Lighten Up! No One Is Taking "Christ" Out Of Christmas

Every year I hear people complaining about the sentiment of saying "Happy Holidays" instead of the sentiment "Merry Christmas". We always hear that atheists or political figures are trying to take Christ out of the season by saying Happy Holidays and not the old-fashioned "Merry Christmas". I could not disagree with this belief more. There are many religions that do not celebrate Christmas or any other Christian holiday. They have their own way to celebrate their God. The 1st one that comes to mind is people of the Jewish Faith. I have several Jewish friends. So, more often than not I will tell them Happy Holidays or Happy Hanukkah. I would never tell someone that I don't know, Merry Christmas. Not for fear of offending them....but because I RESPECT their freedom of religion. It is this reason that people are taught in the Customer Service field to say Happy Holidays unless they know the customer's choice of religion. Hanukkah is in December, as is Kwanzaa. Since the month has several holidays, it just makes since to sometimes say "Happy Holidays". That said, I am a Christian and I proudly celebrate Christmas with my family. Here's a rundown on the word, "Xmas".

Xmas

 The "-mas" part is from the Latin-derived Old English word for Mass, while the "X" comes from the Greek letter Chi, which is the first letter of the Greek word Χριστός which comes into English as "Christ".
There is a common misconception that the word Xmas stems from a secular attempt to remove the religious tradition from Christmas by taking the "Christ" out of "Christmas", but its use dates back to the 16th century. The abbreviation of Christmas as "Xmas" is the source of disagreement among Christians who observe the holiday. Dennis Bratcher, writing for a website for Christians, states "there are always those who loudly decry the use of the abbreviation 'Xmas' as some kind of blasphemy against Christ and Christianity". Among them are evangelist Franklin Graham and CNN journalist Roland S. Martin. Graham stated in an interview:
"for us as Christians, this is one of the most holy of the holidays, the birth of our savior Jesus Christ. And for people to take Christ out of Christmas. They're happy to say merry Xmas. Let's just take Jesus out. And really, I think, a war against the name of Jesus Christ." Martin likewise relates the use of "Xmas" to his growing concerns of increasing commercialization and secularization of one of Christianity's highest holy days. Bratcher posits that those who dislike abbreviating the word are unfamiliar with a long history of Christians using X in place of "Christ" for various purposes.

The word "Christ" and its compounds, including "Christmas", have been abbreviated in English for at least the past 1,000 years, long before the modern "Xmas" was commonly used. "Christ" was often written as "Xρ" or "Xt"; there are references in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle as far back as 1021. This X and P arose as the uppercase forms of the Greek letters χ (Ch) and ρ (R) used in ancient abbreviations for Χριστος (Greek for "Christ"), and are still widely seen in many Eastern Orthodox icons depicting Jesus Christ. The labarum, an amalgamation of the two Greek letters rendered as ☧, is a symbol often used to represent Christ in Catholic, Protestant, and Orthodox Christian Churches.

The Oxford English Dictionary (OED) and the OED Supplement have cited usages of "X-" or "Xp-" for "Christ-" as early as 1485. The terms "Xtian" and less commonly "Xpian" have also been used for "Christian". The OED further cites usage of "Xtianity" for "Christianity" from 1634. According to Merriam-Webster's Dictionary of English Usage, most of the evidence for these words comes from "educated Englishmen who knew their Greek".

In ancient Christian art, χ and χρ are abbreviations for Christ's name. In many manuscripts of the New Testament and icons, Χ is an abbreviation for Χριστος, as is XC (the first and last letters in Greek, using the lunate sigma); compare IC for Jesus in Greek. So, it really befuddles me that someone of Franklin Graham's stature and background as an evangelist, doesn't understand this. Yet, I feel that his statement above has lead many Christians to believe that the term, "Xmas" is "taking Christ out of Christmas". Really, it's the exact opposite.
No one is trying to take Christ out of anything....last I heard, Christianity is still the largest religion in the world." People just need to do some research before they make such comments.