Merry Christmas!

We'd like to extend a merry Christmas greeting to all of our readers. As you open your presents, have some good food and drinks, and before the inevitable fighting with your family begins we'll quickly tell you about the origins of the word Christmas.

It came from the Old English for "Christ's Mass", Crīstesmæsse, which in turn gave us Cristemasse in Middle English. For all those that like a good "humbug" over the use of Xmas, you should know that using X as an abbreviation for Christ has been around since around 1551, when the word X'temmas was used.

The French word Noël came from Latin (as did most French words) and referred to "birth", or natalis in Latin. Other European languages such as Spanish, Portuguese and Italian all make references to birth as well. Spanish has Navidad, the Portuguese use Natal, and the Italian language gives us Natale.

Now get back to your family and enjoy that turkey!