History of the word “Xmas” "What I’m about to tell you is news to me as well. I have always found it offensive when someone would send me a Christmas card with the words, “Merry Xmas.” Why? Because I’ve always felt that when someone did that, it was somewhat of an effort on their part to remove “Christ” from the picture. You know, “The war on Christmas,” stuff. Well, what a surprise I got. Lexically speaking, Christ is, and always has been in Xmas. “X” is the Greek letter “Chi” and the first l