Why don't people just say Christmas?
2006-10-06 10:02:12 · 39 answers · asked by Rawr! 1 in Society & Culture ➔ Holidays ➔ Christmas
THE REAL ANSWER!!
Now that I have your attention, here ya go. Hope this helps.
The abbreviation Xmas for Christmas dates from the mid 16th century. The X is the Greek letter chi, the initial in the word Χριστός (Christos) “Christ.” In spite of a long and respectable history, today Xmas is offensive to many, perhaps because of its associations with advertising. It is not used in formal writing.
2006-10-06 10:07:20 · answer #1 · answered by Drewood 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
The X stands for Christ.
"The X in Xmas did not originate as our English alphabet's X but as the symbol X in the Greek alphabet, called Chi, with a hard ch. The Greek Chi or X is the first letter in the Greek word Christos. ... "
"Some may use Xmas today as an unchristian shortcut for Christmas, but the ancient abbreviation by no means originated as such."
2006-10-06 11:59:48 · answer #2 · answered by BethS 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Laziness of people have shortened the word Christmas to XMas, the X designation Christ. Now with political correctness, the secular world want to completely do away with Christ all together.
2006-10-06 10:06:05 · answer #3 · answered by WC 7 · 2⤊ 2⤋
It's a symbol (the cross) that stands for christ. People used it in ancient rome (like the fish) to identify themselves as christians without getting caught. Now it has been used as a shortcut.
2006-10-06 16:05:01 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
the x in xmas stands for the greek letter Chi which is the first letter in Christos the greek word for christ it still does not take the christ out of christmas
2006-10-06 15:58:50 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
Well of course, it's just short hand, and it replaces the Christ part of the word. Actually if you say criss as in criss cross, which is what an X really is and use the X to replace Christ it still sounds like criss-mas. That is why people use the X as shorthand in Christmas.
I realize that most people think it's an athiestic way of taking Christ out of the holiday, but it's not.
2006-10-06 10:06:53 · answer #6 · answered by brown_iyed_grrl 3 · 1⤊ 2⤋
X stands for nothing. Businesses use to be to cowardly to say Christmas. They will celebrate a Christian holiday but not want to say it. People say "Have A Blessed Day" & no one has a problem. Who is going to be blessing them? That's right.
2006-10-06 11:11:34 · answer #7 · answered by Wolfpacker 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Some people don't want to say Christmas because it has the word Christ in it as in our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and for some people it is easier for them to believe that they evolved from a monkey than believe that there is a greater more superior being than themselves. I say Christmas and if you say Christmas I'm proud of you and more power to ya
2006-10-06 10:10:17 · answer #8 · answered by miracle man 2 · 2⤊ 1⤋
I've heard that it was a greek symbol for Christ. A lot of people just write it that way either to remove Christ's name from the holiday or because its quicker to write it that way.
2006-10-06 10:12:03 · answer #9 · answered by eileen 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
There are people in this world who don't want to say Merry Christmas.They decided to remove the Christ and replace it with a "X."
2006-10-06 10:05:29 · answer #10 · answered by debralizjr 4 · 2⤊ 2⤋