Here’s a holiday surprise that only the dictionary can provide. Do you
find the word “Xmas,” as an abbreviation for Christmas, offensive? Many people
do. You
won’t find Xmas in church songbooks or even on many greeting cards. Xmas is
popularly associated with a trend towards materialism, and sometimes the
target of people who decry the emergence of general “holiday” observance
instead of particular cultural and religious ritual. But the history of the
word “Xmas”