This time of year, I hear a lot of complaining about putting the Christ back in Christmas. Much of this has to do with the religion or lack thereof in the holiday, but I’m not going to discuss that here. However, one area in which I’ve seen/heard complaint is in the usage of Xmas instead of Christmas.

Many is the time that I have seen or heard people complaining that Xmas is wrong and/or offensive. Actually, Xmas has been in use for a long time and is considered to be an acceptable version of Christmas.  According to  Wikipedia,  the X comes from the Greek letter Chi, which is the first letter of the word Χριστός, which is translated as Christ. And, X is often used to mean the cross on which Christ died.

So, while you might not like Xmas, it is technically not incorrect.