Is X-Mas Offensive?

Question

I don't see merchants or goverments changing the name of other holidays because of their association with any group besides Christians. So why do the "X" out Christ? Or avoid reference to the day completely? I don't see them saying Happy Holidays on Veterens or Memorial Day, though most people are offended by war. (No offense meant to veterens and many thanks for your sacrifices for your fellow countrymen) This never bothered me before, but now I'm thinking why do Christmas shopping at any store that refuses to acknowledge the day. How do you feel?

Answer 1

There is nothing wrong or irreligious about X-mas. The X comes from the first letter of the Greek word ΧΡΙΣΤΟΣ or Kristos which is Greek for Christ.
Whether users of X-mas use it with that in mind is another matter.

Answer 2

Good point.

We're caught in the middle of an all out attack on Christianity is what it boils down to. They have tried to generalize Christmas as a holiday for all religions, which it is not, and then eliminate any reference to it because it is "offensive" to other faiths, thus, the destruction of our holiday. Pretty neat trick, huh.

This is Christmas. It is about the birth of our Lord and Savior. Period. There is nothing Jewish about it, nothing Muslim, even if their holidays happen to fall around the same time of year. Merry Christmas.

Answer 3

I doesn't offend me but it does others. I prefer Merry Christmas because it is what the holiday is about. No offense to non-Christians but why should we accommodate our holiday so that they won't be offended, they have no problem using the after Christmas holiday sales and etc. This season is about the birth of Christ not X. So people should go back to the original meaning and those who don't believe shouldn't be offend because we want to celebrate the birth or our Lord and Savior.

Answer 4

I guess you could ask why do your Hanukkah shopping at stores that only acknowledge Christmas?

Saying "Happy Holidays" isn't trying to diminish the importance of Christmas, it's just trying to include everyone of all faiths. And Xmas, at least to me, has always just been a shorter way to write Christmas.

Answer 5

You are so Right!!
The other day I had a basket full of stuff and when the cashier told me happy holidays I told her Merry Christmas - she then informed me she wasn't allowed to say that - so I told her - " well I'm not allowed to shop here then" and made her give me a refund - it was over $300 worth of stuff - no I am sure this will not put them out of business but I know it got there attention, plus they got to put every thing up LOL.

Answer 6

X-mas is just short for Christmas it's not a name change. and dude, grow up, if you don't want to shop at a place that doesn't say marry Christmas that's your problem. i'm gonna say happy holidays, because it doesn't matter, they're just pleasant greetings.

why would anyone care that a store is taking into account the feelings of people with different beliefs than you?

Answer 7

yes, we need Christ in Christmas
Xmas" and "X-mas" are common abbreviations of the word "Christmas". They are sometimes pronounced "eksmas", but they, and variants such as "Xtemass", originated as handwriting abbreviations for the pronunciation "Christmas". The "x-mas" part came from the Anglo-Saxon for "festival", "religious event": Crīstesmæsse or Crīstemæsse. This abbreviation is widely but not universally accepted; some view it as demeaning to Christ, whilst others find it a helpful abbreviation.
This 1922 Ladies' Home Journal advertisement uses "Xmas".
Enlarge
This 1922 Ladies' Home Journal advertisement uses "Xmas".

The word "Christ" and its compounds, including "Christmas", have been abbreviated for at least the past 1,000 years, long before the modern "Xmas" was commonly used. "Christ" was often written as "XP" or "Xt"; there are references in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as far back as 1021 AD. This X and P arose as the uppercase forms of the Greek letters χ and ρ), used in ancient abbreviations for Χριστος (Greek for "Christ") (see Labarum), and are still widely seen in many Eastern Orthodox icons depicting Jesus Christ.

Some people believe that the term is part of an effort to "take Christ out of Christmas" or to literally "cross out Christ";[citation needed] it is also seen as evidence of the secularization of Christmas or a vehicle for pushing political correctness, or as a symptom of the commercialization of the holiday (as the abbreviation has long been used by retailers).

The occasionally felt belief that the "X" represents the cross Christ was crucified on has no basis in fact; regardless, St Andrew's Cross is X-shaped, but Christ's cross was probably shaped like a T or a †. Indeed, X-as-chi was associated with Christ long before X-as-cross could be, since the cross as a Christian symbol developed later. (The Greek letter Chi Χ stood for "Christ" in the ancient Greek acrostic ΙΧΘΥΣ ichthys.) While some see the spelling of Christmas as Xmas a threat, others see it as a way to honor the martyrs. The use of X as an abbreviation for "cross" in modern abbreviated writing (e.g. "Kings X" for "Kings Cross") may have reinforced this assumption.

In ancient Christian art χ and χρ are abbreviations for Christ's name.[citation needed] In many manuscripts of the New Testament and icons, X is an abbreviation for Christos, as is XC (the first and last letters in Greek, using the lunate sigma); compare IC for Jesus in Greek. The Oxford English Dictionary documents the use of this abbreviation back to 1551, 50 years before the first English colonists came to North America and 60 years before the King James Version of the Bible was completed. At the same time, Xian and Xianity were in frequent use as abbreviations of "Christian" and "Christianity"; and nowadays still are sometimes so used, but much less than "Xmas". The proper names containing the name "Christ" other than aforementioned are rarely abbreviated in this way (e.g. Hayden Xensen for the actor name "Hayden Christensen"). Pop artist Christina Aguilera is known to spell her first name as 'Xtina'.

This apparent usage of "X" to spell the syllable "kris" (rather than the sounds "ks") has extended to "xtal" for "crystal", and on florists' signs "xant" for "chrysanthemum"[citation needed] (though these words are not etymologically related to "Christ"; "crystal" comes from a Greek word meaning "ice", and "chrysanthemum" from Greek words meaning "golden flower", while "Christ" comes from a Greek word meaning "anointed").

In the animated television show Futurama, which is set in the 31st century, Xmas is the official name for the day formerly known as Christmas (which has become an "archaic pronunciation"

Answer 8

Seperation of church and state has been taken too far destroying the principles and holidays our country was founded on. It was only meant to stop the government from running a religion like king george did in england.It's been stretched way to far..

Answer 9

man i love christmas and i'm an atheist.

dear god starsmommy, it's not their fault that they can't say 'merry christmas'. way to be a good christian and nice holiday spirit.

Answer 10

No matter how you spell it, it's all offensive to God. Christmas is a pagan holiday,