The War on xmas

Both Chad and Dave grew up deep in the South, and as children of the South, we are no strangers to the annual “War on Christmas.” We’ve seen everything from the famed debacle over the red Starbucks cup, to the controversy over the Walmart greeter wishing us “Happy Holidays,” to the White House “holiday tree.” We’ve listened to preachers complain that schools aren’t even allowed to talk about Jesus or display a nativity scene, even though literally every school in the South does both of those things. A lot. 
But nothing—and I mean nothing!—can raise the rancor of a Christmas culture warrior quite like the appearance of that magic 4-letter word. No, not THOSE 4-letter words . . . this one: XMAS. 

There. I typed it. My computer didn’t explode. The internet wasn’t struck by lightning. The cry-less baby Jesus didn’t suddenly start weeping. It’s okay. In fact, let me tell you why it is not only okay to say “xmas,” but why maybe you in fact should use it every now and then. Brace yourselves.

Southern cultural crusaders tell us that “xmas” is the equivalent of crossing out Jesus’ name because the X has replaced “Christ.” Thus, quite literally, Christ has been x-ed out of Christmas. There is your war on Christmas, plain as day; those pinko Commie leftist pagans aren’t even trying to hide it anymore!

Only that’s not true. 

To the contrary, the letter X is the first letter in the word “Christ.” In Greek, the X is the letter “chi” (remember back to your college fraternity and sorority training, you probably already know this letter), transliterated with the English letters “ch.” Transliterated into English letters, the name “Christ” is spelled “Xristos.” Further, the second letter is “rho,” or the English “r,” but in Greek, it looks like the English “p.” So when you see XP together (settle down, D&D fans, this isn’t what you think it is), it stands for “chi rho,” or “ch-r,” or the first two letters in the name of Jesus. This is probably the oldest known abbreviation for the name of Christ, and far from being an insult or a means of scratching Christ out of his own holiday, it is a sacred and revered symbol that is close to 2000 years old.
​
So, whenever you see “xmas,” no one is actually x-ing out the name of Christ; in fact, they are employing the oldest known symbol for the name “Christ,” even if they don’t know they are doing it. The X doesn’t eliminate Christ; the X is a (very ancient) symbol for Christ. So the next time you hear someone fussing about how “xmas” is scratching out Christ, feel free to drop some knowledge on them (after, of course, you smugly and self-righteously look down your nose at them for their gross ignorance!).