Christmas or X-mas?

I was walking through Home Depot yesterday, and saw that they had up a Christmas display. Personally I think that there should be a law against putting up Christmas decorations and playing Christmas songs before Thanksgiving. Anyway, it got me thinking. All the Atheists I know celebrate Christmas. I think we should keep the Christ in Christmas and give it to the Christians. Instead, we should celebrate X-mas. Any thoughts?

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Permalink Reply by o on November 20, 2009 at 10:19am
My kids complained about the same thing...that since we aren't Christian we shouldn't be celebrating Christmas, as it is a religious holiday. We discussed it and decided to call it Yule. After Thanksgiving they happily proclaim "Yay! It's Yuletide!!" It's more of a season than one day for us. It's origins predates Christmas, the Norse pagan origins are cool with my Norse mythology-loving kids and the word is still identifiable to everyone as referring to the winter holiday. In our particular progressive circles most call it Solstice, though.
Permalink Reply by Timo Ostrander on November 20, 2009 at 10:33am
From Wikipedia: "The modern English word Yule likely derives from the word yoole, from 1450, which developed from the Old English term geōl and geōla before 899. The term has been linked to and may originate from the Old Norse Jōl.[1] The etymology of the name of the feast of Yule (Old Norse jól, Anglo-Saxon geohol and gehol) and the winter month (Anglo-Saxon giuli, geóla, Gothic fruma jiuleis, Old Norse ýlir) has not yet been completely explained, but the term may have originally meant something similar to "magic" or "feast of entreaty".[2] This word is also the root of the English word "jolly."[3]

Jól has alternately been theorized as deriving from Old Norse hjól, wheel, referring to the moment when the wheel of the year is at its low point, ready to rise again (compare to the Slavic karachun). This theory may be more based on similarities between the words jul (Christmas) and hjul (with a mute h, wheel) in modern Scandinavian languages, than on older cognates or historical sources."
Permalink Reply by Trance Gemini on November 20, 2009 at 10:26am
X means Christ. There is no difference ;-)

However, Christmas has become a secular tradition and for as long as I can remember the only ones who celebrate the religious part are Christians.

It's only been in the last 10 years or so (in Canada) that the Christians have tried to take ownership of it again.

In fact, the Pilgrims banned Christmas because of it's Pagan origins.

That plus the fact that it is highly unlikely (based on scripture) that Jesus was born anywhere near that time.

Although I don't know if Jesus birth played into the Pilgrims decision.

At any rate, it's a pagan holiday through and through and IMO the name is just tradition and nothing more. It holds no religious meaning to me anyway.

I'm fine with celebrating Christmas as it is, happily wish people a Merry Christmas, and am happy that we stole the holiday back from Christians.

If they want to delude themselves into believing it's a religious holiday that's okay with me too but I'm not giving it back to them :-).
Permalink Reply by Timo Ostrander on November 20, 2009 at 10:28am

I'm fine with celebrating Christmas as it is and happily wish people a Merry Christmas.

As am/do I. At least when I'm in a good mood and not wearing my humbug hat.
Permalink Reply by Trance Gemini on November 20, 2009 at 10:33am
Or when they insist that we have no right to celebrate it because it's purportedly religious :-(.

This is the point at which I take the opportunity to educate them on each and every Pagan tradition associated with Christmas (gasp!) and the fact that Jesus (the man who led the Christus sect, not the divine being in the fairy tale) was most likely born in either the early spring or fall.

Then I suggest they might be better off celebrating Jesus birth at those times, if that's what they want to celebrate. :-).
Permalink Reply by Timo Ostrander on November 20, 2009 at 10:30am
The X in X-mas comes from the Greek word for Christ.

The following is from Wikipedia: "Christ is the English term for the Greek Χριστός (Khristós) meaning "the anointed". It is a translation of the Hebrew מָשִׁיחַ (Māšîaḥ)."
Permalink Reply by ryan cameron on November 20, 2009 at 3:59pm
my mom always told me "DONT MAKE A-MAS!" She is a christian.
Permalink Reply by Louis on November 20, 2009 at 2:57pm
Call it what you want, participate or don't; whatever makes you happy.
Permalink Reply by Marcus Craven on November 20, 2009 at 3:31pm
I have no problems with Christmas really I dont see it having anything to do with Christianity other than the fact they hijacked it like they have done to everything. To me it is the Winter Solstice celebration :)
Permalink Reply by Sentient Biped on November 20, 2009 at 3:55pm
This year I want to celebrate Festivus.

Home depot has what you need for festivus year-round. All it takes is an aluminum pole. So now you can walk around in Home Depot and say, "Damn, it's only April and they're already exploiting Festivus".
Permalink Reply by ryan cameron on November 20, 2009 at 4:03pm
its a two edged sword. If Christians insist on letting everyone of all religions celebrate Christmas, then its only going to get watered down into a generic holiday. If they were as keen on "Defending the Definition of Christmas" as they seem to be with Marriage, then all of us atheists "doing violence to the definition of christmas" by just being nice, handing out presents, and not acknowledging baby jeebus should be constantly protested by them.

Honestly, Im amazed more xtians do not protest people of other faiths "doing violence to the definition of xmas".
Permalink Reply by Louis on November 20, 2009 at 4:27pm
They do.

Last year the priest at my church said we should forgo presents during Christmas -- fat chance.

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