The 'X' is actually the descendant of the Greek equivalent of 'Ch', as in 'Christos' which means "Christ." But today's society has implied that X means to X-out or remove. And so Christ is removed by removing the X. The truth is, the letter X has stood for Christ since at least 1100 A. D. The "Xmas" was first cited in 1551. Eric Partridge, word scholar, says that the scholarly abbreviation for "Christianity" is "Xianity."
History lesson for the day...
Tuesday, December 16, 2008
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Just to add to your little thought, 1551 was 50 years before english settlers landed in what we now call the United States...it was also 60 years prior to the completion of the King James Version of the Bible(and 351 years before George Dayton created the company now called Target). And the symbol of the X over the P has been used since 1021 to depict Christ. So no...Xmas does not offend me.
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