Xmas As a Term for Christmas is About 1,000 Years Old

Every holiday season for years, the notion of a "war on Christmas" has reared its ugly head. The same narrative is repeated in the media about how some ill-defined group is attempting to ruin Christmas while others work to preserve it. The stories about how something as innocent as calling Christmas Xmas is attempting to remove Christ from Christmas, both literally and figuratively, are at the center of this.

But the practice of calling Christmas "Xmas" is not new, and it doesn't take Christ out of the equation either. Since it was first used in paper in at least the year 1100, people have been referring to Christmas as Xmas.

Christ is spelled with an X in the Greek translation of the New Testament, which was penned. Constantine the Great, a Roman emperor from the year 306 until his death, popularized the abbreviation that uses only the letter X. Early examples of Christmas in print were supposedly shorthand techniques employed by scribes to save time and parchment.