Mumsnet Talk

'x' is short for lots of things. At work (in a hospital), we write tx (treatment), px (patient), hx (history) etc. I don't really see what the problem with Xmas is.

Agree with Op, it's lazy. Though I would say texting it is just about ok .

I remember hearing this very thing discussed on Radio 4 some years ago and the conclusion was that Xmas is more authentic than Christmas.

YABU about writing Xmas

YANBU about saying xmas

Err - the pagan festival starting on the 25th Dec is named Yule. The festival of 'Christ's Mass' is Christian. The date of christmas was intentionally coincided with Yule in order to merge the two festivals and smooth the spread of a new religion across Europe.

X is the normal way of writing Christ in the Middle Ages and later: you see it in medieval Bibles, in church music, in the writings of the saints, in liturgical manuals, in theological manuscripts. In fact, I can't remember ever seeing the word written out in full in this kind of work.

Should I stop reading this literature because it is just too sloppy and disrespectful? (I've said many harsh things about St Bernard in the past, but I've never thought of calling him sloppy before- rather enjoying that )

To me, the modern fussiness about Xmas is just another sad sign of how we are getting out of touch with the past.

btw just realised I abbreviated St in the above. Is that disrespectful too?

What the hell is Xmas anyway?

It's the greek form of Christ with mas added to it. X was used, along with the fish symbol to identify Christians from about 33AD. So longer than the word Chrstmas in English.

So Xmas, Chrimbo, and Yule to you.

goralka

hic

ah but many Christians object to merry as it suggests drunkeness......
Merry Xmas!

I don't mind xmas. I'm loving all of the reasons the x is used, i've had a mini education nah I use it when I cba typing the full on word.

I find 'Happy Christmas' much more offensive, it really gets to me. Its merry.

am v sri 2 hear u feel ths way

Because Xmas annoys the hell out of me and the others you mention don't I imagine!

I have already said that I do not feel this way about it due to any particular religious beliefs - just that Xmas is a horrible and (to me) non-sensical abbreviation for Christmas.

As it happens, I am not a fan of many, many abbreviated words in general - although the didn't, won't, wouldn't etc. etc. are fine.

And it seems that I can't use an apostrophe correctly myself! Christian's?

ThePoppyAndTheIvy I write, type Xmas. It's a pretty widely accepted abbreviation. I also am aware of the Greek X origins, and of Christian's appropriating pre-existing pagan festivals. I am an atheist, who had a very Catholic upbringing. Yet I write Xmas as it is an abbreviation.

I am surprised at your stance against abbreviating, especially as you have used wouldn't, isn't, aren't, didn't, 's (for is), etc. Why are these ones acceptable and Xmas not?

Never ever heard anyone object to saying Xmas.
Mumsnet opens my eyes to new things to be upset by daily though.
Still think on balance Xmas is acceptable!
And I actually thought when I bought the table decoration that it would have been cheaper to make than christmas but its also more practical as my table is pretty crowded and I simply couldn't fit 5 more letters without moving a reindeer

oh yes kitchenjumble that was my mother and stepfather - the Greek Chi wouldn't have cut it with them!

DiddyMary is right. The first letter of the word for Christ in Greek (Christos) is the letter chi, which looks simiilar to the letter X. It is a very old abbreviation of the word Christmas and has absolutely nothing to do with textspeak!

I get particularly irritated by a certain group of paranoid Christians who insist that writing Xmas is an attempt to "take Christ out of Christmas." (Not suggesting the OP is one of this group.)

Really sleepless - have you never met anyone with a strong opinion about saying Xmas before? I've met loads of like minded people over the years . I wouldn't be upset or offended by something in your own home though, I'd just assume you couldn't afford the other five letters .

Oh and btw I know the Greek reasoning behind Xmas, the lazy reasoning and the non Christian reasoning for saying Xmas- all perfectly acceptable by me.

YABU.

Yabu. Agree with brandy.

I prefer the word Xmas to Christmas but say both depending on the sentence.

I'm soo excited about my new table decoration: Xmas spelt out in wooden letters and painted red and white- never imagined it would upset someone!

Coola - the pedant in me respects M&S for that .

I am half Greek and called Christine. Christine in Greek does start with X.

When I was a student I used to spend holidays working for a flower company that supplied the M&S flowers.....

I wrote the gift cards and the customers were limited to a set number of letters.

When writing the cards abbreviations were NOT allowed. Ever. Not even when they came in from the customer. Reputation to protect etc blah blah.

It was a nightmare. The cards were standard size flower cards, and Christmas takes up a lot more space than Xmas. We also had to write "and" if "&" was used..... To make matters worse groups of family members would send one greeting.

Imagine -

To Betty & Steve, Merry Xmas & a Happy New Year, from Arthur & Penny, Jim & Bev, Charlie & Pete xxx.

This would become:

To Betty and Steve, Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year, from Arthur and Penny, Jim and Bev, Charlie and Pete xxx.

Ok, so not a huge difference, but massive on a teeny little card!

The store assistants also used to abbreviate EVERYTHING to fit very long messages into the letter allowance, to the point where you could end up with 50% more. And most of them couldn't spell Margaret - Margret featured a lot and we had to correct that too.

And at Valentines we were not allowed to write anything even vaguely saucy, and if an "unacceptable" message was accepted in store we had to call the customer, tell them we couldn't send that message and ask for a more "appropriate" one hehehe.