Xmas: Making Christmas Greeker for a thousand years running.

It wouldn't be the holiday season unless someone was starting an argument over something completely marginal. And that's usually just Christmas dinner with your family.

Every year large segments of the American population get up in arms over the use of Xmas instead of Christmas. So what are the reasons these Ebeneezers go full-blast with their inner Scrooge?

It eliminates Christ from Christmas.

It secularizes a spiritual holiday.

It reinforces materialism on our culture and forgets the religious meaning of the holiday.

It's the creation of advertising executives.

It's the creation of atheists.

It's the creation of Frosty the Snowman.

When this argument comes up this holiday over the dinner table with your family (and it will--once your Uncle Frank has a few egg nogs), you can feel free to be the least ignorant member of your family.

First off, dictionary.com has a delightful little article that gives a brief breakdown on the history of how Xmas evolved as a word. The culprit? The Greek alphabet. The letter X in Greek is pronounced chi. For centuries, X stood as a Christogram (a representation of Christ). In fact, the name Christ was often abbreviated by many Christians 1,000 years ago down to variations using X, which includes references in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle back to AD 1021. These abbreviations often used just the first two letters of Christ when using the Greek alphabet, which just happens to be X and P.

This leads us to the Chi Rho symbol, used in many Christian denominations as a symbol for Christ, and one of the earliest Christograms used in Christianity's history. Chi Rho just happens to be the Greek letters X and P. And when those X and P letters are translated to our Latin alphabet, they are Ch and r--the first three letters of Christ in English. Hence, why it was used as a Christogram for centuries, and why it's still in use today.

In fact, the Chi Rho symbol, also known as a labarum, is often believed to have been first adopted by the Roman emperor Constantine before a key battle, shortly after his conversion to Catholicism. A dream vision supposedly occurred to Constantine, which said to label the shields of his army with the symbol, and, thus, God would be on his side.

So, let's recap this:

1.) X in Greek is pronounced chi.
2.) The X alone was often used as a Christogram in early Christianity.
3.) Constantine used the XP symbol--the Chi Rho/labarum symbol--as a representative of Christ.
4.) Constantine used that symbol because he said he was commanded by God.
5.) The X and P stand for the first two letters of Christ's name in the Greek alphabet.
6.) Many Christian religions still use the labarum as a symbol for Christ today.
7.) As a term, Xmas was used often starting in Medieval times.
8.) For over 1,000 years, Xmas was considered acceptable by many various religious denominations.
9.) Somehow, most people arguing against Xmas today have never learned any of this.

Now you can tell your Uncle Frank all this. Unless you're looking for a really good brouhaha over dinner. Then say Joyeux Noel instead. The French alone will get his xenophobia all riled up.