Who Put The X in Xmas?

First of all I have no belief that Christ was born December 25, but that is not the point, the point is that Xmas is not a derogatory term at all. It was in fact the early Christians themselves who put the X in Christmas.

As far back as the year 1021 AD the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle often wrote Christ as XP or Xt. To be fair XP can be seen in many Eastern Orthodox religious icons and is known to mean Christ.
X in Greek is Chi, the symbol for Christ. Plain and simple. Any literature historian will know this.

As printing presses came into being it was very common for printers to save time, and ink, by using the capital letter X to represent the name of Christ when printing religious material. Nobody raised an eyebrow. For decades, and even at the beginning of the 1900’s, the term Xmas had no negative connotations. People appreciated the shorter word for the sake of convenience, as well it avoided spelling mistakes, especially when long Christmas letters where written by hand or typed on a manual typewriter.

http://s3.amazonaws.com/readers/2009/12/09/postcardibringyouamerryxmas1910_1.jpg  A card from 1910.

It was only recently that people, who have apparently not researched the origin of the term Xmas, got irate. These people started insisting that the word Xmas was an attempt by non-Christians to some how devalue the Christian meaning of the day. Of course most scholars know, and agree, that not only was Christ very likely not born on December 25th but indeed other religious ceremonies, which predated Christianity, took place on this day or around this time of year.

As well, it was, without a doubt, Christians who first introduced the shortened word, Xmas, into being.

So to everyone, Merry Xmas, and Happy Holidays!

Related Reading

Why do we Kiss under the Mistletoe

Origins of Christmas Traditions

Should Atheists Celebrate Christmas

Happy Holidays!

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