Happy Xmas? What’s in an X

This is the time of the year when many Christians get annoyed at the use of “Xmas” instead of Christmas, taking offense at the idea of an X replacing the name of Christ. But before we get upset, let’s have a quick look at where the idea of “Xmas” comes from.

There is nothing inherently disrespectful about writing “Xmas”. The letter X in our alphabet indicates the Greek letter chi, which is the first letter of Christ’s name in Greek (Χριστός). So the letter X does represent the name of Christ, just as  the Greek letter theta — the Θ — is used as a shorthand abbreviation for God because it is the first letter of the Greek word for God, Theos.

It might annoy us when “Xmas” is used as a lazy shortcut, but its roots are solidly Christian and, indeed, sacred.