What is the X in Xmas?

Abbreviations can be a blessing. At least I think so. They make communication easier. In the 21st century, an example of this is the way we often text with friends and family. Once you decipher the codes and learn to use them, texting takes on a life of its own. Many texting abbreviations make sense and are useful. For example: LOL = laugh out loud; SMH = shaking my head; OMW = on my way.

The church also uses this sort of shorthand to make communication easier. It uses abbreviations such as RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults), CCD (Confraternity of Christian Doctrine), CYC (Catholic youth center), TLM (traditional Latin Mass), and JPII (St. Pope John Paul II).

Other abbreviations used by the faithful are more perplexing. Prominent among them, at least for Catholics and our ecumenical brothers and sisters, is the abbreviation Xmas for Christmas. Is this like the X in X-Men (Professor Xavier’s force) or the X in Malcolm X (a sign of the unknown, since slavers annihilated the names of enslaved people)?

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