X-Mas: The Mutant Holiday

Here's a story from when I was little...

My brother had a floppy disk full of christmas-y themed "games" for the Commodore 64. I recall one of the games talked about X-Mas which was a term I was confused about. So I asked my brother (apologies to my brother, my memory of his responses is not exact. I was probably 8 at the time).

How do you pronounce this? Ex - mass
What does that mean? It stands for Christmas.
But why don't they just say Christmas? Because it's different, easier. Shorter.
And why do they use the X? It's like a cross.
But then it should be Cross-Mass, shouldn't it? Well, no. It's because the cross is a religious symbol.
Oh, but... Ok.

By that point I think I got bored with the subject. And my brother probably wanted to play some other game.

But that was my introduction to the concept of Xmas. It actually bugged me quite a bit, the whole X being pronounced "ex" but being a stand-in for "chris" because it's a cross? That's garbage!

Later it would occur to me that the holiday that I celebrated as Christmas was pretty well devoid of any religious reference, except the name. Christ Mass is pretty a fairly explicit reference. However, Xmas is really devoid of religious meaning. So that is what I generally have started using to refer to this celebratory period before the New Year.



So, my Atheist/Jewish/Muslim/Pagan friends, allow me to celebrate Xmas with you. Don't worry, it's not about the birth of the son of God.