'Merry Christmas' beats 'Happy Holidays' in surveys

By Tim Harlow, Star Tribune

Last update: November 28, 2007 - 11:08 AM

Survey says:

--Americans prefer Merry Christmas to the trite Happy Holidays

--will spend less on gifts this year than last, and

--more than not will attend a Christian church service on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day.

Those are the results of two recent national telephone surveys conducted by the Rasmussen Reports in late November to take the pulse of Americans as the holiday season kicks into high gear.

More than two-thirds of the 1,000 adults polled Nov. 18-19 said they prefer stores to show signs and seasonal advertising that say Merry Christmas, while 26 percent of respondents said they are fine with the line Happy Holidays. Seven percent had no opinion or were not sure.

While there was no gender gap on this issue, some might believe political party affiliation influenced responses as 88 percent of Republicans said the prefer Merry Christmas while just 57 percent of Democrats said the same.

When asked if they will attend a church service on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, 57 percent said they would while 30 percent said no. The remaining 13 percent of respondents are not sure.

What is sure is that Americans seem to be spending less on gifts this year. Just over 50 percent of respondents said they will spend less this year, while 3 in 10 will spend about the same as last year. Only 15 percent claim they will spend more. Two percent are not sure how much theyll spend.

Perhaps they are among the half of Americans who have not started their shopping. As of Tuesday, 50 percent of respondents have not begun to shop for holiday gifts. Of that group, men are the biggest procrastinators with 56 percent admitting that theyve not bought any gifts yet. Only 44 percent of women have not yet started their shopping.

On the other extreme, the surveys reveal that 13 percent of Americans are already done.

Finally, maybe we just dont like Christmas shopping anyway. Less than half of respondents say they enjoy the experience, while a significant 35 percent classify holiday shopping as an unpleasant chore. About 1 in 5 Americans put it somewhere in between. Young shoppers are more enthusiastic than older shoppers, surveys said.,

The surveys have a margin of error of 3 percent.

Tim Harlow • harlow@startribune.com

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