# why x mas????

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-x-mas/142174>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [December 12, 2002, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-x-mas/142174 "2002-12-12T02:37:59Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 9\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![CaptMurdock](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/captmurdock/32/11736_2.png) [@CaptMurdock](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CaptMurdock)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 2:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-x-mas/142174/1 "2002-12-12T02:37:59Z")

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Why x mas???

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**Author:** ![x-ray\_vision](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/x-ray_vision/32/351_2.png) [@x-ray\_vision](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/x-ray_vision)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 2:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-x-mas/142174/2 "2002-12-12T02:41:45Z")

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Cecil has answered this himself. Check the search archive.

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**Author:** ![Jayrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Jayrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayrot)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-x-mas/142174/3 "2002-12-12T02:42:19Z")

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Why ask why?

[or try this](http://www.straightdope.com/mailbag/mxmas.html)

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**Author:** ![Jayrot](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/3ec8ea/32.png) [@Jayrot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jayrot)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-x-mas/142174/4 "2002-12-12T02:43:32Z")

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> [@](#):
>
> Cecil has answered this himself.

Well, actually, although Cecil probably _could_ answer this, it was actually answered by SDSTAFF Mac

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**Author:** ![evilbeth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/evilbeth/32/2268_2.png) [@evilbeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/evilbeth)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 3:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-x-mas/142174/5 "2002-12-12T03:10:04Z")

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Why the holiday or why the substitution of “x”?

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**Author:** ![asterion](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/4da419/32.png) [@asterion](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/asterion)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 3:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-x-mas/142174/6 "2002-12-12T03:39:10Z")

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People are lazy. If you can use a Greek letter which looks Roman, why not?

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**Author:** ![kniz](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/c37758/32.png) [@kniz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kniz)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 4:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-x-mas/142174/7 "2002-12-12T04:52:17Z")

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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.

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**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 10:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-x-mas/142174/8 "2002-12-12T10:17:23Z")

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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’.

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**Author:** ![JRDelirious](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jrdelirious/32/9531_2.png) [@JRDelirious](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JRDelirious)\
**Post date:** [December 12, 2002, 1:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-x-mas/142174/9 "2002-12-12T13:00:12Z")

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🙂 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.