Christmas vs. Xmas

… The glorious curmudgeon of Christmas by Steve Morris | The New Criterion. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

Lewis’s 1955 essay “Xmas and Christmas” sets the tone and content of his main critique of the holiday. In it, he imagines a strange barbarian place called “Niatirb” (that’s Britain spelled backwards). In this oddly familiar parallel universe, the Niatirbians celebrate a winter festival called Exmas. It takes fifty days of exhausting preparations, which the natives call the “Exmas Rush.” On the big day itself, they struggle to get up before noon and then spend their waking hours gorging themselves on food and feeling dissatisfied. Thankfully, there are a few locals who hold a different festival on the same day—“Chrissmas.” These folk rise early, go to certain temples for a sacred feast, and understand what it is really all about.