If it's in the News, it's in our Polls. Public opinion polling since 2003.

LIFESTYLE

Americans Have Mixed Feelings on Whether Holidays Are Joyous or Stressful

The holiday season is meant to be joyful and uplifting, but Americans aren’t as enthusiastic this year as they have been in the past.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 48% of Adults consider the holidays joyous, while nearly as many (46%) feel they are stressful. (To see survey question wording, click here.)

In early December 2009, 52% considered the holiday season joyous and just 36% described it as more stressful. 

Men have more trouble getting into the holiday spirit than women.  While 55% of females consider the holidays joyous, 54% of men label them as stressful.  Younger adults find the holidays more stressful than their elders.

 (Want a free daily e-mail update? If it's in the news, it's in our polls). Rasmussen Reports updates are also available on Twitter or Facebook. 

The survey of 1,000 Adults nationwide was conducted on December 10-11, 2010 by Rasmussen Reports. The margin of sampling error is +/- 3 percentage points with a 95% level of confidence. Field work for all Rasmussen Reports surveys is conducted by Pulse Opinion Research, LLC. See methodology.

Want to read more?

Become a Rasmussen Reader to read the article

Have an account?

Log In

Become a Reader

Subscribe

Rasmussen Reports is a media company specializing in the collection, publication and distribution of public opinion information.

We conduct public opinion polls on a variety of topics to inform our audience on events in the news and other topics of interest. To ensure editorial control and independence, we pay for the polls ourselves and generate revenue through the sale of subscriptions, sponsorships, and advertising. Nightly polling on politics, business and lifestyle topics provides the content to update the Rasmussen Reports web site many times each day. If it's in the news, it's in our polls. Additionally, the data drives a daily update newsletter and various media outlets across the country.

Some information, including the Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll and commentaries are available for free to the general public. Subscriptions are available for $4.95 a month or 34.95 a year that provide subscribers with exclusive access to more than 20 stories per week on upcoming elections, consumer confidence, and issues that affect us all. For those who are really into the numbers, Platinum Members can review demographic crosstabs and a full history of our data.

To learn more about our methodology, click here.