Origin of Merry Xmas
There was a time when I thought writing, “Merry Xmas” was just lazy. Some folks feel it is worse than lazy because to them it leaves Christ out of Christmas. Actually nothing could be further from the truth.
The New Testament was written in Greek and the Greek word for Christ is Χριστος. Today we can cut and paste and print and therefore we don’t think much about what it must have like centuries ago when texts were being written and copied by hand.
According to Greg Carey, Professor of New Testament, Lancaster Theological Seminary: “Early manuscripts of the Greek New Testament dating to the third and fourth centuries used “X” as an abbreviation for Christ…The abbreviation helped manuscript writers fit more words on a page, reducing the time and cost of producing the texts…”
So, Merry Xmas is nothing new. It wasn’t started by non-believers. It is not a war on Christmas. Seminary students have been using the abbreviation “Xian” for “Christian” forever.
See more at: http://www.patheos.com/…/formerlyfu…/keeping-the-x-in-xmas/…
Crooked Creek by Sue Mattingly 
This is a peaceful page. I love those red leaves.
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Thank you!
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This may be, as you say, the origin of Xmas. However, since have typeset today, I think we should spell it out properly, since so few people understand that X signifies Christ. To folks in our society X signifies “wrong” or “unknown.”
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I see your point, but hope some folks feel better understanding the origin.
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Interesting. I learned something new. However, I will continue to use Christmas. It only seems right. I will stop judging others that use Xmas but not Happy Holidays.
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https://crookedcreek.live/2017/12/24/december/
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I did not know this. Now I won’t feel guilty if I write Xmas.
As a side note, Xmas and Happy Holidays do not offend me. There are two parts to the holiday– all the secular parts that we do and all the religious or spiritual parts. Although the secular parts are probably originated or derived from the characteristics of Christmas, they are not all based in the Chritian faith.
Therefore I use both Happy Holidays and Merry Christmas, based on the person to whom I am speaking and the occasion. I certainly hope that people enjoy both parts of this time of year and that love, joy and peace will come to all of us, no matter how we look at this time of year.
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Very peaceful thoughts.
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And a Happy Xyear.
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