Why x mas???
Cecil has answered this himself. Check the search archive.
Why ask why?
Well, actually, although Cecil probably could answer this, it was actually answered by SDSTAFF Mac
Why the holiday or why the substitution of “x”?
People are lazy. If you can use a Greek letter which looks Roman, why not?
It is not “x mas”, it’s “Xmas”. The “X” is the Greek letter for “Christ”. A sort of shorthand, but not disrespectful as most people that don’t know assume.
I’ve heard some Christians say that replacing ‘Christ’ with ‘x’ (the algebraic ‘unknown quantity’) was either a satanic plot or a subconscious result of ‘not knowing Jesus’.
Oy… Mangetout, the sad part of it is I’m sure they are convinced of it.
It used to be very common to use the chi as an abbreviation for Christ, specially back when ink and paper were scarce – I recall a document from C. Columbus where for “Christ, Son of Mary” he just scribbles X-M-Y.
In modern times we get the quite frequent instance (seen in these boards, among many places) of non-Christian writers/debaters who abbreviate “Christian” as “Xian”, for no apparent reason other than to tweak at the Christians.