You might have heard the phrase “Keep Christ in Christmas” either on a church or a Facebook wall. It looks like “Xmas” takes off Christ out of Christmas. The word emerges to abolish the minimal mention of the holiday’s religious focus.

However, those who outrage at the term “Xmas” actually don’t know that the word stem from Christianity’s genesis. The “X” is a simplified version of the chi-rho — the first two letters of the Greek word for Christ laid over one another. 

The early Christians were over-optimistic with symbols. They use many characters to represent messages, such as the IX monogram and the alpha and omega to mean their messiah. Although its origins symbolize luck and goodness in ancient Greece, the chi-rho symbol antecedes Christianity.

It demonstrated to be a persisting symbol and even persevered over into the English language-albeit, in an altered state. Some authors wrote the word Christmas more stylishly, like “X’temmas” in late medieval England. Even though there are historical bona fides, the abbreviation has been criticized over the years, especially in the US. 

In 1977, conservative New Hampshire Governor Meldrim Thomson sent a press release to journalists telling them to avoid using “Xmas”. The most contemporary repetition of the “war on Christmas” Started in 2004, with recently ousted Fox News personality Bill O’Reilly. Hence, “Xmas” has continued to be the target of such discussions.

It’s crystal clear why some people feel that “Xmas” looks like it’s striking out the accurate meaning of the holiday for Christians. Yet attacking the secularization of a religious holiday on a tiny, centuries-old abbreviation contemplates a misinterpretation of history and language.