Why do people shorten Christmas to Xmas? Jesus doesn cut us short so why do we cut him short?
I find it hard to believe that anyone that cuts his name short respects him like they say they do. A. You’re right. Christ doesn’t cut us short, and for that we must be thankful. But changing Christmas to Xmas, for me, is not cutting him short. I’ll explain in a moment. Before I do, however, let’s go back fifty years when the idea seems to have first caught on. The Greek for Christ is Χριστός (Strong’s Concordance Number #5547), or Christos, pronounced khris-tos. In Greek, therefore, X does not cut Christ short, but is a distinct part of his name. Merchants realized they could shave their advertising costs by using X, since it took less space than Christ, but after a few years the religious community countered with the slogan, “Let’s put Christ back into Xmas.” Generally they succeeded, especially since modern advertising layouts don’t depend on the number of letters in a word. But, as I said, changing Christmas to Xmas, for me, is not cutting Jesus short. In this I speak for thousand
