What does "Xmas" mean?

Does “Merry Xmas” take Christ out of Christmas?

If you were sent to America from a foreign land, you may have to search hard to discover that Christmas is about Christ. You may figure out that Christmas relates to Jesus, but it is not all about Jesus. Today, Christmas means something different than what it was intended to mean. Christ is no longer the focus.

One way people have suggested we are taking Christ out of Christmas is by calling Christmas “Xmas”.  However, calling Christmas “Xmas” is in no way taking Jesus out of the holidays. In fact, it is placing Him at the front of our Holiday. In Greek, the original language of the New Testament, the word for “Christ” is Χριστός, which begins with the Greek letter that is essentially the same letter as the English letter X.  In early church history, it was acceptable for Christians to reference Jesus in the abbreviated form “X”. So, naturally, Xmas became an abbreviation of Christmas. This is no grand conspiracy to take Christ out of Christmas, but rather keep Him in Xmas. Now that you know what Xmas means, you can say you know Greek. “Merry Xmas”!