I have never heard that about the peace symbol before. Wouldn't doubt it at all, though. I once heard that the swastika was originally a Native American sort of peace symbol, and it really meant peace. The Nazi swastika is very similar but upon closer examination is the reverse of the Native American symbol. Anyone know anything more on this? Could be, but I kinda doubt the Nazis were real up on their Native American culture.

I agree with Tiggergreen about the use of "Xmas" instead of Christmas. Like Tiggergreen said, there are several alternatives to Christmas that can be used without corrupting the word and possibly offending Christians. There is no need to take the Christ out of Christmas. Christians have every right to openly celebrate Christ whether anyone else likes it or not, and they certainly owe no apologies for it. Nor is doing so in any way an affront to any other faith or lack thereof any more than, say, someone's overt claim that they are agnostic is necessarily in any way an attack on Christians.

It's always odd to see Christmas tree lots with "Xmas Trees" signs. Seems to me that if you want to sell trees to people looking to celebrate the life of Christ, you may want to leave the Christ part in there. I bet those lots sell less trees, even if a lot of people have turned the whole thing into more of a presents thing than a Christian thing.



I don't get too offended by the use of "Xmas" because I do not believe all who do it mean offense nor do I expect all to be believers, but I think it is at worst greatly disrespectful and at best a lazy abbreviation. Nor is it a proper one, as X does not represent Christ. It usually is used to represent the crossing out of something or crossing in general, as in a railroad crossing, or our use of "VX" as an alternative to using VehiCross. And no, I don't really buy it that the X represents the cross Jesus died upon to those who use "Xmas". I do think it is more reasonable to think that, especially in the case of Christ, an omission of the name more likely represents a disagreement with the faith.

Also, ironically the Christmas tree tradition stems from ancient pagan traditions, as do the various Santa Claus/St. Nicholas incarnations. As the Roman Empire became Christianized in nature and self-proclaimed Christian emperors began to emerge, the Romans found it useful and convenient to make Christian holidays coincide with pagan ones in a bid to more easily assimilate non-Christians. Basically they co-opted the pagan holiday of Saturnalia, the celebration at the winter solstice. Thus we got the improbable placement of the time of Christ's birth at a season when, for instance, Caesar would not have been likely to have held a tax census requiring all to return to the town of their birth. Christmas is still obviously very much about Jesus Christ, but it borrowed a few things along the way (kissing under the mistletoe, hanging holly and wreathes, etc.)

EDIT: P.S.- WyrreJ, I see you hit on one of the same points while I was typing this.