This is meant as a constructive feedback thread so bare with me on this.. What's with all this "Merry Xmas" stuff? Regardless if your religious or not, why do we not call the special holiday what it is rather than being 'politically correct' or 'not to offend anyone'? In America of all places, we have no problem mentioning the holidays of other religious days yet Christmas is a very hard word for people/companies/corporations to say publicly even if they don't see themselves as religious. It's quite alright to say "happy holidays' if people prefer that if their not the religious type, but why do we have to alter a holiday/word many people around the world celebrate. In regards to iphone apps, it's irritating to see developers both Indie and Corporate level like EA use Xmas rather than Christmas. If your going to refer to the special holiday, don't short-change the sacred holiday by using 'Xmas'. Boy times have changed. What does everyone else think?
How is that constructive aside from going off topic. It's a very basic question to ask if that isn't too hard to hear feedback from.
Xmas is short for Christmas. It has less letters.. How is that off topic? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xmas ["Xmas" and "X-mas" are common abbreviations of the word "Christmas". They are sometimes pronounced /ˈɛksməs/, but they, and variants such as "Xtemass", originated as handwriting abbreviations for the correct pronunciation /ˈkrɪsməs/. The "-mas" part came from the Latin-derived Old English word for "mass".[1] The "X" in Xmas is from the Greek letter Chi, which is the first letter of Χριστός, Christ in Greek (see below).]
Well now I understand where your coming from heh. Just in the general sense, it's used way too often when it doesn't need to. You see more "Xmas" than you do "Christmas" am I right? EA's "25 Games till X-Mas" comes to mind not to mention the dozen or so games with Xmas instead of the actual word.
I'm with Dave, it's just shortening the word, not trying to avoid the word "Christmas" through fear of offending anyone.
As another opinion it is possible that it could put a paying customer off. So, if you want the max sales IMHO consider trying to keep the whole word intact. Developers and publishers are certainly free to make their own judgement.
Actually I heard some people get offended by 'happy holidays'. So now some people say 'Happy end of the year'?
