Majority of Americans believe most people have forgotten ‘real meaning of Christmas’: poll

A majority of Americans believe most people have forgotten the true meaning of Christmas, according to a new survey.

Forty-two percent of Americans overall strongly agree that Americans have forgotten the true meaning of Christmas and 33% said they somewhat agree, according to a nationally representative Ipsos poll of 1,023 adults conducted Dec. 9–11 using KnowledgePanel, with a margin of sampling error of +/- 3.3 percentage points at the 95% confidence level.

Only 6% strongly disagreed with the statement, and 10% somewhat disagreed.

Among those polled, Christians were the group that most adamantly claimed the purpose of Christmas has been forgotten, with 84% overall saying they agree with the opinion.

GETTING TO THE HEART OF CHRISTMAS

Of these Christians, 50% said they strongly agree and 34% said they somewhat agree. Only 4% and 9% of Christians said they strongly disagreed or somewhat disagreed, respectively.

Sixty percent of non-religious Americans also believe many have lost the true meaning of Christmas.

The belief was more widely held among Republicans, with 88% agreeing compared to 66% of Democrats.

Age also influenced how strongly people agreed with this sentiment. Eighty-one percent of those 50 and older agreed that most people have forgotten the true meaning of Christmas, while 68% of those 18 to 24 and 66% of those 25 to 34 agreed.

In the group of participants ages 35 to 49, 72% agreed.

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The survey also touched on Americans’ opinions regarding other Christmas-related topics, such as holiday decorations and music.

According to the survey, 85% of Americans decorate their homes for the holiday season, and 41% take down their decorations during the first week of January. Forty-eight percent of respondents think that decorations should not be left up past the first week of January, while 23% believe they should be taken down by the end of the month.

A majority (87%) agreed that Christmas music should start after Thanksgiving, and 54% were able to name a Christmas song they found annoying. The spot for the most annoying Christmas song went to Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas Is You,” at 12%.