Xmas (also X-mas) is a common

abbreviation An abbreviation () is a shortened form of a word or phrase, by any method including shortening (linguistics), shortening, contraction (grammar), contraction, initialism (which includes acronym), or crasis. An abbreviation may be a shortened for ...

of the word ''

Christmas Christmas is an annual festival commemorating Nativity of Jesus, the birth of Jesus Christ, observed primarily on December 25 as a Religion, religious and Culture, cultural celebration among billions of people Observance of Christmas by coun ...

''. It is sometimes pronounced , but ''Xmas'', and variants such as ''Xtemass'', originated as handwriting abbreviations for the typical pronunciation . The 'X' comes from the

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

letter , which is the first letter of the Greek word (), which became ''

Christ Jesus ( AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Christianity, central figure of Christianity, the M ...

'' in English. The suffix ''-mas'' is from the Latin-derived

Old English Old English ( or , or ), or Anglo-Saxon, is the earliest recorded form of the English language, spoken in England and southern and eastern Scotland in the Early Middle Ages. It developed from the languages brought to Great Britain by Anglo-S ...

word for

Mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...

. There is a common misconception that the word ''Xmas'' stems from a secularizing tendency to de-emphasize the religious tradition of Christmas, by taking the 'Christ' out of "Christmas". Nevertheless, the term's usage dates back to the 16th century, and corresponds to

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

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Lutheran Lutheranism is a major branch of Protestantism that emerged under the work of Martin Luther, the 16th-century German friar and Protestant Reformers, reformer whose efforts to reform the theology and practices of the Catholic Church launched ...

and

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

liturgical Liturgy is the customary public ritual of worship performed by a religious group. As a religious phenomenon, liturgy represents a communal response to and participation in the sacred through activities reflecting praise, thanksgiving, remembra ...

use of various forms of

chi-rho The Chi Rho (☧, English pronunciation ; also known as ''chrismon'') is one of the earliest forms of the Christogram, formed by superimposing the first two (capital) letters—chi (letter), chi and rho (ΧΡ)—of the Greek (Romanization of ...

monogram A monogram is a motif (visual arts), motif made by overlapping or combining two or more letters or other graphemes to form one symbol. Monograms are often made by combining the initials of an individual or a company, used as recognizable symbo ...

. In English, "X" was first used as a

scribal abbreviation Scribal abbreviations, or sigla (grammatical number, singular: siglum), are abbreviations used by ancient and medieval scribes writing in various languages, including Latin, Greek language, Greek, Old English and Old Norse. In modern Textua ...

for "Christ" in 1100; "X'temmas" is attested in 1551, and "Xmas" in 1721.

Style guides and etiquette

The term ''Xmas'' is deprecated by some modern

style guide A style guide is a set of standards for the writing, formatting, and design of documents. A book-length style guide is often called a style manual or a manual of style. A short style guide, typically ranging from several to several dozen page ...

s, including those at ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

'', ''The New York Times Manual of Style and Usage'', ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'', ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in Manchester in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'' and changed its name in 1959, followed by a move to London. Along with its sister paper, ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardi ...

'', and the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

.Griffiths, Emma
"Why get cross about Xmas?"
BBC website, December 22, 2004. Retrieved December 28, 2008. Millicent Fenwick, in the 1948 ''Vogue's Book of Etiquette'', states that "'Xmas' should never be used" in greeting cards. ''The Cambridge Guide to Australian English Usage'' states that the spelling should be considered informal and restricted to contexts where concision is valued, such as headlines and greeting cards.Peters, Pam
"Xmas" article
''The Cambridge Guide to Australian English Usage'', Cambridge University Press, 2007, , p 872, retrieved via Google Books, December 27, 2008 ''The Christian Writer's Manual of Style'', while acknowledging the ancient and respectful use of ''Xmas'' in the past, states that the spelling should never be used in

formal writing Literary language is the register of a language used when writing in a formal, academic, or particularly polite tone; when speaking or writing in such a tone, it can also be known as formal language. It may be the standardized variety of a lang ...

History

Use in English

Early use of ''Xmas'' includes Bernard Ward's ''History of St. Edmund's college, Old Hall'' (originally published ). An earlier version, ''X'temmas'', dates to 1551. Around 1100 the term was written as in the ''

Anglo-Saxon Chronicle The ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' is a collection of annals in Old English, chronicling the history of the Anglo-Saxons. The original manuscript of the ''Chronicle'' was created late in the ninth century, probably in Wessex, during the reign of ...

''. ''Xmas'' is found in a letter from George Woodward in 1753.

Lord Byron George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron (22 January 1788 – 19 April 1824) was an English poet. He is one of the major figures of the Romantic movement, and is regarded as being among the greatest poets of the United Kingdom. Among his best-kno ...

used the term in 1811, as did

Samuel Coleridge Samuel Taylor Coleridge ( ; 21 October 177225 July 1834) was an English poet, literary critic, philosopher, and theologian who was a founder of the Romantic Movement in England and a member of the Lake Poets with his friend William Wordswort ...

(1801) and

Lewis Carroll Charles Lutwidge Dodgson (27 January 1832 – 14 January 1898), better known by his pen name Lewis Carroll, was an English author, poet, mathematician, photographer and reluctant Anglicanism, Anglican deacon. His most notable works are ''Alice ...

(1864). In the United States, the fifth American edition of William Perry's ''Royal Standard English Dictionary'', published in Boston in 1800, included in its list of "Explanations of Common Abbreviations, or Contraction of Words" the entry: "Xmas. Christmas." Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. used the term in a letter dated 1923. Since at least the late 19th century, ''Xmas'' has been in use in various other English-language nations. Quotations with the word can be found in texts first written in Canada, and the word has been used in Australia, and in the Caribbean. ''Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage'' stated that modern use of the term is largely limited to advertisements, headlines and banners, where its conciseness is valued. The association with commerce "has done nothing for its reputation", according to the dictionary. In the United Kingdom, the former

Church of England The Church of England (C of E) is the State religion#State churches, established List of Christian denominations, Christian church in England and the Crown Dependencies. It is the mother church of the Anglicanism, Anglican Christian tradition, ...

Bishop of

Blackburn Blackburn () is an industrial town and the administrative centre of the Blackburn with Darwen borough in Lancashire, England. The town is north of the West Pennine Moors on the southern edge of the River Ribble, Ribble Valley, east of Preston ...

, Alan Chesters, recommended to his clergy that they avoid the spelling. In the United States, in 1977

New Hampshire New Hampshire ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

Governor Meldrim Thomson sent out a press release saying that he wanted journalists to keep the "Christ" in Christmas, and not call it Xmas—which he called a "

pagan Paganism (, later 'civilian') is a term first used in the fourth century by early Christians for people in the Roman Empire who practiced polytheism, or ethnic religions other than Christianity, Judaism, and Samaritanism. In the time of the ...

" spelling of 'Christmas'.

Use of ''X'' for 'Christ'

The abbreviation of Christmas as ''Xmas'' is a source of disagreement among Christians who observe the holiday. The December 1957 ''News and Views'' published by the Church League of America, a conservative organization co-founded in 1937 by George Washington Robnett, attacked the use of Xmas in an article titled "X=The Unknown Quantity". The claims were picked up later by

Gerald L. K. Smith Gerald Lyman Kenneth Smith (February 27, 1898 – April 15, 1976) was an American Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), Disciples clergyman, politician and organizer known for his Populism, populist and Far-right politics, far-right demagoguer ...

, who in December 1966 claimed that Xmas was a "blasphemous omission of the name of Christ" and that "'X' is referred to as being symbolical of the unknown quantity". Smith further argued that the Jewish people had introduced Santa Claus to suppress New Testament accounts of Jesus, and that the United Nations, at the behest of "world Jewry", had "outlawed the name of Christ". There is, however, a well documented history of use of ''Χ'' (actually the

letter ) as an abbreviation for "Christ" and possibly also a symbol of the cross. The abbreviation appears on many Orthodox Christian religious icons. Dennis Bratcher, writing for Christian website ''The Voice'', states "there are always those who loudly decry the use of the abbreviation 'Xmas' as some kind of blasphemy against Christ and Christianity". Among them are evangelist Franklin Graham and former

CNN Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news organization operating, most notably, a website and a TV channel headquartered in Atlanta. Founded in 1980 by American media proprietor Ted Turner and Reese Schonfeld as a 24-hour cable ne ...

contributor Roland S. Martin. Graham stated in an interview: Roland Martin likewise relates the use of ''Xmas'' to his growing concerns of increasing commercialization and secularization of one of Christianity's highest holy days. Bratcher posits that those who dislike abbreviating the word are unfamiliar with a long history of Christians using X in place of "Christ" for various purposes. The word ''

'' and its compounds, including ''Christmas'', have been abbreviated in English for at least the past 1,000 years, long before the modern ''Xmas'' was commonly used. ''Christ'' was often written as 'Xρ' or 'Xt'; there are references in the ''Anglo-Saxon Chronicle'' as far back as 1021. This 'X' and 'P' arose as the

uppercase Letter case is the distinction between the letters that are in larger uppercase or capitals (more formally ''#Majuscule, majuscule'') and smaller lowercase (more formally ''#Minuscule, minuscule'') in the written representation of certain langua ...

forms of the

Greek letters The Greek alphabet has been used to write the Greek language since the late 9th or early 8th century BC. It was derived from the earlier Phoenician alphabet, and is the earliest known alphabetic script to systematically write vowels as we ...

(Ch) and (R) used in ancient abbreviations for (Greek for "Christ"). The

Chi-Rho The Chi Rho (☧, English pronunciation ; also known as ''chrismon'') is one of the earliest forms of the Christogram, formed by superimposing the first two (capital) letters—chi (letter), chi and rho (ΧΡ)—of the Greek (Romanization of ...

, an amalgamation of the two Greek letters rendered as '☧' (

Unicode Unicode or ''The Unicode Standard'' or TUS is a character encoding standard maintained by the Unicode Consortium designed to support the use of text in all of the world's writing systems that can be digitized. Version 16.0 defines 154,998 Char ...

character ) is a symbol often used to represent Christ in

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Protestant Protestantism is a branch of Christianity that emphasizes Justification (theology), justification of sinners Sola fide, through faith alone, the teaching that Salvation in Christianity, salvation comes by unmerited Grace in Christianity, divin ...

, and Orthodox Christian Churches. The ''

Oxford English Dictionary The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' (''OED'') is the principal historical dictionary of the English language, published by Oxford University Press (OUP), a University of Oxford publishing house. The dictionary, which published its first editio ...

'' (''OED'') and the ''OED Supplement'' have cited usages of ''X-'' or ''Xp-'' for 'Christ-' as early as 1485. The terms ''Xtian'' and less commonly ''Xpian'' have also been used for 'Christian'. The ''OED'' further cites usage of ''Xtianity'' for 'Christianity' from 1634. According to ''Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage'', most of the evidence for these words comes from "educated Englishmen who knew their Greek"."Xmas" article
''Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage'', Merriam-Webster, 1994, p 968, , retrieved via Google Books, December 27, 2008 In ancient Christian art, and are abbreviations for Christ's name. In many manuscripts of the ''

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

'' and

icon An icon () is a religious work of art, most commonly a painting, in the cultures of the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic Church, Catholic, and Lutheranism, Lutheran churches. The most common subjects include Jesus, Mary, mother of ...

s, 'Χ' is an abbreviation for , as is XC (the first and last letters in Greek, using the lunate

sigma Sigma ( ; uppercase Σ, lowercase σ, lowercase in word-final position ς; ) is the eighteenth letter of the Greek alphabet. In the system of Greek numerals, it has a value of 200. In general mathematics, uppercase Σ is used as an operator ...

); compare IC for

Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

in Greek.

Other uses of ''X(t)'' for 'Chris(t)-'

Other proper names containing the name 'Christ' besides those mentioned above are sometimes abbreviated similarly, either as ''X'' or ''Xt'', both of which have been used historically, e.g., ''Xtopher'' or ''Xopher'' for 'Christopher', or ''Xtina'' or ''Xina'' for the name 'Christina'. In the 17th and 18th centuries, ''Xene'' and ''Exene'' were common spellings for the given name 'Christine'. The American singer

Christina Aguilera Christina María Aguilera ( , ; born December 18, 1980) is an American singer-songwriter, actress and television personality. Recognized as Cultural impact of Christina Aguilera, an influential figure in music and having received Public imag ...

has sometimes gone by the name "Xtina". Similarly, Exene Cervenka has been a noted American singer-songwriter since 1977. This usage of 'X' to spell the syllable ''kris'' (rather than the sounds ''ks'') has extended to ''xtal'' for '

crystal A crystal or crystalline solid is a solid material whose constituents (such as atoms, molecules, or ions) are arranged in a highly ordered microscopic structure, forming a crystal lattice that extends in all directions. In addition, macros ...

', and on

florist Floristry is the production, commerce, and trade in flowers. It encompasses flower care and handling, floral design and arrangement, merchandising, production, display and flower delivery. Wholesale florists sell bulk flowers and related s ...

s' signs to ''xant'' for '

chrysanthemum Chrysanthemums ( ), sometimes called mums or chrysanths, are flowering plants in the Asteraceae family. They are native to East Asia and northeastern Europe. Most species originate from East Asia, and the center of diversity is in China. Co ...

', even though these words are not etymologically related to ''Christ'': ''crystal'' comes from a Greek word meaning 'ice' (and not even using the letter ), and ''chrysanthemum'' comes from Greek words meaning 'golden flower', while ''Christ'' comes from a Greek word meaning 'anointed'.

In popular culture

* In the animated TV series ''

Futurama ''Futurama'' is an American animated science fiction sitcom created by Matt Groening for the Fox Broadcasting Company and later revived by Comedy Central, and then Hulu. The series follows Philip J. Fry, who is cryogenically preserved for 1 ...

'', Christmas is referred to just as "Xmas", in speech and writing.

References

External links

An icon of Christ featuring the abbreviations IC and XC in the upper corners

"Why get cross about Xmas?"
(BBC, December 22, 2004) {{Christmas 16th-century neologisms Abbreviations Linguistic controversies