Christ is the X in Xmas

Monday, December 19, 2011

Some people worry that using "Xmas" instead of "Christmas" will secularize the festival.

I'm not one of them.

I admit it. I use Xmas at times, either because of space constraints or because I'm lazy. But that doesn't mean I'm downplaying Christ's role in Christmas.

On the contrary, I understand that Christ is the X in Xmas.

The picture at the top of this post shows the Greek spelling for "Christ." It begins with the Greek letter Chi, which looks like our X. And just as we sometimes use initials to refer to people, Christians through the ages have used the Chi as an abbreviation for "Christ."

So if I replace the name "Christ" with an X, you can chastise me for being lazy, but you can't complain that I'm secularizing Christmas.

Have a Christ-filled Xmas.

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