The idea that it is being used to "'x" out Christ is a baseless misconception of the history of the English Language.
As we are on an informal forum the use of X-mas is completely appropriate and not out of line.
Hate to sound like an a*s (I usually do) but how did I know exactly what you were going to respond with?
Well, let's see, this would mean that for many years I was under some kind of a misconception and that I "imagined" that I never seen xmas displayed all over the place. Nor do I believe in something just because some church organization or religeous leader may have mentioned it. I seriously doubt that..... When you were not even alive yet, I was witnessing the FACT that xmas was never used publicly in this Country. The problem here is not with the English language or with it's evolution. All cultures and languages change and evolve -- duh. The problem is not with the language but rather with secular humanism and with the "excuses" why a culture changes or modifies it's use and therefore it's meaning of a word. But, it's not just with words or languages but with ACTIONS as well.
Why is it that our American society is allowing more risky and vulgar grammar and visuals on TV and radio....yeah, you know, the things that were once banned and outlawed about 20 years ago but are common place today? At the same time all of this "evolution" is happening then we are publicly stripping the word "Christ" out of Christmas, which as already mentioned was frowned upon in this Country when I was younger as it was ALWAYS publicly spelled as Christmas and NOT xmas.
While you and other's may view this evolution as progress, I view it as spiritual ......ation and spiritual corruption. So the REAL problem with our Country and it's evolving language is in spiritual matters and NOT matters of language semantics or any other "excuse" that people want to use to justify their spiritual weakness.
The fact that Christ is being removed from Christmas is NOT a baseless misconception. I have witnessed it with my own eyes and anyone who is my age or older will verify the same thing. Now you may have different thoughts than I do as to why that has occurred but it is not very difficult for me to see why especially when you look at all of the other immoral activities that are now common place that were once rare to see in public and lots of them do not have anything to do with language. Lots of egg headed college professors would have us believe that it is "progression" and that our culture is "advancing" and evolving towards a better end.... I say NONSENSE to that humanistic type of dumb thinking.---- While we may be advancing technologically and have made many discoveries, we as a species are decaying spiritually. And since we are decaying spiritually, our society will kick Christ out of most anything they can, including Christmas. In short, lots of technically/scientifically minded people don't even believe in spirituality. The spiritual realm is nonsense to them and something that probably does not exist (in their mind). With that type of a mindset then it is easy to see why they make up all types of excuses for their secular humanistic activities and thoughts. It's also easy to see why they put so much pride and emphasis on science and technology. They remind me of people living life with extreme tunnel vision as they are missing half of what makes reality real, which is the spiritual realm.
So, getting back to the language topic --- there is no misconception on my part --- I grew up in America that was using Christmas and NOT xmas and I also grew up and watched many once outlawed and what were considered to be immoral activities to become now common place. When you look at the entire landscape as a whole and not just language, then it's easy to see the spiritual causation of such phenomenon. If it was just language that had evolved, then yes, I would have some other thought or theory to explain it but I do not need oodles of clues slapping me upside the head to see what is at the root of many phenomenon. America was once a fairly God fearing Country that was founded on Biblical principles.... Our Country has gotten away from those Godly principles and spiritual things no longer matter as they once did. Because of this fact, it shows itself in things like "xmas" and too many other activities to mention. While xmas may have been used in the past in this Country, it certainly was not common nor was it used much in public like it is now days.