There are those who have a strong reaction to this term “Xmas”. The feeling is often as if Christ is being crossed out of the holiday. However, that is not what was is intended at all. It is a long-time used term.

The X is actually the closest equivalent to the Greek chi character which, as you might have guessed, looks like an X. This is also the first letter in the Greek work for Christ (Χριστος). As such, a common short-hand for Christ was to simply write the Greek letter chi (Χ or χ).

So, Xmas is Christmas or, more specifically, Christos – mas.

But let us take one more moment to take a look at another component that often goes overlooked, the “mas” part. What does that refer to?

And we will address that in part 2 of Xmas . . .