'Xmas' or 'Christmas'?

[Skebo32]

As somebody who hates Americanisms with a passion I caught myself out a couple of days ago saying Xmas instead of Christmas. I wondered What do other ABers think about this?

[plautus]

Instead of giving it its English pronunciation, eks, give it its Greek one, ch, as in chronic.

[237SJ]

Anything`s better than Crimbo.

[Cmitchell]

Been calling it crimble for a month or so now, ever since watching friday night dinner and having heard them refering to (apple) cumble as "crimble crumble"

[j0nb0y]

CHRISTMAS- Don't take Christ out of Christmas.

J.C - He is the reason for the season!!!!!!!

[shoota]

I just say 'Bah Humbug'......

[sunny-dave]

Bah and indeed Humbug

[sunny-dave]

snap snap snappy snap :)

[Zeuhl]

^
No he isn't

It is the mid winter pagan festival that's been nicked by the jesus cult

hence the tree, yule log etc etc

[jno]

awww, sorry to hear anyone's forcing you to say Happy Holidays, Skebo32; very mean of them.

[Skebo32]

Exactly. Christianity only goes back 2,000 years. The Pagan traditions go back a lot further.

[jno]

Zeuhl, it may be more complicated than that. From Wiki:

The date of Christmas may have initially been chosen to correspond with the day exactly nine months after early Christians believed Jesus to have been conceived, as well as the date of the southern solstice (i.e., the Roman winter solstice), with a sun connection being possible because Christians consider Jesus to be the "Sun of righteousness" prophesied in Malachi.

In other words, the Annunciation - tied to the spring solstice - came first and Christmas was calculated on from that.

I've never been sure why a Rome-based church should celebrate with yule logs, hardly a feature of Italian life, and I wonder if north European pagans may have imported their old symbols into the Christian festival rather than the other way round.

[plautus]

The Xmas tree only goes back as far as Queen Victoria and Prince Albert, who imported the tradition from Germany.

[Skebo32]

Yes I know it's silly jno, as I said I just find the Americanisation of the UK really grating. I am probably a bit too sensitive.

[MarkRae]

I agree, Skebo, though that clearly doesn't apply in the case of Xmas...

[B00]

I personally don't care as long as it's said or written sincerely to me, oh and i've been guilty of saying "crimble" ;-)

[Kiki-frog]

I use xmas in txt msgs, but otherwise say Christmas, Yule or Hannukah, depending who I'm talking to and how I feel at the time. It's all about midwinter and celebrating the return of light.

[Skebo32]

I suppose "Happy Festival of Midwinter" doesn't roll off the tongue as easily as "Happy Christmas".

[boxtops]

Just say "Season's Greetings"............

[Mosaic]

X = first letter of Christ in ancient Greek, the lingua franca of early christianity.
Said early Christians were fond of signs and symbolism, often for purposes of secrecy. This love of symbolism persisted after Christianity became the official religion of Rome. X-mas is recorded as a use in England in the 11th century. so it's fine by me.

[FredPuli43]

So Xmas is 11th Century text speak? I always read it as Christmas, not 'X-mas' anyway.But Happy Holidays is very curious, and American. Curious because it's been used for a long time in a country which is Christian and far more church-going and openly religious than ours; it's not as though Christmas is likely to offend the usual recipients of the card.

I don't like Christingle for the Church service either; no doubt it is an old word revived; because it sounds so happy- clappy and trendy. As I'm an atheist, it shouldn't matter to me, but it's jarring.