all the happy fun parts and steal like they usually have throughout history, (like we did too because we know us a good bargain when we see it and “free” is always a good number with us!) For shame to not admit good things you have borrowed from the pagans! for shame!

This discussion is disgraceful! If it were ANY other religion, it would NOT be socially acceptable. However, since it is against Christians, we sit and let others disrespect our religion. I will NEVER shop at a store who refers to MY holiday as well… the holiday with the X in front of it. (Personally, I refuse to write the word). People who are using the word in a disrespectful manner are NOT doing it out of their knowledge of the Greek writing system of thousands of years ago. Some are doing it to purposely disrespect Christians. Others are doing it simply because they don’t bother to take the time to write the word properly, which in my opinion, is also disrespectful. But what really disgusts me is when I see Christians accepting this! If I disrespected ANY OTHER religion in such a manner, Channel 11 news would be at my front door. We are the least unified religion in the United States at this time. I would slam my door in someone’s face if they referred to my God as “X.” Like writing four more letters is really exhausting??? If you replace my God with an X you get NO business from me. If you support businesses who refer to YOUR God as “x,” and you continue to shop there, you’re hopeless.

whatever it is, glorify the Lord Jesus Christ by just writing the six letter word CHRIST to honor the King of kings and Lord of lords… Still, a lot of people nowadays associate “x” with the mathematical formula of unknown. i am not trying to be too religious or holy. have a blessed CHRISTmas

No one cares. Call it what you want. There’s no law against saying……….
XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS XMAS

Oooooh — how interesting! However, language constantly evolves and meanings change as their origins get lost in history, then becomes reinvented.

Here’s a cute little story to illustrate:
At a family gathering, a little girl notices her mother cutting the ends off the ham before putting it in the oven. She asks, “Mommy, why do you cut the ends of the ham before putting it in the over?” Her mother replies, “Well, honey, I don’t know. We’ve just always done it this way. Ask grandma why.” So the little girl asked her grandma. Grandma replied the same way and told the little girl to ask her great-grandma.

So the little girl asked her great-grandma the same question. Her great-grandma replies, “Honey, in my day we didn’t have much and our stove was very small. So in order to make the ham fit in the stove, I had to cut the ends off first.”

“jen on December 13, 2010 at 1:47 pm”

The santa we are familiar with today is thanks to a commercial stunt by Macy’s about 100 years ago. It just stuck. However, santa is also another evolution derived from different cultures over the course of history. Including the one based on a person that actually lived known as Saint Nicholas. That historical tidbit initiated the tradition of gifts in stockings hung by the fireplace.

It gets really interesting the more you dig into the origins of what we’re familiar with today.

I’m a Christain, but “Xmas” has evolved into the best reason for a family reunion. We have no emphasis on gift giving. Just come and bring your appetitie.

When reading the diatribes, reactionism, justifications, and plain old -mean-spiritedness of so many self proclaimed ‘christians’, it is no wonder ‘religion’ has a progressively lousy and disrespected reputation.

Fortunately many of those who are less interested in upholding an exterior form of ‘churchishness’ and ‘organizational’ protectiveness are still adherent enough to be trully faithful in their own beliefs, without chastising others for theirs, and pointing out others supposed incorrectness.

And to those denying the origins of Christianity relative to riding on the coat tails of already existent rituals and holidays and such, many referred to as pagan, another word which has had its original meaning totally basterdized, the definition of which only became distainful because christians seem incapable of realizing that, minimally,10’s of thousands of years, and billions of people existed, long before Jesus ever even showed up. Feel free to ignore history and make up your own.

So stick your head back in the sand, defend something that should need no defending, make up rules and then attempt to force others to live by them, and let those who are trully spiritual actually evolve without silly arguments over a silly word. And over a holiday that has existed for 1000’s of yrs BEFORE (so-called) Christians took it and screwed it up with materialistic nonsense. Or is it?