This is a repost from 2010, but I always think it is worth revisiting.
I’m sure you’re thinking, what a strange name for a post. You probably think I’m the type of guy who always puts the “Christ” in Christmas. In fact, if I was you, I’d guess that Michael Coughlin is the type of guy who spells the late December holiday, “CHRISTmas.”
Well, sometimes I do spell it CHRISTmas. In fact, I always spell out the word. Here is an interesting video that may help people to understand some things about the name of Christ, particularly in the Greek. There are some people out there who are really judgmental of others who abbreviate Christmas:
It’s always about the heart, isn’t it? My pastor abbreviates “Christmas,” also with Greek letters. He does it for economy. The same reason we type LOL and things like that.
I WILL NOT abbreviate specifically because before I was saved I intentionally wrote XMAS IN ORDER TO exclude Christ from Christmas. Yep. I was “that guy.” I actively enjoyed seeing the letter X replace Christ and I was annoyed and angered by the “put the Christ back in Christmas” people.
So in a sense, it matters NOT how it originated, essentially because all things are lawful…I mean, we can take something that the devil meant for evil and use it for good if we wanted to anyway…
But it does matter why that person or corporation uses the “X.” I do believe if we asked everyone who abbreviates with an X, why they do that…you’d have a nice mixture of responses. And I do believe there would be at least some portion that intentionally excludes Christ and replaces with an “X” out of a sort of malice. It is for these people’s sake, and my own conscience that I don’t put the “X” in Christmas.
I’m sure there’s more that can be said, but there’s my 2 cents. I’m happy to know I can abbreviate and thanks to Mike and my own pastor I am now less ignorant than I was just 1 week ago about the whole deal.
Merry CHRISTmas, everyone. 😉
Also, please check out this post by RC Sproul – so you know it must be good! http://www.ligonier.org/why-is-x-used-when-it-replaces-christ-in-christmas/
[…] or a card the words “Merry Xmas?” Perhaps. But probably not. One former non-Christian admits here that he used to intentionally write “Xmas” in order to exclude Christ from his […]