i'm a Christian, have been my whole life, and i say both merry christmas & happy holidays. just depends on what comes out of my mouth. i don't see the big deal? i also say and write "x-mas" a lot!

The greek letter 'x' is the first letter for the greek word for Christ, Xristos.
Xmas therefore means "Christ's Mass"
The "X" in "Xmas" is meant to block out "Christ" as in "Christmas." Among many religious communities the use of this word is looked upon with disdain and completely warps the point of Christmas (the celebration of Christ's birthday). The "X" in "Xmas" represents the Greek letter chi, which is the initial letter of Christos - the Greek for Christ.
Christians came to use X as a symbol, and it crept into the English language as a shorthand. From there it became more generally used.

Xian for Christian and Xmas for Christmas are customary shorthand when religious writers are writing articles and books, and it gets "corrected" by the typesetters.
Xmas, or in some cases X-mas, is an easier way to write Christmas. So in many ways, the X in Xmas stands for Christ.
Christmas is sometimes called xmas because Χ, or Chi, is the first letter of the Greek spelling of Christ: Χριστός

The Greek word for Christ begins with the letter Chi, which is written identical to the roman letter X. So, as a form of shorthand, some people replace "Christ" with the first letter of his Greek name, X. Note that this abbrevation for Christmas came about long before cell-phone text messaging, though the latter has greatly increased the usage of the former.
christ

Mach said:

Mars23 said:

The greatest gift of all is having a total bait thread turned into real discussion.

Happy Easter everyone!

Blessed Samhain

i'm gonna use a made up greeting from now on.

May you have a blessed Flebit

XxAxX said:

Mach said:

Blessed Samhain

i'm gonna use a made up greeting from now on.

May you have a blessed Flebit

Happy Craokmoan !

Neither.. But if someone says it to me I just say thank you, you too!

I can't get into all that extra shyt

Mach said:

XxAxX said:

i'm gonna use a made up greeting from now on.

May you have a blessed Flebit

Happy Craokmoan !

same to you!! and, many happy perdibitts

The first time I hear a Scotsman say 'happy holidays' is the day I go on my shotgun rampage at the shopping mall. YOU WILL KNOW MY NAME.

Im agnostic....& I say MERRY CHRISTMAS~~~

Genesia said:

THAT is my new FAVORITE Xmus song!!!

A merry happy chrismahannakwanzikamas to you.

Cerebus said:

A merry happy chrismahannakwanzikamas to you.

That about covers it!

JustErin said:

Cerebus said:

A merry happy chrismahannakwanzikamas to you.

That about covers it!

I try because I care. .........

Cerebus said:

JustErin said:

That about covers it!

I try because I care. .........

So sweet.

I care so much that I don't wish anyone anything....you know, so as not to offend anyone.

JustErin said:

Cerebus said:

I try because I care. .........

So sweet.

I care so much that I don't wish anyone anything....you know, so as not to offend anyone.

Yeah, I don't care so much about that. I will actually say what I posted above to people. Some laugh (the people I like ) and some give me a nasty look. Fuck 'em.

JustErin said:

Funkcreep said:

Because it's irritating that people try to take the Christ out of Christmas. Like me son's school has "Winter Break". How stupid!!! I crossed it off in his folder and wrote "Christmas Break"

My son goes to school with children that are not Christians. He also goes to a public school so religion has no business being discussed...period. Winter Break makes sense.

Christmas in our house is about family and Santa only...and has nothing to do with religion.

It's best to say happy holidays since no matter what religion you are, you're probably going to have some time off at some point.

People can say what they like....but Christmas is ALL about religion! That's how it started, perhaps folks that don't believe in the religious side of it should find another day to give gifts. Christmas will always be about celebrating Christ...the name itself reminds everyone of that!

Lisa10 said:

I've never heard anyone in Britain say 'Happy Holidays'.

Merry/happy christmas.

I can't recall every hearing anyone here in the US where I've lived say "happy holidays." I'd just ignore it anyway..or say "Merry Christmas and GOD Bless You" in response. Seriously, its not a big deal to me since I don't deal with it...but I can see how it can be quite irritating. Happy holidays, winter break, holiday tree...all of it is bs. I like tradition..Merry Christmas, Christmas break, Christmas tree will do.

DaphneLovesPR1NCE said:

JustErin said:

My son goes to school with children that are not Christians. He also goes to a public school so religion has no business being discussed...period. Winter Break makes sense.

Christmas in our house is about family and Santa only...and has nothing to do with religion.

It's best to say happy holidays since no matter what religion you are, you're probably going to have some time off at some point.

People can say what they like....but Christmas is ALL about religion! That's how it started, perhaps folks that don't believe in the religious side of it should find another day to give gifts. Christmas will always be about celebrating Christ...the name itself reminds everyone of that!

Telling non-Christians to find another day is like telling Christians to stop all the secular traditions that THEY also participate in on Christmas.

Face it, Christmas is simply about Santa and gifts for millions...regardless of where it started or what name it has. Non-religious people don't give a flying fuck that it's on the same day as a day that Christians celebrate Jesus's birth (which is incorrect anyway) and religious people who do have a problem with it can eat it.

StonedImmaculate said:

If someone says Merry Christmas to you, why not just take it as it is...a nice comment.

No....gotta turn it into a religious debate.

If someone was to say Happy Hanukkah to me, I would just say "Same to you!" with a smile.

Oh...this world!

I know. How anyone could get pissy over a casual exchange of pleasantries is beyond me.

People just trying to be nice and getting a damned lecture,

kimrachell said:

i'm a Christian, have been my whole life, and i say both merry christmas & happy holidays. just depends on what comes out of my mouth. i don't see the big deal? i also say and write "x-mas" a lot!

The greek letter 'x' is the first letter for the greek word for Christ, Xristos.
Xmas therefore means "Christ's Mass"
The "X" in "Xmas" is meant to block out "Christ" as in "Christmas." Among many religious communities the use of this word is looked upon with disdain and completely warps the point of Christmas (the celebration of Christ's birthday). The "X" in "Xmas" represents the Greek letter chi, which is the initial letter of Christos - the Greek for Christ.
Christians came to use X as a symbol, and it crept into the English language as a shorthand. From there it became more generally used.

Xian for Christian and Xmas for Christmas are customary shorthand when religious writers are writing articles and books, and it gets "corrected" by the typesetters.
Xmas, or in some cases X-mas, is an easier way to write Christmas. So in many ways, the X in Xmas stands for Christ.
Christmas is sometimes called xmas because Χ, or Chi, is the first letter of the Greek spelling of Christ: Χριστός

The Greek word for Christ begins with the letter Chi, which is written identical to the roman letter X. So, as a form of shorthand, some people replace "Christ" with the first letter of his Greek name, X. Note that this abbrevation for Christmas came about long before cell-phone text messaging, though the latter has greatly increased the usage of the former.
christ

Well, thank you for that lesson. I remember as child I was helping my mom sign Christmas cards for her students. She was a second grade teacher, and she would give each of her students a card. I was supposed to write "Merry Christmas" on the inside of each card and then mom would sign her name. Well, I got the idea of shortening "Christmas" with "Xmas." I think I had done about 5-6 cards when my mom saw what I was doing. She went ape shit! She thought it was a sacrilege to shorten the name and leave out "Christ." Now that you've explained it, I will print this out and let her read it!

babynoz said:

StonedImmaculate said:

If someone says Merry Christmas to you, why not just take it as it is...a nice comment.

No....gotta turn it into a religious debate.

If someone was to say Happy Hanukkah to me, I would just say "Same to you!" with a smile.

Oh...this world!

I know. How anyone could get pissy over a casual exchange of pleasantries is beyond me.

People just trying to be nice and getting a damned lecture,