Calling it X-mas has to be pretty high up there.
this post was submitted on 18 Dec 2025
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It's been spelled like that for centuries. It comes from the Greek letter Chi, the first letter of the word Christós. The first English document (that we know of) using it is from around 1100 CE.
Do you feel like that lessens their annoyance about it?
Most people are annoyed by it because they think it's a lazy modern spelling.
It does mine! That's super cool! But I wasn't bothered to begin with.
I laughed pretty hard when Christina Aguilara started calling herself Xtina
In Age of Empires community I was wondering what the xbows were but it was a shorthand for crossbows.
You just helped a mildly infuriating puzzle piece finally slide into place for me. For years, I've internalized xbow as shorthand for crossbow, but couldn't for the life of me remember where I'd have picked that up. I played a lot of AoE2 back in the day, though, so that seems the likely origin.
I usually hate Christmas songs except for Carol of the Bells. That's just an amazing song regardless of the Christmassy lyrics. It's sad that most places that play Christmas songs don't include it.
Carol of the Bells absolutely slaps! I'll very much agree that it's one of the few Christmas songs I genuinely enjoy.
I have a secret (only to my family) hatred of consumerism infected holidays where I'm socially pressured to buy shit. I think a gift isn't genuine unless it's a surprise out of nowhere unasked. A mandatory exchange because day of year is just us indirectly borrowing each other's credit card to buy each other crap we'd get anyways ourselves, at least with my family.
My mother will ask my dad to try and get me to go to her damned church and I'll ignore them again.
Despite all that baggage, I somehow still like Xmas. I still like getting together with my family, the social aspect. Plus the food, played to death music and old movies, the decorations. It was better when I was younger and my grandparents on both sides were still alive because we'd all travel to a huge extended family meetup, but even diminished and cynical I still enjoy some of holidays.
My friends also have a sort of tradition of playing Killing Floor around Xmas. Only time we play it anymore, one of my top hours games.
I am not saying you're wrong about the commercialism aspect, but I think of it a little differently. Many people are uncomfortable receiving a gift without reciprocating or if there is no "reason" like a life event. The holidays are a set time to do a gift exchange, and reciprocity is more likely to be possible. I buy gifts literally all year long, but often hold on to them until Christmas time if I know the recipient will be more comfortable doing a gift exchange rather than being surprised. Part of being a good gift-giver is sussing out the type of gift receiver you are dealing with (I don't tend to give Christmas present to folks who have made it clear they hate Christmas).
Fairytale of New York is the only Christmas song I will tolerate. Gives me the warm and fuzzies
I used to be like that but I really dig Burl Ives these days
Hating on Mariah Carey.
Hating on 1950s X-mas carols.
But that doesn’t have to be just at Xmas.
But that's the only time she's still around any more.
I don't like sugary sweet Christmas movies but dig a good Christmas themed black comedy horror/slasher.
Jack Frost (1997) > Jack Frost (1998)
I just watched Anna and the Apocalypse last night. Christmas/zombie/musical. Very fun little film.
I like The Family Stone. Sweet but has a little bite.
Violent Night is amazing. David Harbor makes an excellent Santa
It is a shame that Die Hard isn't considered a Christmas movie as much as Home Alone is when John McClaine is using violence to kill people who are trying to harm his family while trying to reunite his family while Kevin McCallister is using violence to defend property rights after wishing his family away and being mostly correct about that wish.
I watch Die Hard, Jingle all the Way, and the Kenny vs Spenny xmas special.
I enjoy getting a quart of egg nog once a year. I truly only crave it once a year because it's so heavy and overpowering flavor-wise, but once a year it's perfect.
Watching TERRIFIER 3!
The music piece Shchedryk and any dish with saffron in it.
Ill find it and have a listen.
How did you like it? I assume it did ring a bell...?
I didn't know that's what this was called. It is one carol that doesn't bother me no matter how many times it's played.
Bach's Weihnachtsoratorium.
Ill check it out.
This lovely Christmas tune by those wonderful lads, Blink-182. Simply delightful.
I hate Xmas. Loved it as a kid. But as I've gotten older and lost so many people in my life, the holidays are just a constant reminder that ill die alone in a nursing home.
We all die alone. Unless you're the pilot.
Working retail for a decade-plus did it all in for me. 100 cumulative weeks of Christmas carols, decorations, impatience, childish adults, stress, and readjusting merchandising just so we could be told that we missed targets, underperformed, and failed at loss prevention.
So, I quit. I also quit X-mas. I celebrated on beaches for a few years. That was great. In deserts for a few as well. But, alas, I have returned to the rugged white north and the big-box spectacle. I have children who get a "normal" Christmas. The elf is on a shelf.
As for dying alone, I choose life. It's the part we experience. I have a partner and a family, true. More on this later. But, I don't plan on being parked in a nursing home as a drooling, vegetative, sieve-brained, line-item expense; or some mega-corp, health-sector, big-pharm farm animal. Milowda na animal.
When I can no-longer read and write and wipe my own bum — or when the pain, despair, and attendant paperwork for living threatens to overwhelm my desire to continue — I'll want no part of this life anymore.
I'm an introvert. My kids mourn my partner going to a yoga class more than they'll ever mourn my passing. My wife would be pissed it wasn't put in the shared calendar. I've not got roots anywhere anymore, so my funeral will be sparsely attended. My close friends, I see once a year. My sibs would attend. But, that's essentially it. None of my colleagues from previous schools. None of my students. None of the people I met in travels. None of my old schoolmates. All those ties are gone.
What's left? Not much. So be it. Today, I'm alive. Today, I can learn, create, and leave messages in bottles. Today, I can respond to you and say the time, place and circumstance of your death tells nothing about you. The times, places, and decisions of your life — from a single room to the infinite vacuum — only partially tell your story. You, being here, tell the rest.
They'll gladly receive gifts.