Xmas, taking the christ out of christmas? Options

[kidvicious2punk]

there are some people who think that writing the short form "xmas" in place of christmas is nothing short of secular and disrespectful.

there was a segment on the daily show with jon stewart in which some one complained that the saying "happy holidays" is also taking away from the religious values of christmas.

in response,jon said [it was close to this,not exact],
"well,yes the holiday season is considering christmas,but,new years is also a holiday.sure,you could say 'merry christmas and a happy new year',but some of us have things to do."

maybe the fact of the matter is that the meaning of christmas is becoming less and less clear.but i dont think its that big of a deal that people would like to save time in writing out the whole word and simply came up with "xmas".

thoguhts?

[Overfriendly_Kit...]

If we have trees in our living rooms then it is for traditional NOT religious purposes.

Umm...if the tree is part of a Pagan celebration, then surely it is religious, it just has nothing to do with Christ.

True, though as a Christian it is perfectly okay to have any kind of traditional / festive ornamentation - which is what the tree provides for us, so long as it is not combined with the religious... which is why I said if we have trees it should be for traditional purposes.

What I should have made clear is that those who follow some of the pagan traditions may well have a tree for legitimate religious purposes (though having spoken to my Celt Pagan mate he says that it should be oak trees, and you shouldn't uproot / cut them down just to haul into your home... go to the tree instead).

Good point, OFK. If we Christians (I'm a Methodist, for the curious) care so much about our meaning of Christmas, then why do we panic when it's not advertised absolutely to death? To me, it would seem like a more holy day if it wasn't advertised from the rooftops and fought over in the media.
Since I've had to do some research to duke this out another forum, allow me to mention that the Christian Advent wreath is derived from a pagan wreath for the four seasons. Just about every symbol of Christmas is stolen from some pagan religion or other if you do enough digging.
The site was interesting enough, and it had some good points, but it might be a bit more effective without the swearing.

True, I wish that advertising Xmas was only about the religion. Jesus was born roughly 2000 years ago... most probably in January, so lets celebrate. Not Jesus was born on the 25th of this month so buy early.

There are loads of pagan symbols that have been usurped into Western Christianity (many of the older and orthodox churches ignore this)... from the Yule log to the wreath... though there are Christian symbols such as the nativity, the wandering star, the host of angels, shepherds manger etc that are applicable for this time... (though I don't really see the point in having them other than for ornamentation - we shouldn't be worshiping idols after all).

Year that site does raise good points, but as you say the effectiveness is lessened - which is a pity, but I doubt the author was really aiming to score highly on the official debating circuit.