I have a question...

For those here who are Christians, why do you use the Atheist form of Christmas being X-Mas?
Isn't X signifying the crossing out of Christ.
I'm just curious is all and please, no ill is meant on my part.
I'm also asking here; because, who would know the real answer better than those from Germany where Santa first originated.


Kyra_Ny

I always thought it was just the "lazy man's form for Christmas because a lot of people are just too darn lazy (or can't spell it) to write the proper word.



Did you know the Jolly Green Gaint and Santa have one thing in common.....they both say Ho-Ho-Ho.....

Was that when he was walking past the fish market??

It isn't an "atheist" form at all:

Xmas has been used for hundreds of years in religious writing, where the X represents a Greek chi, the first letter of [the Greek word meaning] "Christ".

isn't noel what the three wisemen sang after throwing dynamite into the well? that was totally ..... but somewhat funny!

What about the date of Xmas--tied to a pagan holiday. Christ was not born on December 25.

What about the date of Easter. By all rights it should be tied to the Hebrew calendar celebration of Passover, but it is not.

What about Santa in the red suit? The following is excerpted from
http://www.snopes.com/cokelore/santa.asp

A Boston printer named Louis Prang introduced the English custom of Christmas cards to America, and in 1885 he issued a card featuring a red-suited Santa.
At the beginning of the 1930s, the burgeoning Coca-Cola company was still looking for ways to increase sales of their product during winter, then a slow time of year for the soft drink market. They turned to a talented commercial illustrator named Haddon Sundblom, who created a series of memorable drawings that associated the figure of a larger than life, red-and-white garbed Santa Claus with Coca-Cola. Coke's annual advertisements — featuring Sundblom-drawn Santas holding bottles of Coca-Cola, drinking Coca-Cola, receiving Coca-Cola as gifts, and especially enjoying Coca-Cola — became a perennial Christmastime feature which helped spur Coca-Cola sales throughout the winter (and produced the bonus effect of appealing quite strongly to children, an important segment of the soft drink market). The success of this advertising campaign has helped fuel the legend that Coca-Cola actually invented the image of the modern Santa Claus, decking him out in a red-and-white suit to promote the company colors — or that at the very least, Coca-Cola chose to promote the red-and-white version of Santa Claus over a variety of competing Santa figures in order to establish it as the accepted image of Santa Claus.

This legend is not true. Although some versions of the Santa Claus figure still had him attired in various colors of outfits past the beginning of the 20th century, the jolly, ruddy, sack-carrying Santa with a red suit and flowing white whiskers had become the standard image of Santa Claus by the 1920s, several years before Sundlom drew his first Santa illustration for Coca-Cola.

All this isn't to say that Coca-Cola didn't have anything to do with cementing that image of Santa Claus in the public consciousness. The Santa image may have been standardized before Coca-Cola adopted it for their advertisements, but Coca-Cola had a great deal to do with establishing Santa Claus as a ubiquitous Christmas figure in America at a time when the holiday was still making the transition from a religious observance to a largely secular and highly commercial celebration. In an era before color television (or commercial television of any kind), color films, and the widespread use of color in newspapers, it was Coca-Cola's magazine advertisements, billboards, and point-of-sale store displays that exposed nearly everyone in America to the modern Santa Claus image. Coca-Cola certainly helped make Santa Claus one of the most popular men in America, but they didn't invent him.

Isn't there a song about Noel?

Anyway...

I didn't know its athiest either!
I thought it was just a shorter way of saying Christmas...

Does it insult people?

Do someone (out of Germany) Knowing about "Knecht Rubrecht"?
"Knecht" means a Farm labourer, or menial.
Knecht Ruprecht is for the bad Children, coming with a Rod and give the Presents on the backside

----------
Little Exkurs
ONE RING TO RULE THEM ALL
In german its
EIN RING SIE ALLE ZU KNECHTEN
In this way "Knecht" becomes a reletionship with Slave.
"Knecht" is a very old word in the German Language and is not easy to translate complete.
------------

And X-Mas or Christmas?
In Germany we Say "Weihnachten"
This means the holy Night.

and now for the FAct or FIction question of the day

Fact or Fiction

Happy Humbug is an insect that hails from the great corners of the world and leaves its home at the top of Humbug hill. Happy Humbug also happens to be happy throughout most holidays including x-mas formaly known as christmas.

I didn't know where the x-mas comes from; so I tended not to use it ...
I always thought by myself that the "x" could be asign of human lazyness...

X-mass vs Christmass is as everybody (or at least most pepole) say: X-mass is written out of lazyness.

@ Stone: Doesn't whein mean wine???
In Sweden we say Jul. Old tradition, celebrated like it's celebrated today only the last 150-200 years.

@ Barta: Don't forget the food! Tree, presents, food! And some TV-shows...

Jul, Jul, Jul!
Jul, Jul, Jul!
Äta, äta, äta!
Jul, Jul, Jul!
Dricka, Dricka, Dricka!
Jul, Jul, Jul!
Äta, äta, äta!
Jul, Jul, Jul!
Dricka, Dricka, Dricka!

Übereil

@ Stone: Doesn't whein mean wine???

No, "Weih" (correct spelling) and "nachten".
"nachten" is easy, means Night. Normaly "Nacht", but in a older term in german Language "Nachten"

We say "Gute Nacht" = "Good Night"
Or "diese Nacht" = "this Night"

And we say "in der Nacht" = "in the Night", but we can say also "nächtens" means the same.

"Weih" is in Words like

"Weihwasser" = "Holy Water"
"Weihrauch" = "frankincense" (hope this is correct)
"Weihen" = "to consecrate"

Together "Weihnachten" = Christmas.

Or in the correct Translation of the meaning "Holy Night".
The Night Christ was born.

Anyway ..... Bon Noël, Gelukkig Kestfeest, Buon Natale, Gutte weinachten and .... and Blast I ran out of languages

Errymay Ristmascray