The Xmas Christmas Controversy Articles | Christmas

By: Liam

Every Christmas that I can remember there was some degree of outcry over the use of the word Xmas in place of Christmas being a secular attack on the Christian holiday.  In fact, using “X” is very true to keeping the concept of Christ in Christmas.

 Clearly there are some secular people who hold the common belief that Xmas is used to take the religious part out of the season. It is probably true that some merchants use Xmas to take up less space in advertising. Over the years the abbreviation has become more common and Xmas is seen in more places.

The secular understanding of Xmas is reinforced as ‘X’ is often used as an abbreviation in words that have nothing to do with Christ. Words such as extreme are often abbreviated as xtreme and occasionally a celebrity will use an ‘X’ to replace the word Christ in their name, such as Christina Aguilera, sometimes writing her name as X-tina.

However, the reality is the ‘X’ is a modern rendition of the labarum, or Chi-Rho symbol, written as an ‘X’ with a ‘P’ in the center, which means Christ. The symbol was used on the military standards in the 4^th century by the emperor Constantine. By the 16^th century the “X” was used by printers with the old word ‘mas’ that means festival or religious event, as a short form for the name of Christ’s birthday. More recently the Ladies Home Journal published an ad using the term Xmas in 1922.

 Political Correctness Affects Use

 Some religious individuals who do not know their religious heritage blame retailers for using Xmas. Stores are often prone to abbreviate nearly everything, especially in print ads as bigger words cost more money. However, since the term Xmas has been around a lot longer than retail stores, that theory has no support.

 While religious scholars and historians have no objection to the term Xmas, understanding its Greek origins and the use of symbols in the early church, some scholars avoid using the term because of the public’s misunderstanding. Unfortunately there are many who continue to think it takes the Christ out of Christmas, with no regard to the history of the word.