If we are to look into the genesis of the use of 'X', it should be pronounced as 'Christmas', not 'Ex-Mass'.
Christos (Χριστός) is the Greek word for Christ. And the first Greek letter 'X' there is pronounced as 'chi'. Thus, X-Mas is a shortened form of Christ-Mass ('Mass' as in Catholic mass). It is equivalent to Christmas. Using shortened form like X-tian to denote Christian or X-Mas to denote Christmas was not to delete 'Christ' at all. And there is no reason why it should be taken that way today. When situation warrants that, let it be as Xtian or X-Mas, but it is more accurate to pronounce them as Christian or Christmas.
Using symbols in Christianity arose very early. The earliest Christians used the symbol of fish to denote themselves. Fish in Greek is Ichthus, written as 'IXƟYΣ' (Ioto, Chi, Theta, Upsilon and Sigma). The five letters are the initials of Iesous, Christos, Theo, Uios and Soter, which when translated to English would be Jesus Christ, God's Son, Savior. So when a Christian would draw a fish, it would imply that he or she believed that Jesus Christ is God's Son and Savior. Another symbol that early Christians used was the combination of 'X' (Chi) and 'ρ' ( Rho). It is formed by superimposing one letter upon another so that the two letters become one symbol, a monogram ( as in☧).
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