Xmas vs Christmas

  • Thread starter Thread starter kellie
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
40.png
bapcathluth:
I don’t mind Xmas if it is written by somebody who is jotting notes quickly or in a space without a lot of room, but otherwise I think it is disprespectful. I also don’t like all the “Happy Holidays” stuff. Who are we fooling? The reason for the big “to do” is Christmas, and not some other holiday. If I know somebody is Jewish or Muslim, then I wouldn’t say “Merry Christmas.” I do know that my Jewish friends are not offended by people who say that to them when they don’t know if they are Jewish. Why would they be?
Click to expand...
While pregnant w/ my middle son, I worked part-time in a maternity store, and our manager was Jewish and we’d been very firmly instructed to wish people ‘Happy Holidays’ rather than ‘Merry Christmas’. Until one day when I had a 50ish lady come in to buy something for her daughter, and while I was helping her I noted that she was wearing a necklace w/ a crucifix, so after I’d finished ringing up her purchase, I wished her “Merry Christmas”.

One of my co-workers started to get on my case, but I explained to her that based on my observations while working w/ the customer, I knew that she would be celebrating Christmas and well might have been offended by the generic–and that if I’d had a customer of similar age who’d given me equal reason to believe she was Jewish, I’d have wished that customer a “Happy Hannukah” (however that’s spelled–I’ve seen it with a ‘ch’ at the beginning, but it was spelled the way I spelled it when I read the All of a Kind Family book series). My manager agreed that if we knew for sure which winter holiday someone celebrated, it’d be better to go w/ the specific one, rather than the generic ‘cover all bases and please nobody’ variant.
 
gomer tree:
First, I think we shouldn’t be offended if someone uses it - especially someone we know to be faithful. Let’s assume they are simply using an abbreviation that everyone understands, and has a religious root.

However, I can also understand when someone brings it to our attention out of concern. Unfortunately, it’s the state of the world that a lot of people want to secularize the holiday altogether. Someone perhaps may erroneously think we are being disrespectful, but don’t blame them because they don’t know that the X is “chi” and it really isn’t! I feel the opposite. It may be an overreaction, but I’d rather see people on the side of defending the Christianity of the holiday.
Click to expand...

Why is this an issue ? 🙂​

If people are so thick or suspicious or ignorant that they take offence at every tiny detail, that’s their problem. There is such a thing as being scandalised for no good reason, and a lot of the PC silliness we see today is of this sort: not all, certainly, but a great deal.

Some people go through life looking for something to be offended by; which is very sad for them, but, it should not deprive others,us included, of our freedom to act as normal human beings. There is such a thing as being oversensitive. To refuse to give in to that sort of emotional blackmail - which is what the behaviour of such people amounts to, objectively at least - is not unloving or insensitive; it’s part of being grown-up enough to be able to distinguish infantile complaints from genuine evils.

We must always show Christian love to others, instead of trampling them like a herd of wild elephants - to love others in God is what we are called to by Christ 🙂 ; but, this is a million miles from giving in to the culture of victimhood and of “being-hurt-by-whatever-does-not-agree with-my-POV”.

Or is that too aggressive for a nice family forum like this 🙂 ? ##
 
I took a slightly different view on people using the X.

It always looked to me like people were trying to hurriedly write the word Christmas, which in my mind, meant that they had *no time * for Christ.

I think we are all justified in our super-sensitivity to any further watering-down of our faith. I’m still trying to get my priests to get over their fear of speaking out against abortion. :tsktsk:
 
40.png
DominvsVobiscvm:
The word “Xmas” has a religious justification, but not the one that you guys are thinking of. From Snopes.Com:

So while the “X” isn’t really a cross, it just have a very ancient, Catholic significance nevertheless.

Hope this helps.
Click to expand...
My recollection is that St. Andrew was cruxified on an “X,” hence the flag pattern of St. Andrew (i.e., Scotland).
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top